Metaphors have been used in communicating with others since Jesus walked the earth.
In fact, Jesus was the master at using metaphors.
He called them parables.
Through these illustrations, he conveyed meaning in an indirect way in order to set the captives free.
Milton Erickson told stories to his clients therapeutically to cause change on a conscious or unconscious level.
In both these methods, the story or metaphor benefits the listener.
Therapist David Grove has pioneered his own use of metaphors to promote changes in perception, behavior, and actions.
The Grovian metaphor is created by the client rather than the therapist through a method he calls Clean Language.
By asking the client questions, Grove slowly gathers information, creating a picture from the clients inner world or reality.
He then uses this method to deal with past traumas of a client and to assist in healing the memory.
After studying Groves work and that of other experts, we discovered their techniques lacked a further step: a refilling of the client according to the Word of God.
It is just as Important to refill a person as it is to help him or her be set free from an overwhelming feeling.
Jesus said that when an evil or unclean spirit comes out of a person, it seeks rest by returning to the person.
If it arrives to find the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order, it will move in and bring seven other spirits more wicked that itself (Matt.
12:44-45).
In much the same way, once clients have been swept, emptied, and put in order, it is essential that they not be left in that condition.
They must be refilled to overflowing with the presence of God so that their fate does not become worse.
In our application, we have not required a strict adherence to Clean Language, but have developed our own style of intervention, isolating the focus to Feeling Specific Imagery (FSI).
In our experience, we have learned how the feelings of fear, rage, shame, rejection, and abandonment have held clients captive, blocking them from changing their perceptions, correcting negative behaviors, and moving forward with constructive actions.
A biblical principle for using metaphors in this manner can be found in 2 Corinthians 10:5: We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
By using some of Groves techniques, along with our own, we assist our clients in developing the FSI.
Clients create pictures of their inner world, often being amazed at what they see.
For example, one client pictured fear as a thick, brown rope tied into a knot in her stomach.
Another saw anxiety like bumblebees flying just under the surface of his skin.
It is essential that the counselor show acceptance of the clients created metaphor.
Too often, well-meaning Christian counselors exhibit some disapproval toward clients when they are presenting perceptions of their inner world.
This only causes those clients to suffer feelings of rejection and failure.
Acceptance of the FSI: This technique will bring about many different FSIs.
Individuals have their own ways of expressing the content of their inner world.
Every person has the unique ability to create his or her own symbolic Imagery of feelings.
This picture is individualized within the clients interpretation of his or her life experiences.
Even if an Image does not make sense to the counselor, it is congruent to the clients frame of reference.
Interpretation of the FSI to fit the counselors perspective destroys the confidence of the clients view of his or her own inner world, leaving him or her with a sense of uncertainty.
In keeping with the form of Grovian therapy, it is important for counselors to validate what their clients describe.
When clients share how they think the FSI should look, counselors should not be adding different ideas.
Clients must become empowered over their own captivity.
Reflective listening will help counselors learn the most about their clients experiences.
As we were developing an FSI with one client, she visualized anger as the color yellow.
It seemed to us that yellow would be the description of a happy feeling, not an angry one.
Yet through the validation of anger as being yellow, we learned that yellow was the color of an apron that her mother wore.
If we had tried to go in a different direction of changing the color, the client would never have confronted the issue of her mother's constant yelling at her as a small child, while she wore a yellow apron.
Yellow was the client's connection with all the hurtful feelings she had endured.
Letting a clients inside world be real to him or her is the start of freedom.
Christ accepts our clients (and us!) where they are in their lives.
He forgives and cleanses them in order to set them free so they can enter into his kingdom.
What To Do With the FSI: Once the FSI is detached from the client, it must be destroyed or changed into something good.
Letting them lead in the destruction of symbolic Imagery continues to empower them over the feelings that have held them captive for so long.
There are many ways to destroy an FSI, depending on how the client sees Christ in his or her own life.
If the client has a personal relationship with Christ, he or she may want Christ to take the FSI and destroy it.
If the client is not a Christian, he or she still must either destroy the symbol or transform it into something beautiful.
A client may choose to symbolically burn the FSI, throw it away, tear it into pieces, or send it out into space.
The FSI could be changed into a teddy-bear, a flower, a rock, a ball, or anything the client sees as non-threatening.
It is Important at this point for the client to assess whether all the captivating attachments to the feeling are gone.
If the client becomes aware that another Image or feeling is surfacing, the process to develop a new FSI should then begin again.
Refilling Specific Imagery: After your client has become free of the FSI, it is unwise to leave him or her in that position.
The work is only half done.
It is as meaningful to refill a person as it is to help the person be free of that FSI.
Clients have generally lived with this captivity for a long time.
Most are ready to be filled with what they have desired from God but could never receive completely.
The Lord wants to meet all our needs, so he knows what a client needs before the client even asks (Matt.
6:8).
Your client is usually aware of what he or she has been missing from God; therefore, you must allow the person to share this information with you.
Develop the Refilling Specific Imagery (RSI) to occupy all the empty spaces.
For example, one female client who wanted joy from God visualized joy as colored confetti falling down upon her and soaking into all the empty spaces.
Another desired peace, so her RSI was developed as a light blue blanket which wrapped around her and filled her with peace.
A male client, who was released from sadness and grief wanted new strength from God.
His RSI was cool, crystal clear water that filled him completely.
Find a counselor for suggestions.
Our job as Christian counselors requires that we never leave a person spiritually worse than before he or she came to us for help.
God desires to restore the souls of our clients.
What a privilege it is to be present with clients who experience peace and have their souls restored.
Christ truly releases the oppressed and sets captives free!