CHILD-GENERATED METAPHORSStories will be most personally relevant for the child if they are able to match the child’s personal ex-
perience and interests. A bottom line for using storytelling in therapy (or for any therapeutic strat-
egy) is that, the better you know your client, the more relevant you can make your interventions.
Communicating in the language, mind-set, and interests of the child makes your story a lot more per-
sonal and a lot easier for the client to identify with. It has relevance and meaning that is quickly in-
corporated, rather than requiring a child to start to search for meaning outside the level of his or her
own experience.
In a book simply entitled Metaphor Therapy, Richard Kopp (1995) provides a six-step plan for
listening to, joining, and utilizing the metaphors that your clients generate. This approach makes life
a lot easier for the therapist: The onus is not upon you to create some rich and fanciful tale. Instead,
by joining the client’s experience, the therapist can be more effective in supporting the development
of a reframed narrative. To do this, Kopp offers six steps that I have paraphrased here, and to which
I have added my own child-relevant examples.
Step 1: Listen
Listen to the metaphors that children bring into therapy. So often they slip by, particularly if we are
trying to interpret or analyze what is being said rather than just listening. Observe carefully if a young
child in play builds an enclosing wall of blocks around a doll. Observe when a teenager says, “I’m
battering my head against a brick wall trying to get through to my parents.” Listen for the words, ex-
pressions, and affect that indicate the importance of the metaphor to the client.
Step 2: Explore the Client’s Image
Explore the client’s metaphoric image with questions like, “What is dolly doing inside the walls?” or
“How would you describe the image you have in your mind when you say you are battering your
head against a brick wall?” Kopp sees this as an important step because it is the client’s image that is
more important than the therapist’s understanding or interpretation of it.
Step 3: Explore the Senses
Where appropriate, explore the sensory associations that go with the metaphoric image. Ask the
child, “As you think about that, what else might you be you seeing (hearing, smelling, tasting, touch-
ing)?”
Step 4: Explore the Feelings
Examine the feelings and experiences associated with the metaphor. For example, “How does it feel
for dolly to be inside those four walls?” or “What are you feeling as you imagine battering your head
against that brick wall?” With the younger child who does not have the verbal skills to answer such
TOOLS & TECHNIQUESTools and Techniques 41