Metaphor in therapy

Abstract

Metaphors structure our most basic understandings of the world and shape our actions and beliefs. Metaphor is embedded in our speech and is inextricably incorporated into our thoughts and perceptions. It is almost impossible for humans to communicate without using metaphor. Metaphor pervades all forms of therapy. This research is based an examination of one particular metaphor based therapy. Symbolic Modelling. It is the contention of this thesis that by reducing the principles of metaphor therapy to a limited subset of questions Symbolic Modelling has lost much of the power and flexibility of Metaphor Modelling. The theme of this thesis is that successful outcomes in therapy can be produced with some reliability if the underlying therapeutic process is congruent with the way that the human mind represents experience, and focuses on ways to understand and work within the metaphors used by clients. This thesis explores the rationale underlying metaphor modelling, and shows that therapies grounded in the client's metaphoric worldspace can achieve a consistently high level of success.