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Use of Metaphores in Counselling
- Susan Stubbings
- Sep 27
- 6 min read
Updated: Sep 28
Stories have long been important to humans as a way of communicating, connecting and understanding each other, stories play a part in leaning, stimulating our imaginations and promoting new thoughts, problem solving skills, transitioning from dreams and empowering us all.
One useful way to empower ourselves is through the use of metaphores which have a role to play in our connecting and understanding of each other at deeper levels.
The use of metaphores in counselling can turn complex feelings in to relatable pictures and images. For example the above image of a person "drowning in a sea of emotions" can help the counsellor and client understand the intensity of what is being conveyed and felt in the inner world.
So what is a meatphore?
According to Cambridge Dictonary a Metaphoire is:
an expression, often found in literature, that describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to that person or object:
When it comes to counselling and therapy the metaphore can become a powerful tool to support our understanding of the clients frame-of-reference. They can speak to those places within us that are hard to touch and bring forth implicit memory into the light of the stream of conciousness.
This can then inspire, transform and engage us where we might not be able to think clearly, be confused or we may not be able to reach a meaning or understand of an emerging physical sensation. Metaphores can bring clarify, evoke imagination, vision, confidence, direction and encourage understanding when used between people as a mutual and collective awareness.
Promoting self-awareness and identifying triggers.
By keeping a trigger journal we can pay attention to the physical sensations that emerge as we reflect and ponder. Once identified to deepen our awareness we can create a vision or sensory image to explore and deepen our understanding of what our senses are trying to impart. This makes emotions, feelings and sensations become more tangable and known and thus easier to understand, enabling us to find the latent undercurrents and rich meanings they hold.
By creating our emotions in drawing, art work or doodles (it doesn't have to be a Picasso) it can be different shapes, colours, sizes, lenghts for example, can all help to strengthen our assocations to our feelings and symbolic illustrations.
Expressing our emotions and helping the counsellor 'to get us; is not just about naming and claiming them its also about being able to communicate our feelings and thoughts to the counsellor or other to help them understand. Counsellors can use the symbolisim of metaphores to create mutual meaning and understanding, this also helps support being fully present to each other throughout the counselling process.
Metaphors in counselling can be very helpful for both parties to understand what is being conveyed, add depth and width to our conversations and through representation and symbolistion this is made more tangable for both.
For example, the ‘rearview mirror’ when driving if we just focus on what’s behind us, we won’t see what’s ahead or at the side, on the edge of each lane, if we do, we are more than likely to crash the car and put ourselves and others in danger.
This is true of our mind where the conscious meets the subconscious or unconscious, if we only focus on the past, we can’t perhaps see a vision of a future. If we are looking at our past all the time then do we live in that past? What about the here and now? Can we just BE here now?
Much of what we try to describe in therapy is difficult to put into language and describe logically, because we are not just cognitive beings where our minds can be explained by the use of words, our language whilst shared and understood doesn’t cover the meaning, the emotional, the nuances and what we are trying to express completely.
Our body keeps the score doesn’t it, so each one of our cells hold the key to peace, but how do we get that key out of our cells?
This is where metaphors come into their own, we can all understand the butterflies struggle to come out of its cocoon as a caterpillar. We all know the story of the man who found the cocoon and tried to help the butterfly out by cutting into the cocoon. In the end the man in his helping condemned the butterfly to crawling around because its wings were not ready to fly because in helping he had stopped the struggling caterpillar pushing fluid into its wings to enable flight.
This story is a good metaphor for reminding us as we begin on our journey as counsellors not to try fixing or resuing because other have all the resource they need from nature just like the butterfly.
Metaphors I often use to describe my life journey is rising like a phoenix and these days the humble dandelion, known as a weed, but is so much more than that, it has a beautiful yellow flower, like the sun, a beautiful delicate clock, vulnerable yet strong. Like us humans as an individual vulnerable and strong exists at the same time, the dandelion clock looks like the silvery moon and when its blown either by mouths or breeze it’s a metaphor for the stars. Like a connection with the universe itself growing from the earth.
Metaphors can be seen in how we as imaginative and creative Beings process information and our emotions and this is important when we are sat with a client who is trying to clarify, explore their feelings, thoughts, memories and sensations.
FURTHER BENEFITS OF USING METAPHORES
Metaphor provides a shared language - we have in common with each other our language and metaphors can be mutually, therapeutically and cathartically beneficial to the understanding that is gained in the space between our clients and us as counsellors.
Beneficial to evoking the seeds of change in the clients we serve, through use of curiosity, clarity and context we can begin to understand the client at a deeper level than the surface, evoking empathy and compassion.
Bring meaning to the surface - those experiences that may have happened before we were even verbal and this is extremely helpful for clients to be able to begin to gain deeper insight into how their past affects their here and now. A metaphor may help clients to give words to make sense of their experiences.
Change perception – Using a metaphor can change a person’s perception of past trauma and pain and this can lead to healing and calmful peace.
Emotional distance – if the pain of emotions is to great to hold in those moment-by-moment interactions when there is a realisation or an insight a metaphor can create distance, for instance the rear view mirror, I can see myself standing on the edge of a void looking down or up for example. These types of metaphors allow for putting a distance between self and the emotion, so it doesn’t overwhelm and offers time to sift through at a slower pace.
Empower and Build resilience – Metaphors can offer insight, personal awareness and we do this by connecting feelings to physical, visual and auditory sensations, making abstract and complex emotions more tangible and understandable. This empowers us and in the long-term builds’ resilience to our emotions so we don’t get overwhelmed by them more readily. Where we can create picture of ourselves on action doing or just being.
Rounding Up:
Metaphore are a figure of speach yet in therapy they don't just have to be figures of speach, not only stories or words because we can use extended metaphores were we can become creative and use objects. For example, pictures, songs, music, solid objects to create vivid imagery, release a memory, action or characteristic to paint a picture and flesh out the clients deeper meanings.
Metaphores are useful tools in therpay, it is important when using metaphors that we remain curious to the clients specific meaning when they are expressing descriptions, drawing or writing poetry or stories of their life expereinces.
Metaphors can be thought of as a powerful tool for learning, organising our cogitation adding structure to our thoughts, hook onto emotions, changing our emotions and perceptions, to understanding our Self, others and the world around us.
It is a wise counsellor who uses what might seem a simple tool yet they have a deep conceptual role to play in exploration and healing they need to be used with skill, understanding and curiosity.
But use them because they can be a valuable tool in our work with clients.
Resources:
Book - The Magic of Metaphors – Nick Owen
As well as counselling clients I also offer supervision to counsellors supporting clients. I am experienced in supporting students at all levels L4-Masters, counsellors working in Hospice, End of life, Mental Health agencies and those in Private Practice. Along with practitioners working in emotionally charged environments such as nurses, doctors and A & E personnel.
See my contact page here to send me a message
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