Previously (Your Between Conference Connection 9/7/2012) we covered the use of metaphors through storytelling to promote healing by creating the sense of possibility:
• Last year I had a patient who also had severe back pain and was contemplating surgery. She decided to give XYZ a chance, and it alleviated her pain. After just six treatments, she….
• Prolotherapy is a treatment you might not have read much about, but it has helped a number of people who had the same problem you’ve been experiencing. Within weeks, many people have reported….
Metaphors are also important at a deeper level. A person who thinks in terms of my cancer, for example, is less likely to recover than one who thinks of it as the cancer or, more simply, as cancer. And, yes, that’s a metaphor. Language is inherently metaphorical. Humans, regardless of cultural backgrounds, use implied comparisons to describe their experiences. When your clients or patients describe a problem they are experiencing, ask them to describe what the problem is like, and listen to the metaphors they use in their description. Are they facing a brick wall, or on a healing journey?
If they describe a pain, you can ask “What color do you associate with the sensation?” Very often it is red, which is often a metaphor for anger (seeing red), but it could also be a metaphor for passion. The language they use in describing their experience will provide clues for the source of the problem and the best route for your helping them back to health.
The body itself is also a source for metaphors. The symptoms people develop provide clues to possible mental and psychological problems. Back problems, for example, often indicate fear or guilt, a painful “past” or a lack of sense of support or ability to stand on one’s own two legs. In such cases, whatever you do to alleviate the problem, it is likely the problem will return until the metaphorical cause is addressed. When you ask the questions, “What is it like,” and “Does it remind you of something or someone,” the individual will provide metaphorical cues to the psychological source of the problem, and the unconscious mind allows for the additional level of healing. For a comprehensive list of physical illnesses and their probable psychological causes, see books by Louise L. Hay (http://www.louisehay.com).
Send your questions about how other-than-conscious communication skills can hurt or help your patients and clients to Joel P. Bowman (Joel@SCS-Matters.com) or Debra Basham (Debra@SCS-Matters.com), co-developers of Subtle Communication Systems. We will provide answers to those for you. For more information about Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), Hypnosis or Hypnotherapy, or about the Imagine Healing Process, visit:http://ImagineHealing.info or http://SurgicalSupport.info.
Healing with Language: Your Key to Effective Mind-Body Communication is available for a limited time for $10 plus $5 shipping within the U.S. For volume orders and overseas shipping, check with Debra. See the Table of Contents and List of Exercises in PDF format for more information about this comprehensive text and training manual.