The use of Metaphor as a change agent

A Metaphor
“ His Lawyer is a Shark “ Now imagine a Shark entering a Court of Justice .
Here the word Shark is a Metaphor .
The lawyer being compared to a shark means the implication of vicious or ruthless behavior, or a greedy Lawyer
What is Metaphor
In his book, Guru: Metaphors from a Psychotherapist, Sheldon Kopp defines “metaphor” ,as a way of speaking in which one thing is expressed in terms of another, whereby this bringing together throws new light on the character of what is being described.
Derivation of the word Metaphor
The word ‘metaphor’ comes from the Greek ‘amphora’, a storage container used for transporting valuable goods.
For academic interests Many words have their origin as metaphors. For e.g., ‘Window’ comes from a metaphorical description of the object “Wind eye”. The flower ‘Daisy’ is also from a similar metaphorical description “Day’s eye” because the petals of the flower open in the morning and close at night.
How does Metaphor help
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson say: The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Metaphors correspond to the original experience they are describing . A Metaphor captures the essence of the structure of our experience . It communicates a lot of complex information in a very compact information .( like a container) Hence , Metaphors capture the essence of a persons way of being in the world.
While the Metaphors indicate what the individual is experiencing ,which leads to his behaviours , and state , change of the Metaphors help the customers experience reality differently and leads to new behaviours satisfying the same positive intentions of the previous behaviours .
As a Coach understanding the unresourceful Metaphors first of all is important . It contains the information that helps the customers experience their realty .
There are various methods then to work on Metaphors , and one of them is Clean Language . Metaphor is at the heart of the Clean way of thinking. It is the main thing that sets it apart from other approaches based on facilitative questioning and listening. Paying attention to metaphor will supercharge the results you get from your communication using Clean Language because ,Metaphors condense information, making things more tangible and easier to work with. Metaphors can represent experience more fully than abstract concepts, and enable more effective communication. Metaphors allow us to think in deeper and more profound ways.
By asking Clean Language questions about the metaphors a person uses, we are helping them to bring the metaphors into their awareness and to become conscious of their underlying metaphoric thought. We are providing a bridge between the parts of the mind, so that the ‘hidden’ is revealed.
Metaphor as a change agent
How it helps Coaches
Unconsciously, and on a very basic level, people- helpers have always used metaphor as an important part of the process of therapy. When a client comes asking for help with some “problems,” he also comes with a unique model of the world. A primary focus of therapy has always been – the therapist to understand the client’s model of the world. The underlying assumption is that if the therapist is going to help the client change the therapist must first understand how the client presently sees, hears, and grasps the world.
Metaphors are an important part of this information-gathering process. Metaphors are in the subconscious . To change your model of the world the change needs to happen at the subconscious and higher up in the neurological levels.
Metaphors as stories , anecdotes
Metaphors, can work as change agents in the form of fairytales, stories and anecdotes, are consciously and unconsciously used by therapists in order to assist a client in making the changes he wants to make.
A client may express some area of experience where he feels limited in choices, or perhaps sees no choices . At this point, occasionally the therapist will tell an anecdote out of his own experience, that of another client, or merely invent one. His hope in this story-telling is that the experiences of another in overcoming a problem which is similar to that of the client’s will suggest to the Client directly or indirectly ,ways in which he can deal with the situation. In the course of his narrative, the therapist develops in what ways the Clients problem is similar to this “other client’s problem.” The difference, however, is that this “other client’s problem” has a resolution of some kind. Hearing this, the client can, if it fits his model of the world, incorporate that resolution into his own situation.
Requirement of an effective Metaphor
The most important requirement for an effective metaphor is that it meets the client at his model of the world. That does not mean that the content of the metaphor is necessarily the same as that of the client’s situation. “Meeting the client at his model of the world” means that the metaphor preserves the structure of the client’s problematic situation. That is, the significant factors in the metaphor are the client’s interpersonal relationships and patterns of coping within the context of the “problem.” The context itself is not important.