TPC Journal V7, Issue 2 - FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 7, Issue 2 149 Therapeutic Metaphors To create a clearer sense of the use of metaphor in counseling, the three-part model of counseling described by Hill (2009) will be used. The model describes counseling as involving the self-explanatory stages of exploration , insight and action , with the recognition that these stages are not linear, the stages may overlap and not all stages will be incorporated in all counseling approaches. In the following sections corresponding to the three stages, there are descriptions of metaphor usage appropriate to the purpose of those stages. Exploration In counseling, the development of a therapeutic alliance is paramount (Baldwin, Wampold, & Imel, 2007; Del Re, Flückiger, Horvath, Symonds, & Wampold, 2012; Flückiger, Del Re, Wampold, Symonds, & Horvath, 2012). The generation of an effective therapeutic alliance is achieved by communicating to clients that they are safe, heard and understood and by establishing a shared purpose for counseling (Flückiger et al., 2012). One approach is through empathic reflection. With research and theoretical support for metaphors being used to communicate emotions (Crawford, 2009), the reflection and exploration of metaphors and emotions connected to metaphors is appropriate (Tay, 2012; Witztum, van der Hart, & Friedman, 1988). Understanding the client-generated metaphors in this step also may become useful later in the therapeutic process, as the metaphors can then be transformed and reintroduced to support positive changes. In exploring client-generated metaphors, the counselor will want to be aware of the type of metaphor being used and how it relates to what the client is working to address. Particular attention should be paid to the complex and unconventional metaphors of clients, as those metaphors may be indicative of areas that are challenging, confusing or emotionally difficult for the client. If the counselor recognizes that the client may be seeking to better understand a concept for which the client provided a metaphor, the correspondence mapping approach to exploring the metaphor may be particularly useful. For clients who seem to be using metaphor to describe beliefs or rules, class inclusion may be the more appropriate approach (Tay, 2012). The choice between class inclusion and correspondence mapping will be influenced by the content of the metaphor and client willingness to engage in the exploration. If the client is willing and able to explore the metaphor and it seems therapeutically appropriate to expand understanding related to the target domain, then the correspondence approach can facilitate that exploration. For example, if a client says about her partner, he is a turtle hiding in his shell , responses based on a correspondence approach could be what makes a turtle go into its shell and what makes up your partner’s shell ? Depending on the response to the questions, it may be possible to make more connections between the metaphor and specific aspects of the client’s situation. One way to strengthen the use of this approach in counseling is to reflect back client-generated elaborations in a form that links elements of the metaphor with clients’ emotions and concerns (Greenberg, 2010; Johnson, 2004; Kopp & Craw, 1998; Sims, 2003; Tay, 2012). The correspondence approach can be very helpful as a way to explore important aspects of the client’s situation and challenges. In a class inclusion approach, the process might look a little different. Rather than discussing specific elements of the imagery, the theme or message of the metaphor is the focus. Taking the same metaphor of the turtle, the message that she cannot reach her partner and believes he is avoiding her becomes the focus. Responses to this message might be: you feel you can’t reach him ; how do you feel when you can’t reach him; and what would it look like if he didn’t hide in his shell ? This is an approach addressed to the primary message of the metaphor, but it moves away from the metaphor itself to