Metaphor Bank

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Comment by Adrienne on July 13, 2011 at 12:34pm

I am so glad to find this discussion area.  I would like to see sections that provide metaphor ideas for categories of issues - e.g. metaphors to address bedwetting, metaphores particularly useful for stopping smoking, or ones for particular phobias, for child birth, and so on.  I have searched the net and found lots of interesting things and I know the best metaphors are to be found within each individual client's own "map of the world" but it would be helpful to have a quick go to guide that can expand the range so that a nice story can be developed that can be effective. 

 

Any thoughts if there is anything like that out there already?  Otherwise I am thinking what a great idea to make a start with.  However I have far too many great ideas since I have begun hypnotherapy and so......

 

Cheers

Adrienne

Comment by David Robe on July 5, 2010 at 5:33pm

Hi Tom. Thanks for the welcome. Looking forward to learning and sharing with others in this group. Sounds very interesting. David

Comment by HYPNOJADE on February 14, 2010 at 9:12pm

ahhhh Kelley (Woods) I like your stories, especially your sugar and spice one...it is sweet! ;D
I remember thinking very much about that metaphor as a little girl...;D KISS JADE

Comment by Kelley Woods on December 25, 2009 at 2:40am

Thank you for the great feedback, Hugh! I hope it resonates with your client...let me know how it turns out. :) K

Comment by Hugh Cole on December 22, 2009 at 5:05am

Kelley... I love that sugar and spice thing. I am going to play with it a bit if you don't mind and use it with one of my severly overweight clients. But I wanted to let you know I liked it.

Comment by Steve Lovold on November 29, 2009 at 1:11am

" If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking until you do succeed. "

Comment by Kelley Woods on November 5, 2009 at 8:32am

Driving along the freeway with my teen son, he commented how the traffic ahead was in a "clot". I laughted and agreed with him.
It wasn't until later that evening, as I worked with a diabetic client who suffers from leg pain that I employed the traffic clot metaphor into our work. My client was "driving" the crowded lanes of Los Angeles traffic as usual when he was magically lifted to the speed limit-free, wide open roads of Montana! He even came up with some perfect car trip tunes to play in his mind as he enjoyed the passing scenery!
You never know from where inspiration for our work comes!

Comment by Andrea Crouch, CHt. on October 30, 2009 at 9:02am

Thanks so much, Kelley! That is excellent and I appreciate you taking the time to share that.
Andrea

Comment by Kelley Woods on October 30, 2009 at 8:45am

Hi Andrea,
Here is a story I wrote for women wanting to reduce their sugar intake:

Everyone knows that little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. But, some time ago, when I was a little girl and spent a lot of time thinking about the weird things that adults said, I wondered what that actually meant...I mean...am I really made up of sugar and spice and everything nice?
I was a rowdy little girl; I behaved more like a tomboy, climbing on stuff, jumping off of rocks, being daring and active and laughing and showing my wit and character to anyone who watched...so I suppose that could be taken to mean that I was spicey...But what about the sugar and the nice? That didn't seem to fit me very well and it made me sad that I didn't belong in that phrase about little girls being made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
So I decided to make myself more like sugar. And, being just a little girl with not so much knowledge about things like health and nutrition, it only made sense to me that in order to be made of sugar, I would need to consume sugar...so I did...I focused my desire on anything that contained sugar...I spent my waking hours...and my dreaming hours...on the pursuit and consumption of sugar...
At first, this new adventure was really really fun...I felt like one of the kids in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory! I loved getting the taste of sugar in my mouth, and the sticky, sweet remnants on my hands or around my mouth reminded me of how I was becoming "made of sugar"...I searched and found sugar in so many places; I didn't have to look very hard...I realized that sugar was all around me...at home, at school, at my grandmother's house, at school, at my friends' houses, at every store I entered and wrapped around every special holiday...the sugar greeted and invited me to make it part of me!
But, soon, the fun of sugar began to sour. Sometimes I noticed that I didn't feel very well after I ate sugar. While it was in my mouth and going down my throat, I loved the feeling of making it part of me...but once it hit my stomach, that good feeling went away and left me feeling bad inside.
And the more I ate sugar, the worse I began to feel. Gradually, I began to realize that the sugar wasn't really good for me, but I still wanted to be a little girl made of sugar and spice and everything nice. But the rest of that saying, the everything nice, meant that I had to keep these bad feelings to myself. When a little girl is nice, it means that she goes along with everyone and is sweet (because of the sugar) and is obedient because she is nice. Maybe I knew that I should be nice to the sugar, too, even though it had started to make me feel bad.
And this went on for a very long time. And even though I knew the sugar was not really nice to me, I kept it close to me, even when it started to contribute to my health in so many ways, like making me overweight, or ruining my teeth or complexion, or even giving me illnesses. I just wasn't ready to give up being made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
And then, one day, just as I was sitting down to eat a big piece of my favorite, sugary snack, I heard a little, tiny voice inside my head...it was an itty-bitty squeak of a voice...one I hadn't heard in a long, long time, since I was a
little person...and that voice said, "Stop." And I started to sob...but I wasn't crying tears of sadness, I was crying tears of joy. I finally heard that little girl inside me and I was so happy to talk with her again.
And we sat together, she and I, and we talked about the truth about little girls and what they are really made of and she helped me let go of the lies and she helped me embrace the truths...and when we were done, we hugged and I held her tight, never to let her go again...and I picked up that sugary snack and I walked over to the trash bin and I threw it away.
And I never, ever again believed that stupid saying about what little girls are made of. Now I know what I am made of and it's healthy and strong and it speaks out, even when it's not nice. And I feel good.

Comment by Andrea Crouch, CHt. on October 27, 2009 at 8:57am

I have a client who travels for business quite frequently who was looking to stop her overeating. She responded well to a metaphor about packing lightly as she knows it makes traveling (getting around) much more difficult and with the higher costs of baggage fees at airports nowadays (healthcare) much more costly as well. Therefore, it only makes sense (to this client) to pack lightly and with great care in order to avoid this discomforts.
--Does anyone have any metaphors for minimizing sugar intake that have been successful that they would like to share??

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