Cover not available
Article published In:
Metaphor in Mental Healthcare
Edited by Dennis Tay
[Metaphor and the Social World 10:2] 2020
► pp. 214–232

Strategies for using metaphor in psychological treatment

| NT Psykiatri AB

In most models of psychotherapy metaphor is considered an important aspect of communication. At the same time there is a need for a rationale to tell the clinician with what purpose and how to use metaphor for the benefit of the client. The present article suggests such principles, specifically based on a behavioral approach to human language, relational frame theory (RFT). This approach has co-developed with a specific model of psychotherapy: acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and the conclusions in this article are very much in line with that model. Overlap between RFT and a recent linguistic theory of metaphor, the dynamic approach, is also discussed.

Keywords: relational frame theory, acceptance and commitment therapy, dynamic metaphor approach
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Relational frame theory
    • 2.1Relational frame theory and metaphor
    • 2.2Relational frame theory and psychological treatment
  • 3.The joint venture of rule-following and self-awareness
  • 4.The blessing and the curse
  • 5.The remedy to “the dark side of the force”
  • 6.Why metaphor?
  • 7.Introducing metaphor to train psychological flexibility
  • 8.Catching metaphors to train psychological flexibility
  • 9.Metaphor, co-operation and building therapeutic alliance
  • 10.Concluding remarks
  • References
Published online: 13 November 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.00004.tor
References
Angus, L. E., & Greenberg, L. S.
(2011) Working with narrative in emotion-focused therapy: Changing stories, healing lives. Washington: American Psy-chological Association. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brennan, S. E., & Clark, H. H.
(1996) Conceptual pacts and lexical choice in conversation. Journal of Experimental psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 221, 1482–1493.Google Scholar
Combs, G., & Freedman, J.
(1990) Symbol, story and ceremony: Using metaphor in individual and family therapy. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Hayes, S. C., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Roche, B.
(eds.) (2001) Relational frame theory: A post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. NewYork: Plenum. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hayes, S. C., Brownstein, A. J., Zettle, R. D., Rosenfarb, I., & Korn, Z.
(1986) Rule-governed behavior and sensitivity to changing consequences of responding. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 451, 237–256. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K., & Wilson, K. G.
(2012) Acceptance and commitment therapy. The process and practice of mindful change. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hayes, S. C., Wilson, K. G., Gifford, E. V., Follette, V. M., & Strosahl, K.
(1996) Experiential avoidance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 641, 1152–1168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Horvath, A. O.
(2018) Research on the alliance: Knowledge in search of a theory, Psychotherapy Research, 28:4, 499–516. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kövecses, Z.
(2010) Metaphor: A practical introduction. New York: Oxford University. Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M.
(1980) Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lord S. P., Sheng, E., Imel Z.E., Baer J. & Atkins, D.C.
(2015) More than reflections: Empathy in motivational interviewing includes language style synchrony between therapist and client. Behavior Therapy. 461:296–303. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luciano, C.
(2017) The self and responding to your own behavior. Implications of coherence and hierarchical framing. International Journal of Psychology & Psychological Therapy, 171, 267–275.Google Scholar
Luciano, C., Valdivia-Salas, S., Cabello-Luque, F., & Hernández, M.
(2009) Developing self-directed rules. In R. A. Rehfeldt & Y. Barnes-Holmes (ed.), Derived relational responding: Applications for learners with autism and other developmental disabilities (p. 335–352). Oakland: New Harbinger Publications.Google Scholar
Mathieson, F., Jordan, J., Carter, J. & Stubbe, M.
(2015) Nailing Down Metaphors in CBT: Definition, Identification and Frequency. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy 1(2), 1–13.Google Scholar
McHugh, L., Stewart, I. & Almada, P.
(2019) A contextual behavioral guide to the self. Theory and practice. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications.Google Scholar
McMullen, L. M.
(2008) Putting it in context: Metaphor and psychotherapy. In R. W. Gibbs (ed.), The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (p. 397–411). New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Müller, C.
(2008) Metaphors dead and alive, sleeping and walking: A dynamic view. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Müller, C., & Cienki, A.
(2009) Words, gestures and beyond: Forms of multimodal metaphor in the use of spoken language. In C. J. Forceville & E. Urio-Aparisi (ed.), Multimodal metaphor (p. 297–328). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Needham-Didsbury, I.
(2014) Metaphor in psychotherapeutic discourse: Implications for utterance interpretation. Poznan studies in contemporary linguistics, 501, 75–97. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Hora, D. & Barnes-Holmes, D.
(2004) Instructional control: developing a relational frame analysis. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy 111, p. 263–284.Google Scholar
Ramnerö, J. & Törneke, N.
(2008) The ABCs of human behavior: Behavioral principles for the practicing clinician. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.Google Scholar
Semin, G. R. & Cacioppo, J. T.
(2008) Grounding social cognition: Synchronization, coordination, and co-regulation. In Semin, G. R. & Smith, E. R. (ed) Embodied grounding: Social, cognitive, affective, and neuroscientic approaches. (p. 119–147) New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Skinner, B. F.
(1966) An operant analysis of problem solving. In B. Kleinmuntz (ed.), Problem solving: Research, method, and theory (pp. 133–171) NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
Stewart, I., & Barnes-Holmes, D.
(2001) Understanding metaphor: A relational frame perspective. Behavior Analyst, 241, 191–199. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Steen, G. J.
(2011) The contemporary theory of metaphor–now new and improved. Review of cognitive linguistics, 9:1, 26–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stine, J. J.
(2005) The use of metaphors in the service of the therapeutic alliance and therapeutic communication. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry 331, 531–545. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stott, R., Mansell, W., Salkovskis, P., Lavender, A., & Cartwright-Hatton, S.
(2010) Oxford guide to metaphors in CBT: Building cognitive bridges. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tay, D.
(2013) Metaphor in psychotherapy: A descriptive and prescriptive analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamimins Publishing Co.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Törneke, N.
(2017) Metaphor in practice. A professional’s guide to using the science of language in psychotherapy. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications.Google Scholar
Törneke, N., Luciano, C., & Valdivia Salas, S.
(2008) Rule-governed behaviour and psychological problems. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 81, 141–156.Google Scholar
Törneke, N., Luciano, C., Barnes-Holmes, Y., & Bond, F.
(2016) RFT for clinical practice: Three core strategies in understanding and treating human suffering. In R. D. Zettle, S. C. Hayes, D. Barnes-Holmes, & T. Biglan (ed.), Wiley handbook of contextual behavioral science (p. 254–272). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Villatte, M., Villatte, J. L., & Hayes, S. C.
(2016) Mastering the clinical conver-sation: Language as intervention. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar