"Metaphors in Mental Health"
By Molly DePrekel, MA, LP February 2002
Metaphor, as defined by Webster's new world college dictionary, is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison in which a word or phrase ordinarily and primarily used of one thing is applied to another (Webster 1997). To use a metaphor means to carry over one thing to another such as an image, wording, or story to illustrate or give meaning to something else. Metaphor is often utilized in storytelling, dream analysis, and experiential education. Furthermore, many metaphors exist in Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) and one task of the mental health professional is to offer interpretations of the animal encounter or experience. By helping the client transfer the metaphor to their own life, the client learns and grows in their therapeutic process.
More often than not, this clinician struggles between allowing clients to draw their own conclusions about their animal therapy experience and offering interpretations. I believe it is a delicate balance and it is important to allow clients to absorb their experience and to ask them how it applies to their life before offering interpretations. I often ask questions while the client is working with an animal and may even wonder out loud if the animal interaction reflects personal issues. I know for me personally, metaphors have offered powerful insights for my own learning and growth transformations. My animals often offer me metaphorical learning both welcomed and unwelcome.
I utilize AAT because I believe animals offer immediate feedback about behavior, give non-verbal consequences, and yet are forgiving and offer second chances. Animals can act as intermediaries and be a halfway point for clients to regain trust and support, especially when trust has been broken and support not provided by relationships with other people in the past. Animal interaction creates opportunities for clients to tell their own stories, reveal issues in a less threatening manner, gain insight into their own issues, process painful feelings, and look at ways to change maladaptive behaviors. Clients can begin to understand the impact their behavior has on other non-human beings and with the assistance of the therapist, transfer this insight and learning to other human-to-human relationships.
I currently work with adolescent boys in a equine mental health program and I am often amazed by their outward complaints about coming to the barn, yet while in the presence of the horses, the complaining stops, a calmness seems to occur, movements slow and quite voices abound. While I am with these young men in the presence of an equine, they appear to me to become fully present in the moment, more respectful of each other, and generally involved in their environment. The metaphor involves having these boys realize how it feels internally to be respectful, tuned into the present, and relaxed so they can take this feeling with them when they leave the horses and barn atmosphere and enter back into "real time". This transition is not always easy. The more I've been able to get the participants to talk about their life and experiences while interacting with horses, the more they seem to be able to translate what they are learning about themselves to their everyday life. Some examples of metaphors we have used include horse daily care and grooming transferred to personal hygiene and daily living skills, and watching and interpreting horse body language and then discussing our own nonverbal communication and ways we can be aggressive or submissive without words. Only when one becomes self-aware can one make a conscious choice to change how one behaves. Horses can offer many opportunities for growth and self-awareness.
One exercise we completed with this group involved observing herd behavior. First we watched the horse herd and jotted notes and then threw in two flakes of hay and continued to observe for another five minutes. Observation is what the horses actually DO, not what they think the horses are THINKING/FEELING. As a group, we differentiate between the one-word observations that are feelings/thoughts versus behaviors. In this exercise, there is an opportunity to delineate between fact and perception/projection. We talk (wonder out loud) about personality styles of horses and then question what we can learn about our own personalities from the horses, i.e., who we are most alike in the herd, what is our place in the herd/group, and how do we handle group interaction. The clinician and horse handler are careful not to place personal judgments on the clients and allow them to draw their own conclusions and gain insights.
Some other examples of metaphor to utilize in AAT can include going on a blind trust walk in the barn/farm area and then journal about exercise. The goal is to introduce participants to feeling exposed, vulnerable, and as an introduction to the barn and animals present. Questions could include what was it like to experience the farm using your other senses, what was it like to have to trust someone else to help keep you safe, and how were you at keeping someone else safe as you led them around the farm area. The discussion involves asking a group about why they were asked to complete this exercise, what they got out of it, and helping them realize that metaphorical learning is more than just visual. In some situations this exercise may be a great metaphor for a family. Another metaphorical example involves working with a chicken to demonstrate communication. At a "Metaphors in Mental Health" workshop, participants role-played a family struggling with communication patterns. The activity was to hold a chicken and then pass the chicken to another family member after giving handling instructions and having the family member receiving the chicken repeat what they heard about handling the chicken. This activity involved an animal handler and mental health therapist working as a team to assure that at all times the animal was respected and handled appropriately while the family was to focus on paraphrasing, checking-in, and communication techniques.
In some instances, working with metaphor may involve asking the client questions about what they see in their animal interactions, how they see it pertaining to their life, listening for the client to draw conclusions about what is occurring in the interaction, and wondering out loud what it could say about the client's own life and issues. Sharing stories about the animals and their histories and backgrounds can often parallel the client's personal stories. One clinician utilizing AAT who worked with adopted children in a therapy group brought a litter of puppies to group one day and talked about being unable to care for the puppies anymore. She asked the children to talk about what the puppies may need in a good home and the children began to metaphorically speak about their own needs. The use of metaphor is powerful and it is important that clinicians allow clients to work through things when they are ready. There are many ways to utilize metaphor with animals and the key is to provide a safe place for the clients and for the animals. In my work with clients, AAT and metaphorical learning has been a helpful way to connect with clients, to build bridges that assist clients in working through often-painful issues, and for clients to begin to address unhealthy behavior patterns. I look forward to continuing my learning and growth utilizing metaphor and listening to the animals.
Molly is also the past President of the Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association (EFMHA),
a division of the North American Riding for the Handicapped (NARHA).
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