NLP Email Training 23

Quote

Whether you can change others is uncertain; however, there is one person you can definitely change - and that is yourself.

Carlyle

metaphors

Metaphors allow for the depiction of facts in a pictorial way. By using metaphors, moral, social, and cultural issues can be conveyed or solutions to problems can be offered.

The effectiveness of a metaphor is based on the fact that it does not directly relate to the listener and their problem. However, based on their experiences, the listener will tend to give the metaphor meaning. Through this context, metaphors are a very effective method of indirect change work.

I would like to give you some tips on how to construct artistic metaphors yourself.

1. Define the problem: What is it about? Who are the relevant people? What role do they play? How does the main character act? How do the others react? etc. Create a problem description.
2. Define the goal: What does the person with the problem want to achieve? How do the relevant other people react to the behavior? Also, document this solution in writing.
3. Select an appropriate content level: Look for a content level that could reflect the problem structure, e.g. heavenly realms, realms of demons, fairy tales with princes, princesses, wizards, witches, and fairies, talking animals, plants and stones, mythical creatures and figures from the realm of science fiction, great personalities in history. Important: The content level must be interesting for the recipient of the metaphor.
4. Reflect the problem and goal in the content levels: The story must be structurally similar to the problem. The structures and processes of achieving the goal in the medium of the story should be mirrored.
5. Design the path to the goal: Bring in resources and build the feeling that the client is capable of dealing with the problem. Document the path to the goal in writing.
6. Write the metaphor. Please leave a line blank each time.
7. Ecologically check the metaphor. Check the ecology of the goal. Does the goal fit into a person's life context without leading to negative consequences for the personality structure of the individual and their social context? Useless and dangerous insights should be excluded. Check the metaphor for discomforts that can be eliminated and possible interpretations and conclusions that should not be considered.
8. Incorporate feedback instructions: Include opportunities to provoke physiological signals so that it can be recognized whether the listener is following along.
9. Refine the metaphor: Insert improvements.

Supplementary Links

Audio:

Metaphors >>>
What are metaphors and what types of metaphors exist? More about this in this audio file.

Text:

Use of metaphors >>>
Here you can read how to use metaphors and where they can be found.

Metaphor of the Week

Poor people

One day a man took his son to the countryside to show him how poor people live. Father and son spent a day and a night on a farm of a very poor family. When they returned, the father asked his son: "How was this trip?" "Very interesting!" replied the son. "And did you see how poor people can be?" "Oh yes, father, I saw that." "So what did you learn?" asked the father. And the son replied: "I saw that we have a dog and the people on the farm have four. We have a swimming pool that reaches halfway into our garden, and they have a lake that never ends. We have magnificent lamps in our garden and they have the stars. Our terrace extends to the front yard and they have the whole horizon." The father was speechless. And the son added: "Thank you, father, for showing me how poor we are."

Think of a current situation for practice and express it in a metaphor.

Book Recommendation

Therapeutic metaphors
Author: David Gordon

Short Description:
The educational, enlightening, and change-promoting effect of metaphors (parables, anecdotes, fairy tales, jokes, etc.) has been known for a long time. David Gordon shows in this book that necessarily all psychotherapeutic communication is metaphorical, and offers the reader precise, step-by-step learnable ways for the construction and systematic application of therapeutic metaphors. Findings from neurophysiological research are taken into account as well as the communication models of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and the contributions of Virginia Satir.

Since Milton H. Erickson demonstrated to the psychotherapeutic community in a masterful artistic way the application breadth of therapeutic metaphors, there has been a need among many practitioners for assistance in learning this art. David Gordon meets this need with this book in an entertaining and easily readable manner. The goal of this book is to impart skills that enable the formulation of therapeutic metaphors and their effective use.
Longseller!
Therapeutic metaphors

Here the book can be ordered: Now on Amazon

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Stephan Landsiedel