MAY 2010, Volume 38, NUMBER 1, Article 5
METAPHORS TO REAWAKEN RESILIENCY IN PATIENTS
Consuelo Casula, Private Practice, Milan
Is it possible for a small puff of wind to restore a soul after a tsunami? Is it possible for a metaphor, with its lightness, to help a patient pass over the weight of his pain? Is it possible for a metaphor to represent the way to recover the sweetness of life after having tasted much bitterness? I believe it is. Through metaphors, as therapists, we can send messages which are the fruit of a combination of scientific reasoning and therapeutic intuition to strengthen in patients the resiliency needed to face and overcome pain and to regain enough self-confidence to undertake new action. In this article I demonstrate how stories about life and living can assist patients in tapping into their innate resilience or to draw on that of others, real or imagined. Only the metaphor “The Loss of a Teddy Bear” is a creation of mine; the others are old stories read in many books rewritten and readapted for the purpose of this article. The References list indicates the works from which I have drawn ideas and examples.
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