Ronda Rowat, Jack De Stefano, Martin Drapeau

The role of patient-generated metaphors on in-session therapeutic process             21-27

Summary

Aim. This study examined the relationship of patient-generated metaphors to in-session experiencing.

Material and method. It was as assessed by the Experiencing Scale (EXP). Patient-generated metaphor events were randomly selected from psychotherapy transcripts of forty-seven patients (N = 47) in therapy with therapists in training. Patient utterances before, during, and after the metaphor were identified and rated using the EXP Scale.

Results. From a repeated-measures ANOVA indicate that patient-generated metaphors are not significantly different from pre-metaphor or post-metaphor patient utterances. Furthermore, the patients' experiencing did not increase following a metaphor.

Conclusion. These results are discussed in relation to the role of metaphors in psychotherapy and their implications for future research.