TPC Journal V7, Issue 2 - FULL ISSUE

146 The Professional Counselor | Volume 7, Issue 2 Michaelis, & Goldberg, 2016) along with higher participant ratings of the emotion contained in metaphor (Fetterman, Bair, Werth, Landkammer, & Robinson, 2016; Mohammad, Shutova, & Turney, 2016). Connecting these findings more directly with counseling practice, Fetterman et al. (2016) found that having participants write metaphorically about personal experiences significantly reduced negative affect in comparison to a control condition in which participants were writing literally about personal experiences. For those participants who wrote metaphorically, there was an increased preference for metaphor usage. These findings support the theory that metaphors are linked to emotional processing and provide more backing for counselors addressing and working with metaphors in counseling. One additional study that provides a lens into metaphors in counseling practice was conducted by Gelo and Mergenthaler (2012). They performed single-subject research investigating whether the type of metaphor (unconventional or conventional) and frequency of metaphor use were related to client change in counseling. This research was based on previous studies suggesting that unconventional metaphors occur more frequently when clients are involved in emotional and cognitive change processes (Gelo & Mergenthaler, 2012). Gelo and Mergenthaler found that client metaphor usage was associated with periods of emotional and cognitive change, and the client used more unconventional metaphors when reflecting on emotional change, but not while experiencing emotional change. Though it is hard to generalize from a small study, this is an important observation that supports the conceptual idea that metaphors are used to organize emotional experiences and integrate the experiences with the cognitive domain (Crawford, 2009; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Taken in combination, studies examining the relationship between metaphor and emotion indicate that metaphors are linked to processing and communicating emotion, which makes metaphors important for counselors to understand, address and utilize. These studies also suggest that metaphors may have an important role for counselors who are supporting emotional change in clients. Therefore, these research findings inform recommendations for integrating metaphors into counseling. Metaphor Sources and Approaches Metaphors in counseling come from two sources, the client and the counselor. The source of the metaphor is important to consider when describing approaches to working with metaphors in clinical practice; thus, client-generated and counselor-generated metaphors will be discussed separately. Client-Generated Metaphors The nature of client-generated metaphors can allow for assessment of clients (Gelo & Mergenthaler, 2012; Stewart & Barnes-Holmes, 2001; Wickman et al., 1999). This assessment may only consist of recognizing how clients are conceptualizing experiences, but it also may involve working directly with metaphors to better understand relationships. Noticing the increased usage of complex and unconventional metaphors may be helpful for recognizing when clients may benefit from greater support and conceptual assistance to integrate new concepts or behaviors and explore emotions (Gelo & Mergenthaler, 2012). To work directly with metaphors in counseling, several approaches are helpful. Kopp and Craw (1998) and Sims (2003) offered similar models with steps to facilitate insight using client-generated metaphors. Both models begin by having the counselor ask the client to elaborate on the metaphor and then follow up by asking the client questions to provide more detail, including emotions connected to the metaphor. Following client elaboration, additional questions and reflections from the counselor support the generation of client insight. To reinforce insight and apply it to the