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METAPHORS FOR THERAPY
The example metaphors
here are to help us see thoughts – their nature and role - in a different
light. Just that alone, seeing thoughts differently, helps to create a space, a
distance, between us and our thoughts, which helps us to stand back a little,
see things a bit more objectively, and make wiser and more helpful decisions
about how to react effectively.
Passengers on the Bus
You can be in the driving seat,
whilst all the passengers (thoughts) are being critical, abusive, intrusive,
distracting, and shouting directions, or sometimes just plain nonsense. You can
allow those passengers to shout and chatter noisily, whilst keeping your
attention focused on the road ahead, heading towards your goal or value.
(Hayes et al 1999)
Playground Bully
Our minds
are like school playgrounds that are surrounded by secure high fences – the
Victim 1 – believes the bully,
distressed, reacts automatically (bully carries on)
Victim 2 – challenges the bully
“hey I’m not stupid, I got 8 out of 10 in my spelling test this morning, you
only got 4” (bully eventually gives up)
Victim 3 – looks at the bully
(acknowledges the thought), then walks away and goes off to play football with
his mates (dismisses the thought), then changes their focus of attention.
(Based on Hannan & Tolin 2005)
The River
Sometimes it feels like we’re
being carried away downstream
The Beach Ball
We try
to stop thoughts, but that’s impossible. It’s like trying to constantly hold an
enormous inflatable beach ball under the water, but it keeps popping up in front
of our faces. We can allow the ball to float around us, just letting it be. So
rather than stop the thoughts, we can stop fighting them, and let them be,
without reacting to them.
(Vivyan 2009)
Thought train Standing on the station platform, sometimes we are advised to stand back as an express train will be passing through at speed. We hear and feel it approaching, thundering through as it buffets us with a strong blast of wind. We don’t attempt to jump on the express train and let it take us to destinations we don’t want to go to.
The Tunnel
When we get anxious driving
through a tunnel, the best option is to keep going rather than try to escape.
This feeling will pass – there is an end to this tunnel.
The Mountain
Whatever the weather, or whatever
happens on the surface of the mountain – the mountain stands firm, strong,
grounded, permanent. We can be like that mountain, observing thoughts,
feelings, sensations, knowing inner stillness.
The Mind Monsters (Bad Wolf, Good Wolf)
We
ca
Google Earth & The Helicopter View
Sometimes it’s useful
to see the bigger picture. When
so
(Diagram: Vivyan 2009)
Foreground &
Background – Monitors & Zoom lenses
When doing
presentations using a laptop and projector, there’s an option of what to display
on each monitor. The laptop screen is called Monitor 1, and the projector is
Monitor 2. The graphic in Control Panel is shown as 2 large screens with large
white numbers on them. Cli
(Vivyan 2009)
The Plane Crash
Not so long ago, a
plane landed seemingly miraculously on the River Hud
(Ayres 2009)
The Traffic Accident
It's the same principle with
everything - each situation, event, conversation, means something different to
all those involved, and also to those not involved.
(Vivyan 2009)
The Quicksand
Used
by Stephen Hayes to introduce clients to Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT).
When we’
(Hayes et al 1999)
Imagine you're given a parrot. This parrot is just a parrot - it doesn't have
any knowledge, wisdom or insight. It’s bird-brained after all. It recites
things ‘parrot fashion’ – without any understanding or comprehension. It’s a
parrot.
However, this particular parrot is a poisoned and poisonous parrot. It's
been specifically trained to be unhelpful to y
How
long would you put up with this abuse before throwing a towel over the cage, or
getting rid of the parrot? We can often put up with the thoughts from this
internal bully for far too long.
We
can learn to use the antidote: notice that ‘parrot’ – and cover the cage.
"There's that parrot again - I don't have to listen to it", and go and do
something else. Put your focus of attention elsewhere. Be persistent
in your practice! Eventually this poisoned parrot will tire of the towel,
tire of you not responding. You'll notice it less and less. It might
just give up its poison as your antidote overcomes it, or perhaps fly off to
wherever poisoned parrots go.
(Vivyan 2009 - adapted from 'The Malevolent
Parrot" Kristina Ivings)
Tug of War with a Monster
Imagine you’re in a tug of war with some huge
anxiety (depression etc) monster. You’ve
got one end of the rope, and the monster has the
other end. In between you, there’s a huge bottomless pit. You’re pulling
backward as hard as you can, but the monster keeps on pulling you ever closer to
the pit. What’s the best thing to do in that situation?
Pulling harder comes naturally, but the harder
you pull, the harder the monster pulls. You’re stuck. What do you need to do?
Dropping the rope means the monster’s still
there, but you’re no longer tied up in a struggle with it. Now you can do
something more useful.
