Diagnosing Your Metaphor

The use of metaphor - in the form of creative and imaginative but simple analogies, anecdotes, parables, myths or stories - can be a very powerful therapeutic tool.

Recently I’ve been wondering how to reconcile the different philosophical leanings of my friends; some of whom are pretty straight with a belief in science and psychology but feel that chakras, angels, and new-age stuff is just fluffy nonsense, and others who truly believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

You might think that I should just fall on one side or the other – become connected with my divine self, and communicate with my higher self and soul and wear crystals to protect myself from astral entities and pray to the Arch Angels; or only believe in the supremacy of science and nothing exists outside it.

The problem arises when science, and medical science in particular, fails to provide a remedy to a chronic condition; yet a non-scientific method based on dowsing comes up with a weird scenario of what the condition is at its core – and the prescription of visualisation and messing around with the chakras WORKS!

Of course, the psychologist will be quick to explain away the phenomenon by saying that the person must have wanted a remedy so bad that their HOPE made them suggestible and therefore their BELIEF made their subconscious mind do the back-flip it needed to cause a cure.

The problem with this kind of explanation – often said with a non-malicious but quite evident sneer – is that it totally undermines the person’s experience. The scientifically unproven tool of dowsing (in whatever form) is immediately brandished as pseudoscience and unreliable so the person is also brandished a fool (by association) by the science believing friend. After such a demolishing of the basis of the person’s cure, it is a wonder the remedy (remember it was only based on a HOPE in the first place according to the psychologists explanation) doesn’t wither and die so they end up in the same state they were previous to the remedy (possibly for many years without any help from science).

This isn’t supposed to be a blog bashing science. What I want to explore is the possibility that Metaphor is more powerful than we might imagine.

You see, one way of looking at the concepts of the soul, chakras, angels, entities and other things that are unseen but some people believe in strongly, is to say: maybe they are metaphors.

In Hypnotherapy, we use metaphors a lot. The subconscious mind somehow gets the message and does the necessary work. One such metaphor is to imagine that a vacuum cleaner made of light is driving through our blood vessels and sucking up any viral infection or unwanted (diseased or cancerous) cells. Of course, there is not REALLY a tiny vacuum cleaner, so we say the subconscious mind activates our white blood cells or other mechanisms that science can agree to, and thus our blood is cleansed.

So we use a metaphor the subconscious mind can utilise as a catalyst for change and every psychologist will agree that this is how it works.

Back to the person with the dowsing, or other diagnostic method, that comes up with some weird and wonderful explanation for our malady. Maybe what they are diagnosing is the best metaphor for our circumstances? Maybe the mind uses metaphor to a much greater extent than we previously thought?

Some of my friends are going to be upset with me for ‘explaining away’ their hard-held beliefs as metaphors, but I think this is actually a really exciting possibility. If Angels, for instance, are not real in the scientific sense, but metaphorical, then we do not have to PROVE their existence. However, being USEFUL metaphors, they play an important role in being a catalyst for change.

The mind is exceptionally powerful, and it can not only cure us of chronic disease (having been given a metaphor to work with) but it can also change our personality – making us more confident, assertive, dynamic, positive, and even charismatic – when it takes the message from a metaphor.

I have been experimenting with diagnostic techniques lately (although more sophisticated than dowsing) and finding it extremely useful to explore weird and wonderful metaphors so as to find one that really works for individual clients. At the end of the day, I could fall on the side of my science based friends and say I’m too much of a professional coach and therapist to use such metaphors – and limit the healing of clients – but my compassion is too strong to do this. It looks like I’ll just have to stay on that metaphorical fence.

Be well

Colin :-)

Self Improvement Community Interest Company

Most people have heard of personal development, but most do not think of the people who engage in personal growth activities as being a part of a community. Just as those who are interested in Yoga (for instance), can be said to be a section of the personal growth community - in that they are interested in a particular route to self improvement and seem to gravitate toward each other by joining courses, retreats and the like – so too do people interested in their (and others’) personal growth.

The Self Improvement Community Interest Company (SICIC for short), was set up by me to cater for the needs of the personal growth community. A Community Interest Company is a particular kind of company (registered in the UK). It is a not-for-profit company dedicated to working in the interests of the community it serves. The "community" is a community of like-minded individuals who share an interest, or even a passion, for personal growth - especially for themselves but also those engaged in guiding others.

What I am going to share in this blog is some of the reasons why I think this company is needed, and who is setting it up. Starting with a list of what (in relation to this company) the term ‘personal development’ is not.

What Does Personal Development Mean?

When the company talks about Personal Development, it is NOT talking about:

• Medical improvements
• Education of children or youths
• Further or Higher Education of adults toward Vocational or Academic qualifications
• Career or CPD (except where it might relate directly with personal development skills/knowledge)
• Religious or New Age Personality Guru worship

Therefore falls outside mainstream funding from government for education, medicine or career development.

When the company talks about Personal Development, it IS talking about:

• Empowering people through their lifelong process of self improvement
• Developing self esteem, confidence, assertiveness, stress management, emotional intelligence, self awareness, and numerous other skills
• Using NLP, relaxation, meditation, goal setting, creative visualisation, TFT, and a myriad of other techniques, with an emphasis on self-help
• Being advocates of using safe therapeutic processes as self help (not denying there may occasionally be need for professional therapeutic (or medical) intervention)
• An interest in human potential

Who Runs Self Improvement Community Interest Company?

There are, at present, two members who are also the Directors. The CEO is Colin Ellis (yes, that's me). I have been studying personal growth for over two decades, teaching personal development within Adult Education and Further Education for over 10 years, and also a fully qualified and insured therapist for over 3 years.