Tuesday 18 May 2010

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Sandie

Sunday 9 May 2010

Working with Metaphors

At the next practice session on Wednesday 12th May we will be talking about Metaphors and exploring how metaphors in everyday language can hold the 'key' to deciphering our own and our clients unconscious wisdom.

Using metaphors with ourselves or with a client can offer incredible insight into our unique perception of a certain situation, event or challenge. Talking via metaphors gives an individual the opportunity to see a situation from a new perspective in order to explore, in the comfort of their imagination, what needs to happen in order to move forward.

To get you thinking in terms of 'metaphors' have a practice with this simple warm up exercise:-

Finish each phrase with whatever sentence comes immediately to mind.


She woke up this morning feeling like …………………..

He knocked back the drink as if ………………..

The music made her feel ……………….

Nothing was the same, now that it was …………………

The smell of cut grass reminded her ………………..

The number 4 struck him as significant because …………………

The car came round the corner and towards her gate like ………….

He wanted to keep running but ……………

If she could just make it to the finish line she would feel like …………….


I hope that this exercise has stimulated your VAGOK systems and got your creative juices flowing.


Now think of a time recently when you were facing a particular challenge or problem. Can you remember how you felt at the time? Can you think of it in terms of a metaphorical analogy? For example; ' I felt like I was going round and round in circles, like I was on a carousel that would never stop. I was starting to feel sick but I had no idea whether it was safe to jump off, so I stayed on, going round and round in circles.'

This simple example can give us tremendous insight into how a particular problem 'feels' to the person experienceing the problem.

No consider how you would prefer to feel about this same problem. Here is another examle in the form of a dialogue between a coach and a client'

Client: 'Well, I would prefer to act sooner rather than later as I don't think the sickness is going to ease until I'm standing on firmer ground'.
Coach:'And how can you imagine this coming about?.
Client: Well, I'm scared to jump off but there are people around me who I could ask for help, someone might know a safe place to jump to.
Coach: And how would you do that?
Client: Well, I would call my friends over, tell them that I absoultely want to jump off the carousel and I'd ask them if they would be willing to help me find a safe place to land.

Metaphors can be used to gain a deeper understanding of problems and challenges with a view to exploring peoples options and creating a way forward. They can also be used to highten motivation, creativity and to create a visualisation of how they would like their ideal life to unfold.

I hope you will enjoy working with meataphors and your NLP skills will soar up like a brightly coloured kyte catching the wind, soaring up, up, to the greatest hights! Sorry, I couldn't resist ...