(Harris 2009)
Struggling Uphill in Top Gear Sometimes life can
feel like we're struggling to drive or cycle up a long and steep hill, in top
gear. The motor just can't get us there. It works really hard, but
it's impossible to get up that steep hill in top gear. We need to change
down a gear or two. Changing down gives the motor more torq, and is much
better able to drive those wheels up that hill, albeit a bit slower. It can be like that
with life sometimes. We try to struggle on in top gear, expecting so much
of ourselves, of others, of life itself. Sometimes we need to change down
a gear. Slow it down, reduce the struggle. Carry on, but in a lower
gear.
New Browser
Window
We can imagine our mind can be compared to an
internet browser. Our mind's default mode is like a search engine's function
which searches the internet looking for information. New and old. Useful and
not useful. Current and out-of-date. Fact and opinion. Once our mind has found
something to latch onto, it can be difficult to let it go - as if it is showing
and staying in our browser window.
Just as with an internet browser though, we don't
have to keep focusing on things we don't want or need to focus on. We can
choose to open a new tab or new window, and create a blank page. Our old tabs
or windows can still be there, to come back to anytime, if we so choose.
Opening a new tab or window means we clear out
the clutter, our thought clutter, and start again. This time, we can choose
what to put in this window. What would be helpful? What would be the best
thing to focus on? Or maybe we can just let it stay almost blank - observing
this present moment. Our breath, our supported body, our environment.
Every time you notice your mind is
in the default mode, browsing around and getting caught up in unhelpful or
upsetting thought patterns:
Notice
your mind is in default mode
Think
about opening a new browser window
Choose
your focus, e.g. your breathing, the environment, your activity (current or
choose a new activity)
The Train Traveller (explaining
the rationale for Behavioural Experiments)
A train passenger sits in the corner of a carriage,
quietly ripping up paper into small pieces and then throwing them out of the
window.
Ticket collector:"Sir, why are you throwing pieces of
paper out of the window?"
Passenger: "To keep dragons off the railway line".
Ticket collector: "But there are no dragons on the
line sir".
Passenger: "Exactly!"
How is the passenger going to find out that throwing
pieces of paper out of the window doesn't keep dragons away because there
are no dragons?
Metaphors for the Mind (Act
made simple, Harris 2009)
A master storyteller
The world’s greatest storyteller – it never
stops! It’s never short of a story to tell, and it wants is for us to listen,
whatever the story is. Like any great storyteller, it’ll say whatever it has to
say to get our attention. Some stories are true: we can call these facts.
Others are opinions, beliefs, ideas, attitudes, assumptions, judgements,
predictions etc. Stories about how we see the world, what we want to do, what
we think is right or wrong, fair or unfair, good or bad. Just listen now, to the
story your mind is telling you now.
Radio “doom and gloom”
Broadcasting a lot of gloom about the past, doom
about the future, and dissatisfaction about the present.
A spoiled brat
Making all sorts of demands, and throwing
tantrums if it doesn’t get its own way
A reason-giving machine
Churning out a never-ending list of reasons why
you can’t or shouldn’t change
A word machine
Manufacturing a never-ending stream of words
A fascist dictator
Constantly ordering you about and telling you
what you can and can’t do
A judgement factory
Spending all day long making judgements The Walk
of Life When we are walking along the
footpath, we tend to look just ahead of us most of the time, with occasional
glances behind us and far ahead. We look behind as we need to know
of anything approaching from behind or to see where we have come from, and look
far ahead to make sure we are heading in the right direction to get to where we
want to go. Most of the time though, we need to know where we are putting
our feet. If we were constantly looking
behind us, then we would be walking into obstacles or tripping over. If we
were constantly focused on the far distance, we would slip and trip over
obstacles beneath us.
(It can be fun to act this out!) So it is with life.
Sometimes we are so focused on our past, that we neglect the present, and wonder
why we keep falling flat on our faces. Or perhaps we are so attentive to
anticipating dangers up ahead, that again, we trip and stumble our way through
life.
(Carol
Vivyan 2012)
The Roller-Coaster Useful to help explain the
basic concept of CBT to children: Same situation, but different emotional
and behavioural responses. 2 children went to a
fair-ground and Tom ran to queue up for the roller-coaster, jumping around and
smiling. Noah walked much more slowly and reluctantly to queue, looking at
the ground. Discuss possible emotions
that Tom and Noah might be feeling. Is the roller-coaster making them feel
this way? Is it possible that there is something else that accounts for
the way they feel?
(TA Creed) Life is like a Cake Many people
have described life as being like a cake. Many ingredients can go into a
cake, but the finished cake is down to what we do with those ingredients.
