![]() ![]() Little by little, you get deeper into the hole. Since you don’t know what to do and you feel desperate, you start to shovel away. “Imagine you fall into a fairly deep hole and the only thing you have to help you get out is a shovel. If you stop fighting, you keep your freedom to make your own choices.” The Metaphor of the Hole and the Shovel The more you fight against it, the more limits you have. ![]() Now, think about how life is like a Chinese finger trap. The harder you pull, the narrower the tube gets and it becomes impossible to get your fingers out. If you simply push your two fingers together, however, your fingers will be free. When you put one finger in each end and pull, the staw stretches out and gets narrower. “If you’ve ever played with a Chinese finger trap, you know that the game is a woven straw tube about the width of your finger. If you feed your thoughts, they’ll end up controlling a big part of your life. In other words, the more value you place on your thoughts, the bigger they become. The more you feed them, the more they grow, just like the tiger. The same thing happens with your thoughts. Now you have to give it racks of ribs and large pieces of meat. Every time it meows, you give it more.Īs the days pass, your pet starts to grow, and hamburger meat isn’t enough anymore. Your precious tiger starts to meow and you realize that it’s hungry. You adopt the tiger and keep it in your house. “One morning you wake up and open your front door to an adorable tiger cub. When you realize what’s happening, you’re already inside the shark tank. However, you can’t stand it, and you think “This is horrible, I can’t feel anxious!” and that makes you even more anxious. You start to feel a little bit anxious, but you want to avoid anxiety. This metaphor is perfect for people who suffer panic attacks. What do you think will happen?Īs you can imagine, you’ll very likely experience anxiety.” If you feel anxious, your seat will tilt and you’ll go directly into the shark tank. Your task is to avoid feeling any anxiety whatsoever. “Imagine that you’re sitting at the edge of a tank surrounded by sharks and that you’re connected to an extremely sensitive polygraph machine. Some Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Metaphors The Shark Tank and the Polygraph Test That way, the patient will be able to see behavior they didn’t see before and reinterpret or solve their problem. It’s important for the metaphor to offer a solution.It has to outline in some way the steps that the patient should take in real life to change their behavior. The metaphor should be action-oriented.There should be a clear correspondence between the person’s problem and the story.It should relate to the patient’s direct experience, or to things that are common knowledge for their social group and age (McCurry and Hayes, 1992). The metaphor should be consistent with the patient’s level of development. The patient has to understand the metaphor.Consequently, the metaphor should meet the following criteria: The metaphor has to be effective, and not just a story that has nothing to do with the patient. The important thing is for the patient to find them useful and for them to facilitate the necessary therapeutic changes. Of course, it’s crucial to know what metaphor to use, so that the therapist can offer a solution that aligns with the patient’s values.Īcceptance and commitment therapy metaphors can adapt to different kinds of problems. In this sense, metaphors are very helpful because they tell a story that the patient can identify with. That’s why activation or action are especially valuable. On the contrary, it means to commit yourself personally to your goals and go after them in spite of the difficulties you might face along the way. Now, that doesn’t mean that the person has to resign themselves to pain and suffering. Thus, its goal isn’t to avoid suffering or pain but to accept it. Concretely, acceptance and commitment therapy metaphors are a valuable tool for therapists.Īcceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is based on two fundamental principles: acceptance and activation. Telling simple stories somehow helps with comprehension and empathy. In psychotherapy, it’s very common to use metaphors to help patients connect with their problem and better understand what the therapist is trying to communicate. ![]()
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