An anthology of over 30 therapeutic metaphors on themes both traditional and modern that work equally well as hypnotherapy scripts, guided meditations, or when used conversationally during counselling or coaching sessions. Each one comes with notes to help you adapt it to your client or audience to make them even more effective.
The Metaphor Toolbox will provide you with a wide variety of healing stories and metaphors. They are effective as hypnotherapy scripts or as guided meditations. Or they can be used conversationally as stories within counselling or coaching sessions.
Why should therapists use the Metaphor Toolbox?
Many therapists use a non-directive approach to therapy. We don’t tell clients how they should live their lives, or even how to meet the goals they present to us. Instead, we provide a safe and non-judgmental space for them to find their own answers.
Metaphors and stories are an ideal way to do this. They allow us to rehearse ideas and changes without having to experience them in real life. It’s a bit like a roller coaster or a horror film that allows us to experience fear whilst knowing we are safe.
Clients rarely turn up at our offices with a single, clear-cut problem that is isolated from the rest of their lives. Most often there is a complex web of experiences, beliefs, feelings, thoughts, and behaviours involved. Raymond Berger [1] suggests that a story provides a ‘cognitive package’. In other words, it breaks things down into simple patterns and themes that make finding solutions easier.
Stories provoke an emotional and physical reaction but also physically change the way our brains process information. They create a kind of synchronicity between the listener and storyteller in which our brain waves start to match. This helps with rapport, communication and understanding as well as improving the way we work with our clients.
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[1] ResearchGate. (n.d.). (PDF) Therapeutic Storytelling Revisited. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6080623_Therapeutic_Storytelling_Revisited.