Metaphor in Psychotherapy Niklas Törneke The
Description: Metaphor in Psychotherapy Niklas Törneke The structure of this webinar Basic terminology Modern science and metaphor in general An RFT analysis of metaphor use Clinical applications Background Almost everybody agree on the importance of
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slide1. Metaphor in Psychotherapy Niklas Törneke<br>
slide2. The structure of this webinar Basic terminology
Modern science and metaphor in general
An RFT analysis of metaphor use
Clinical applications<br>
slide3. Background Almost everybody agree on the importance of metaphor in psychotherapy
Limited research on metaphor and clinical work
Lots of research in linguistics and cognitive science about metaphor in general<br>
slide4. Basic terminology Target Source is<br>
slide5. Basic terminology Target (topic): The phenomena we want to say something about. Often less known, more abstract
Source (vehicle, base): The phenomena we use to talk about the topic in question. Often better known, more concrete.<br>
slide6. Traditional view Literal language is basic
Metaphorical talk is ”an extra”
Traditional use: poetry and rhetorical talk<br>
slide7. Metaphors are basic tools in language Metaphors are not ”an extra”, they are at the very root of language and cognition
We constantly talk as if basic, implicit metaphors apply
”Metaphors we live by”. Lakoff/Johnson 1980
Conventionalized (”frozen”) metaphors affect thinking and action<br>
slide8. Implicit metaphors in everyday language We talk as if argument is war (“Your position is totally indefensible”; “His argument was easy to shoot down”; “She kept attacking my views”)
We talk as if life is a game (“The odds are against me”; “If I play my cards right…”; “She drew the short straw”)
We talk as if ideas are objects (“Bring that to our next meeting”; “Will you please drop that?”)
We talk as if ideas are food (“I find that hard to swallow”; “It was something to get my teeth into”)
We talk as if anger is pressure in a container (“He was bursting with anger”; “I exploded with anger”; “She could not contain her rage”)
We talk as if influence is a physical force (“I couldn’t resist the pressure”; “That really made an impact on me”)<br>
slide9. An RFT analysis of metaphor Relational frame theory: the behavior of relating is at the root of language and cognition
Relating phenomena (stimuli, events, objects) under the control of arbitrary contextual cues
Metaphor: relating relations<br>
slide10. “Peter and Louise are like night and day” Niklas Törneke 10 Same as (coordination) Louise Day Peter Night Target Source Dissimilarity Dissimilarity<br>
slide11. “Peter and Louise are like two peas in a pod” Niklas Törneke 11 Same as (coordination) Louise Pea Peter Pea Target Source Similarity Similarity<br>
slide12. “Peter and Louise are like cats and dogs” Niklas Törneke 12 Same as (coordination) Louise Dogs Peter Cats Target Source Relation
of conflict Relation
of conflict<br>
slide13. “My thinking is a machine” Niklas Törneke 13 Same as (coordination) Me Me My thoughts Machine Target Source Relation of distance Relation of distance<br>
slide14. Practical use of metaphor in the therapeutic dialogue How to do it and for what?<br>
slide15. For what? To increase psychological flexibility Psychological flexibility is a behavioral repertoire and it’s essence is about how we interact with our own behavior (how we respond to our own responding)
Why important? Because human language (symbolic generalization, relational framing) makes our own responding into an extremely influential part of the context in which we act.
Said another way: our private responding (thinking, feeling, remembering) typically has important influence on the following behavior of the same individual. Said yet another way: we constantly talk to ourselves, we instruct and warn ourselves, and those “self-instruction” or “rules” influence our actions<br>
slide16. Two psychological traps lead to inflexibility Fusion, that is: interacting with your own self-instructions (feelings, thoughts, memories, bodily sensations) without making a distinction between yourself as an acting person and those responses
Experiential avoidance, that is: following self-instructions about trying to controll, diminish or get rid of painfull private responses<br>
slide17. Three generic principles for increasing psychological flexibility Find and name, in co-operation with the client, the current problematic strategy the client uses and clarify relevant antecedents and consequences (functional analysis, A B C analysis, creative hopelessness) of that behavior.
Help the client to establish observational distance to self-instructing responses functioning as important antecedent factors to the problematic strategy, in order to alter the functions of such responses as they emerge (defusion/self as context, de-centering)
Help the client in using observational distance of both antecedents and consequences that support an alternative strategy (taking direction, valued action)<br>
slide18. General options Introduce metaphors
Catch metaphors used by the client
Co-create and develop metaphors together with the client<br>
slide19. Catching and co-developing Conventionalized (”dead”) ”I feel so empty”, ”It is all going downhill”, ”it runs so fast”, ”I just float away”
Common (”living”) metaphors: ”heavy load on my shoulders”, ”my head is overheated”, ”I am stuck in a swamp”, ”I am in a battlefield”
New: ”Shouldn’t the fontanelle have closed up by now?” Catch!
