Symbolic Modeling which has three basic components:

Metaphors: these metaphors aren’t created the way you might pick one when writing a poem; instead, you experience them as they already exist in your mind, and you are now discovering them. The images which make up your metaphors relate to one another, and it is in these relationships that the patterns of your behavior, feelings and thoughts are mirrored.

Clean Language: The Symbolic Modeling facilitator uses a unique sentence structure, based on your exact words, to ask questions about the images you describe. The facilitator focuses your attention on their details and their relationships with one another. You’ll notice the facilitator’s speech does not sound like ordinary conversation; it is grammatically awkward and very sparse. This encourages you not to engage cognitively or conversationally with the facilitator. S/he is there to guide your exploration of your metaphors, not to interpret their meanings or add observations or determine what you should do with them. This is very much a client-centered process.

Modeling: Together, the facilitator and you are working on developing a full picture of your Metaphor Landscape. Through a series of questions, and possibly over a number of sessions, you will collect details about your metaphors by and through which you have stored your experiences and responses to those experiences.
Think of building a model town for a train garden. It is full of objects which serve a variety of purposes. You might have a train, running on a track, which may split in places. The tracks may go by a bank, a school house, and homes. There may be switch controls which regulate the train’s going and coming. About each of these, there will be added details and purposes.

Similarly, you and your facilitator are creating a model of your internal metaphors to explore. In a surprisingly emotional and visceral way, you’ll discover there are things you want to change with these images, and your facilitator will help guide you through discovering how that can happen. As changes occur with your metaphors, profound shifts are also felt emotionally, as the mind seems to ‘rewire its circuits.'

Who can benefit from a Symbolic Modeling session?
“I can’t believe the difference that one session with you has made for me….I feel so much lighter and more playful…... It was beautiful the way you listened so deeply to what I was saying and repeated exactly what I needed to hear to let me go deeper and work my own way to a resolution, a resolution that I could feel came from within myself, not from you. Empowering!” –S. F.

Symbolic Modeling was originally developed to work with patients suffering from traumas which were too painful or frightening or shameful to confront directly; working with metaphors proved to feel safe and very effective. Since that time, Symbolic Modeling practitioners have widely expanded the client issues they work with.

Just about any issue that would bring one to counseling could potentially benefit from a working with the internal metaphors which encode it for the client. Symbolic Modeling is particularly helpful, but not limited to, working to change old patterns of thought, behavior, or feeling; the client may intellectually be more than ready to change, but just can’t seem to make it happen or to stay with the desired change. Or s/he may feel there is something holding him/her back from fully embracing life, but is unclear about what it is. Other examples of typical issues include: transitions of all kinds, grief over loss, relationship issues, including separation and/or divorce, mild to moderate anxiety and mild to moderate depression, trauma resolution, weight loss, and smoking cessation. And on and on…..

Clients presently in therapy often continue to work with their therapists in more traditional modes, such as for coming up with current behavioral plans, while using Symbolic Modeling to access and work through older, deeper issues.