Using Metaphors in Coaching

I met with a friend/business associate that I haven't seen in a few years as life's journey's can lead us in different directions and at different times in life, and yet catching up felt like we just saw each other a few months ago. The meeting caused me to think of the metaphor of 'a river runs through it' and how a river flows in one direction, has twists and turns in it, through many challenges, freezes over and still flows under the ice, breaks new openings, and is sometimes blocked. It may even split in different directions at some point yet further down it's pathway it reconnects in another location.

Living next to a river of that nature is influential and I've been blessed to be next to a river that I have always had a strong connection to most of my life. It was ironic that growing up I was connected to this river much further north of the city than where I live today. And yet many years later I live in an area that is right next to that same river. This river which is surrounded by nature has provided both myself and my clients with phenomenal transformation. It is our connections to certain places, people, or things that can fill our soul and provide direction, healing, insight, and clarity.

Carl Jung's work is some of which I've read, studied, and followed over the years and he was one who believed that the unconscious mind uses symbols, metaphors, and archetypes to convey meaning. The challenge for the conscious mind is to try to interpret what the unconscious mind is revealing. 

Aristotle is another influence who considered metaphors as a sign of genius, believing that someone who can make unusual connections was a person of special gifts. From that, Howard Gardner defined metaphors as the capacity to perceive a resemblance between elements from two separate domains or areas of experience and to link them together in linguistic form http://howardgardner.com/books/.

What does all this have to do with coaching? Metaphors, symbols, and archetypes can be an artful way to coach. Metaphors allow us to understand one dimension of experience in terms of another. They are a key to how we understand reality. In coaching there is the coach generated metaphor and the client generated metaphor. The coach generated metaphor is a metaphor used from the coach drawing on their own intuition and using one that may resonate with the client. The coach will use this metaphor to communicate something that is related to what the client is speaking about and assist the client in accessing greater consciousness. Whereas the client generated metaphor is something that naturally unfolds as clients will often express their feelings or situation through metaphors or may be unaware of the metaphors occurring in their life. The coach can then draw on these metaphors, reflect them back to the client and assist the client in awakening to a greater awareness and new source of power.

Metaphors in coaching can be used as pathways to greater insight about a current situation and as openings to a future that is more desired. Metaphors are helpful in assisting a client in getting out of a stuck place or a situation that is challenging them. As the metaphors says 'analysis leads to paralysis' - coaching can break through this. It assists the client in accessing their imagination and creativity which in turn allows the client to create change moving forward. Metaphors increase awareness and provide the opportunity to step into action and make change happen 'for' you instead of change happening 'to' you. 

What metaphors are you aware of in your own life? How has a metaphor assisted you in an area that you desire change? How would you like metaphors to benefit you? I invite you to share your experiences, expressions of, and uses of metaphors in your life and how they benefited you. 

Stay tuned for my next blog about using archetypes in coaching....another fascinating aspect of coaching and a topic I've studied and facilitated empowerment programs on which provide transformation and empowerment. 

Angela MacDonald 

Adler Trained Coach

Human Resources Manager (in progress)