APA Dictionary of Psychology

in behavior therapy, a technique in which the client first imagines an aversive event and then switches to imagining engaging in a behavior that reverses the adversiveness of the event. For example, a client might imagine that they are alone at a restaurant, feeling insecure and unhappy, and then switches the imaginary scene to one in which they are asking another person for a date and that person says yes. Compare covert positive reinforcement.