A question about THE HAND-LOCK METAPHOR

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Permalink Reply by Rob McKeon on September 5, 2010 at 8:45am

I'm not 100% sure I understand the metaphor you area asking about, but it may be similar to the metaphor of the Chinese finger trap that the creator of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Steven Hayes regularly uses. Here is an article by him explaining the utility of the metaphor:
http://www.betterthinking-betterlife.com/gallery/hayes%20networker%...

He talks bout it during this interview:
http://www.easeap.com/videos/daily_life/daily_life.html

Actually some of you may wish to watch some of the other videos in that series as they deal with ACT for smoking cessation and weight loss:
http://contextualpsychology.org/free_videos

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Woods on September 5, 2010 at 3:07pm

Hi Stephen,

I imagine employing a handlock metaphor with a smoking cessation client in the following way:

"Look, as hard as you try...you can't unlock your hands! Although a part of your mind is saying, let go, another part of your mind is making your hands stay locked together! Isn't that interesting?!"

"I wonder what would happen if you quit listening to the part of your mind that makes your hands stay together and you start to listen to the part that wants them to separate and drift away from each other, freeing themselves once and for all..."

"And when you have decided that finally, for now and always, you are ready to give up that habit of smoking, your hands WILL unlock and begin to drift away from each other, feeling calm and comfortable, relieved that they no longer have to keep that unhealthy locked feeling anymore..."


:) Kelley

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