Explore source and target!
Look for markers of co-operation!<br>
slide20. Catching and co-operating Conventionalized (”dead”) ”I feel so empty”, ”It is all going downhill”, ”it runs so fast”, ”I just float away”
Common (”living”) metaphors: ”heavy load on my shoulders”, ”my head is overheated”, ”I am stuck in a swamp”, ”I am in a battlefield”
New: ”Shouldn’t the fontanelle have closed up by now?” Functional analysis (A B C)
Establish observational distance
Take direction<br>
slide21. To elicit metaphor: What kind of sadness, joy, anger etc., is that sadness, joy, anger, etc.?
To explore or to develop metaphors: What kind of X is X? Is there something more with X?
For functional analysis: What comes before X? And then…? What do you do when..?
To establish an observational distance: Ask concrete questions about the source of the metaphor. What does it look like? Form? Color? Movement?
Direction: Elaborate the source so that you can ask questions about desired consequences. What can you do that will move you in that direction/to be faithful to what you want, to be the one you want to be? If you as a therapist sense something about valued direction for the client, what is that like (trying to elicit a metaphor)?
General principle: Don’t get lost in the source, remember to also be explicit about it’s target (what are we talking about here?)!<br>
slide22. Some general points from research A metaphor functions well when an apt relationsship between source and target is established so that the source structures how the target is experienced
There should be certain knowledge about the target but too much can diminish the effect of the metaphor
A source from known bodily or cultural exeperience tends to be best
Early in the process increases effect
Increasing opportunities to construe experience based on a metaphor will strengthen it’s effect.
Metaphors affect attention and memory
Metaphor can have effects regardless of our awareness of them.<br>
slide23. Metaphor in Practice: A Professional’s Guide to Using the Science of Language in Psychotherapy. Törneke, 2017.
RFT for Clinical Use: The Example of Metaphor.
Foody, Barnes-Holmes, Barnes-Holmes, Törneke, Luciano, Stewart & McEnteggart 2014. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 3, 305–313.
RFT for Clinical Practice: Three Core Strategies in Understanding and Treating Human Suffering.
Törneke, Luciano, Barnes-Holmes & Bond 2016. In Zettle, Hayes, Barnes-Holmes & Biglan (ed.), Wiley handbook of contextual behavioral science p. 254–272
Metaphor. A Practical Introduction. Kövecses, Z. 2010
How Linguistic Metaphor Scaffolds Reasoning. Thibodeau, Hendricks & Boroditsky 2017. Trends in cognitive science, 21, 852-863
Contact: niklas.torneke@telia.com<br>
slide2. The structure of this webinar Basic terminology
Modern science and metaphor in general
An RFT analysis of metaphor use
Clinical applications<br>
slide3. Background Almost everybody agree on the importance of metaphor in psychotherapy
Limited research on metaphor and clinical work
Lots of research in linguistics and cognitive science about metaphor in general<br>
slide4. Basic terminology Target Source is<br>
slide5. Basic terminology Target (topic): The phenomena we want to say something about. Often less known, more abstract
Source (vehicle, base): The phenomena we use to talk about the topic in question. Often better known, more concrete.<br>
slide6. Traditional view Literal language is basic
Metaphorical talk is ”an extra”
Traditional use: poetry and rhetorical talk<br>
slide7. Metaphors are basic tools in language Metaphors are not ”an extra”, they are at the very root of language and cognition
We constantly talk as if basic, implicit metaphors apply
”Metaphors we live by”. Lakoff/Johnson 1980
Conventionalized (”frozen”) metaphors affect thinking and action<br>
slide8. Implicit metaphors in everyday language We talk as if argument is war (“Your position is totally indefensible”; “His argument was easy to shoot down”; “She kept attacking my views”)
We talk as if life is a game (“The odds are against me”; “If I play my cards right…”; “She drew the short straw”)
We talk as if ideas are objects (“Bring that to our next meeting”; “Will you please drop that?”)
We talk as if ideas are food (“I find that hard to swallow”; “It was something to get my teeth into”)
We talk as if anger is pressure in a container (“He was bursting with anger”; “I exploded with anger”; “She could not contain her rage”)
We talk as if influence is a physical force (“I couldn’t resist the pressure”; “That really made an impact on me”)<br>
slide9. An RFT analysis of metaphor Relational frame theory: the behavior of relating is at the root of language and cognition
Relating phenomena (stimuli, events, objects) under the control of arbitrary contextual cues
Metaphor: relating relations<br>
slide10. “Peter and Louise are like night and day” Niklas Törneke 10 Same as (coordination) Louise Day Peter Night Target Source Dissimilarity Dissimilarity<br>
slide11. “Peter and Louise are like two peas in a pod” Niklas Törneke 11 Same as (coordination) Louise Pea Peter Pea Target Source Similarity Similarity<br>
slide12. “Peter and Louise are like cats and dogs” Niklas Törneke 12 Same as (coordination) Louise Dogs Peter Cats Target Source Relation
of conflict Relation
of conflict<br>
slide13. “My thinking is a machine” Niklas Törneke 13 Same as (coordination) Me Me My thoughts Machine Target Source Relation of distance Relation of distance<br>
slide14. Practical use of metaphor in the therapeutic dialogue How to do it and for what?<br>
slide15. For what? To increase psychological flexibility Psychological flexibility is a behavioral repertoire and it’s essence is about how we interact with our own behavior (how we respond to our own responding)
Why important? Because human language (symbolic generalization, relational framing) makes our own responding into an extremely influential part of the context in which we act.
