During the course of a child's treatment we will often present a number of living metaphors as out-of-the-office assignments. As the name suggests, a living metaphor is an activity that can be incorporated into the child's daily life and which somehow metaphorizes a process in the child that is needed to resolve the problem area. It also helps to reintroduce pleasanr sensory experiences which are associated with the sensory system in the child's life that has been blocked. The living metaphor is an excellent complement to the storytelling metaphor because it helps to "anchor" or "ground" the therapeutic message into an actual physical experience. The unconscious abilities activated on an internal level during the storyrelUng metaphor are then given a focused opportunity to become actualized through the carrying out of various metaphorical assignments.
For example, the child who painfully bites his nails might be told a metaphor involving a garden and the care and growth of various plants. In addition, a living metaphor could be assigned in which the child is told to plant ten tiny plants and watch over them each day, cultivating them so that they grow tall and sturdy. The child could even be sent to the local nursery to learn what measures are taken to protect growing plants from being eaten by snails and other garden pests.
Living metaphors can be generated in direct relation to the presenting problem, or as a more global sensory assignment aimed at opening up and integrating the three major systems. In both cases, retrieval of inner resources (past positive memories and associations) and the out- of-conscious sensory system(s) is the primary goal. In the following case example, a teenager's presenting problem was used as a basis for the living metaphor.
144 THERAPEUTIC METAPHORS FOR CHILDREN
T h e "Hot S a u c e " C a k e
Fifteen-year-old Elaina was the oldest of five children. Her mother had died when Elaina was eleven and the responsibility of the other children had fallen to her. Over the past few years, Elaina had become rigid, overly responsible, and continually felr compelled to be perfect. One of her issues in therapy was her fear of dating a boy she liked very much. After working on this problem, we learned that she kept imagining herself saying the wrong thing; the boy then would laugh at her and she would be humiliated and lose him. Elaina had composed an entire scenario for herself, orchestrated in detail by an out-of- conscious auditory system.
In addition to artistic and storytelling metaphors, a living metaphot was assigned in which Elaina was told to go home and bake rwo cakes—one by following the recipe "perfectly," the other by adding one ingredient which she believed would completely ruin the cake. The next week she was to bring in a piece from each cake. She was perplexed by the assignment, but agreed.
The next week Elaina returned with her rwo pieces of cake, proudly stating rhat she had added hot sauce to the second. She was asked what she had learned from rhe experience. She replied rhat "wirh a good recipe, it would take a lot to really mess it u p . " We both tasted the hot sauce cake and again confirmed that "it really wasn't that bad." She then went on to make a spontaneous conscious connection berween her discovery with the imperfect cake and her feelings about dating the boy she liked: She realized it would take more than one
Matching the problem (Unconscious) The imperfect cake parallels her feared imperfect behavior
Third Level Sensory Integration (Out-of-Conscious) By obeying unorthodox instructions, she opened up her rigidly blocked auditory system to new input
THREE-LEVEL COMMUNICATION 145 imperfect comment to ruin the whole experience.
This process of creating a living metaphor involves the same three- level dynamics of conscious, unconscious, and our-of-conscious interaction as depicted for the storytelling metaphor (see diagram on p. 144).
Following is a supplemental list of sensory assignments that can be used as a springboard in generating living metaphors that are tailor- made for each child. These assignments are designed to help the child develop an awareness of the sensory system that has been blocked in the problem area.
SENSORY ASSIGNMENTS u • ->K • ••• '
1. Photo Album: H a v e the child get a camera and take pictures of things she enjoys seeing. Next, have her assemble the photos in an album and label each picture with one word representing how she feels when she looks at it. A variation of this assignment is to have the child select a colot or shape (circle, square, triangle; blue, pink, yellow) that symbolizes the desired therapeutic goal (being happy, feeling confident, getting better gtades), and then photograph the color or shape wherever it is spotted (out in the yard, in a park, or in the neighborhood).
2. Notebook: Have the child cut out pictures from magazines of things she would like to do a n d glue t h e m on the pages of a b l a n k notebook. T h e pictures can also be assembled on a large poster board to create a collage of favorite experiences.
3. Different Perspective: H a v e t h e child take pictures of a favorite object from six different angles—six different points of view—so that she can develop new ways of seeing the same thing.
Kinesthetic
1. Weights: Have the child go to the supermarket (with a parent if he is a younger child) and select various fruits and vegetables. The child holds one in each hand to determine which feels heavier or lighter. Each piece is then weighed on the scale to verify the child's estimate.
2. Textures: Each day have the child find three objects that feel
hard, smooth, rough, and soft, in order to learn tactile discrimination. 3. Balance: Have the child learn to balance a book on his head; or, get a long, narrow piece of wood and practice walking from end to end; or go to a playground and learn how to balance on the seesaw.
146 THERAPEUTIC METAPHORS FOR CHILDREN Auditory
1. Favorite Music: Have the child arrange her records or tape cassettes, beginning with the ones she likes to listen to the most; or have her write down the lyrics to her favorite songs.
2. Favorite Sounds: Have the child go to the beach, the zoo, on a nature hike, or simply outside in the neighborhood, and tape record the different sounds he likes Co hear. Later, he can listen to the recording when alone.
3. Favorite Associations: Have the child select five favorite activities and then tape record the favorite sounds associated with each activity (such as a baseball game, a trip to the zoo, etc.).
To illustrate how the major concepts discussed thus far can be applied in child therapy, the following case will be presented in detail. The ingredients of storywriting, the observation and utilization of minimal cues including language preferences and eye movement patterns, and the application of the three-level communication model of inter- spersed suggestions and sensory interweaving ro the creation of dier- apeutic metaphors will be highlighted.