We all have different life situations, but we can choose what we do with those
ingredients. Some people have many fantastic ingredients, but the cake is
a flop. Others have few ingredients, or less desirable ingredients, but
are great cooks and make wonderful cakes. The
Newspaper Headline Most national
(and perhaps local) newspapers have a particular bias, particularly a political
bias. If we read a different newspaper to our usual one, it helps to know
that paper's bias, as it gives us an idea about whether we should trust and
believe everything this paper says. Most
newspapers create sensational headlines, to catch our attention. Just as
our minds do. Do we believe everything the newspaper says? Do we
believe everything our mind says? The Weather Our thoughts and feelings are like the weather, they come and they go. We cannot control or stop them, but we can learn to react to them differently. If we give up the futile struggle to try and stop or control it, the storm of thoughts and feelings will pass. Online Shopping When we visit an online store, we tend to know what we are looking for. We know our However, we do tend to buy into each thought in our mind’s online shop front, especially those thoughts that fit with the thinking habits we’ve got into. If only we could treat them the same way as the online store! Do I need to buy this thought, right now? Can I afford it? Is it going to be helpful? Is it really true? Reset Button We can use our mind’s reset mechanism by telling ourselves to STOPP and breathe – a little slower, in through the nose, out through the mouth. In thinking about our breathing, we have shifted our focus of attention and the emotional thoughts fade a little into the background. In taking slower deeper breaths, we are calming our physical sensations of emotion. This reduces the emotion enough to allow our thinking brain to come back online, enabling us to make more rational responses.
Save or download this page as PDF
Other Therapy Metaphors
The Visitor - Mindfulness
Exercise
The Super Scanner (Health Anxiety)
PDF
The Super Scanner
(generic)
Books
Oxford Guide to Metaphors in CBT: Building Cognitive Bridges
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keep children in, and others out. Any bullies in that playground mean that the
other children can’t escape for long. This particular bully uses verbal abuse,
shouting, teasing, and threats (rather than physical violence). The
children are all fenced in together, and ideally, they have just
got to learn to accept and learn to be with each other. So neither can we
escape our thoughts, we cannot stop them, but perhaps
we can learn to live with them by seeing them differently. Along comes bully,
and takes on 3 potential ‘victims’ who all react differently.
,
struggling to stay afloat amongst all the mud, filth and debris. That muck
and debris are thoughts, sensations, events, feelings, and that river is our
distress as we drift helplessly downstream. But we can stand on the riverbank,
watching as those thoughts,
events, sensations, feelings go by. You might watch individual items as they
pass – perhaps a thought floating on a leaf, a sensation as a log, an event as
an
old bicycle. We can stand and watch. 
n think of unhelpful or distressing thoughts as the Mind Monsters.
(The Native American
Cherokees use a similar example of a "Bad Wolf, Good Wolf"). Being a
monster, we can’t do much
to stop or fight them –
that just seems futile sometimes. When we do fight, it can help for a
while, but those monsters
may well just keep coming back. Like all monsters though, these Mind
Monsters need food. If we can deprive them of food, then they’ll
eventually go off seeking sustenance elsewhere. These monsters (or 'Bad
Wolf') feed off our reactions – our believing those monsters, reacting to them,
being upset by them,
and
acting accordingly and
often automatically and unthinkingly. We can maintain and make worse our
situations just by those reactions. Those vicious cycles of our reactions
mean that the monsters just
keep coming. If we can
stop ‘feeding’ the monsters – they’ll get weaker
and weaker and eventually move away. Others will come, but again we can
choose not to feed them – by changing the way we think and react, and by paying
more attention to the 'Good Wolf' in us.
When
there's a traffic accident, police ask for witnesses to come forward and
describe what happened. They like to have as many witness statements as
possible so that they can build up enough evidence to give them a broader, more
realistic version of events. In a traffic accident, there will be
many different perspectives on what happened. The driver of one car will
have one view, another driver or a passenger will have yet another view.
Each onlooker who witnessed the accident will have a slightly different
perspective, depending on where they were, how
far they were, how good a view they had, what else was going on, how much danger
they felt they were in, how the accident affected them, what the accident means
to them. 
We cannot control the weather, so we have to learn to adapt to it. We can put a coat on for instance, but we cannot stop the wind or rain, and it would be foolish to try. Regardless of what we do, the storm will pass.
budget, the item we want, the colour, the size, how quickly we need it, and so on. There may be hundreds of items advertised on the page, but we do not put every item we see into our shopping basket and buy them all. That would be crazy.
When we feel emotional, we can feel overwhelmed and our thinking brain (the pre-frontal cortex) goes offline – just like our computer does sometimes when it tries to do too many processes at once. To get our computers working again, we can either wait, or we can reset it.