ArticleBMC psychiatry2022
How therapists in cognitive behavioral and psychodynamic therapy reflect upon the use of metaphors in therapy: a qualitative study.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03022071 (What Works for Whom and How? Mechanisms of Change in Psychotherapy), which is not on this map. Cited by 4 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
What Works for Whom and How? Mechanisms of Change in Psychotherapy
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tales of rationality: the rational emotive behavioral monomyth as a metaphorical alignment of rational emotive behavior therapy and the Hero's Journey narrative structure.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The journey within: mental navigation as a novel framework for understanding psychotherapeutic transformation.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- "It takes time to see the whole picture": patients' views on improvement in cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic therapy after three years.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Understanding Men's Lived Experience of Mental Distress Through Metaphors.American journal of men's healthArticle
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundResearch suggests that metaphors are integral to psychotherapeutic practice. We wanted to explore how 10 therapists reflect upon the use of metaphors in therapy, and how they react to some metaphors expressed by patients treated for of major depressive disorder (MDD).
methodsFive therapists practicing psychodynamic therapy (PDT) and five practicing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) were interviewed with a semi-structured qualitative interview. Transcripts were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach.
resultsOur analysis resulted in two main themes: the therapeutic use of metaphors, and conflicting feelings towards metaphors used by depressed patients. Most therapists said that they do not actively listen for metaphors in therapy and many said that they seldom use metaphors deliberately. While PDT-therapists appeared more attentive to patient-generated metaphors, CBT-therapists seemed more focused on therapist-generated metaphors. Most therapists did not try to alter the patient-generated metaphors they evaluated as unhelpful or harmful. Some therapists expressed strong negative feelings towards some of the metaphors used by patients. PDT-therapists were the most critical towards the metaphor of tools and the metaphor of depression as an opponent. CBT-therapists were the most critical towards the metaphor of surface-and-depth.
conclusionsThese results remind us of the complexity of using metaphors in therapy, and can hopefully be an inspiration for therapists to reflect upon their own use of metaphors. Open therapeutic dialogue on the metaphor of tools, surface-depth and depression as an opponent may be necessary to avoid patient-therapist-conflicts.
trial registrationClinical Trial gov. Identifier: NCT03022071 . Date of registration: 16/01/2017.
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