Metaphors of Self-talk
I love using metaphors in writing
and therapy. They’re powerful tools to engage the unconscious mind and change
our thinking without even realizing it’s happening. Fact is, we often think and
self-talk in metaphor without knowing
it, so we might as well intentionally use ones which are positive and promote transformation.
A while back a
client described a binge she’d had as “falling into a hole,” after which she
gradually returned to “normal” eating. Let’s take a look at her metaphor. What
sensory sensations and emotional reactions does this image generate in you? Holes
are often deep and dark places and falling into one might cause us to feel
claustrophobic, panicky, and maybe hopeless about climbing out. We view falling
into one as a bad thing to happen to us. So this client was equating all these
feelings with having taken in more food than she wished to and making a
judgmental, unconscious statement about her behavior as bad. She was reinforcing
a negative interpretation—really only one version among others—of her bout with
mindless eating.
When clients
frame behaviors judgmentally and negatively (though, of course, they don’t realize
their interpretation is damning), I try to counter with a metaphorical
reframing. In this case, I said, “Oh, you got over that slight bump in the
road, did you? Well, great. Nice work.” What sensory perceptions and emotional
reactions does the bump-in-the-road image generate in you? We’ve ...
Source: Normal Eating - Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
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