Said another way: our private responding (thinking, feeling, remembering) typically has important influence on the following behavior of the same individual. Said yet another way: we constantly talk to ourselves, we instruct and warn ourselves, and those “self-instruction” or “rules” influence our actions<br>
slide16. Two psychological traps lead to inflexibility Fusion, that is: interacting with your own self-instructions (feelings, thoughts, memories, bodily sensations) without making a distinction between yourself as an acting person and those responses
Experiential avoidance, that is: following self-instructions about trying to controll, diminish or get rid of painfull private responses<br>
slide17. Three generic principles for increasing psychological flexibility Find and name, in co-operation with the client, the current problematic strategy the client uses and clarify relevant antecedents and consequences (functional analysis, A B C analysis, creative hopelessness) of that behavior.
Help the client to establish observational distance to self-instructing responses functioning as important antecedent factors to the problematic strategy, in order to alter the functions of such responses as they emerge (defusion/self as context, de-centering)
Help the client in using observational distance of both antecedents and consequences that support an alternative strategy (taking direction, valued action)<br>
slide18. General options Introduce metaphors
Catch metaphors used by the client
Co-create and develop metaphors together with the client<br>
slide19. Catching and co-developing Conventionalized (”dead”) ”I feel so empty”, ”It is all going downhill”, ”it runs so fast”, ”I just float away”
Common (”living”) metaphors: ”heavy load on my shoulders”, ”my head is overheated”, ”I am stuck in a swamp”, ”I am in a battlefield”
New: ”Shouldn’t the fontanelle have closed up by now?” Catch!
Explore source and target!
Look for markers of co-operation!<br>
slide20. Catching and co-operating Conventionalized (”dead”) ”I feel so empty”, ”It is all going downhill”, ”it runs so fast”, ”I just float away”
Common (”living”) metaphors: ”heavy load on my shoulders”, ”my head is overheated”, ”I am stuck in a swamp”, ”I am in a battlefield”
New: ”Shouldn’t the fontanelle have closed up by now?” Functional analysis (A B C)
Establish observational distance
Take direction<br>
slide21. To elicit metaphor: What kind of sadness, joy, anger etc., is that sadness, joy, anger, etc.?
To explore or to develop metaphors: What kind of X is X? Is there something more with X?
For functional analysis: What comes before X? And then…? What do you do when..?
To establish an observational distance: Ask concrete questions about the source of the metaphor. What does it look like? Form? Color? Movement?
Direction: Elaborate the source so that you can ask questions about desired consequences. What can you do that will move you in that direction/to be faithful to what you want, to be the one you want to be? If you as a therapist sense something about valued direction for the client, what is that like (trying to elicit a metaphor)?
General principle: Don’t get lost in the source, remember to also be explicit about it’s target (what are we talking about here?)!<br>
slide22. Some general points from research A metaphor functions well when an apt relationsship between source and target is established so that the source structures how the target is experienced
There should be certain knowledge about the target but too much can diminish the effect of the metaphor
A source from known bodily or cultural exeperience tends to be best
Early in the process increases effect
Increasing opportunities to construe experience based on a metaphor will strengthen it’s effect.
Metaphors affect attention and memory
Metaphor can have effects regardless of our awareness of them.<br>
slide23. Metaphor in Practice: A Professional’s Guide to Using the Science of Language in Psychotherapy. Törneke, 2017.
RFT for Clinical Use: The Example of Metaphor.
Foody, Barnes-Holmes, Barnes-Holmes, Törneke, Luciano, Stewart & McEnteggart 2014. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 3, 305–313.
RFT for Clinical Practice: Three Core Strategies in Understanding and Treating Human Suffering.
Törneke, Luciano, Barnes-Holmes & Bond 2016. In Zettle, Hayes, Barnes-Holmes & Biglan (ed.), Wiley handbook of contextual behavioral science p. 254–272
Metaphor. A Practical Introduction. Kövecses, Z. 2010
How Linguistic Metaphor Scaffolds Reasoning. Thibodeau, Hendricks & Boroditsky 2017. Trends in cognitive science, 21, 852-863
Contact: niklas.torneke@telia.com<br>