Dear fellow counsellors….YES…SPRING is finally here…I am seeing it in my backyard…although the weather is enigmatic as ever…I try to find some meaning in its forecasts, try to make sense of the erratic nature…..this year is going to be unpredictable and I need some kind of roots to ground me—speaking of metaphor—while doing spring cleaning…I found my old metaphor cards and have used them occasionally with my clients….the results have been better than our weather forecasts—each time I use them, they are interpreted in amazing ways. I was first introduced to them as a young fledging Drama and Movement Therapist- we were encouraged to embody the images and then dramatize the associated feelings and metaphors…they can be defined as therapeutic tools that open a window into a person’s inner world; associative reactions to the illustrated cards make it possible to reflect upon childhood memories, to recall repressed experiences, and to release blocked feelings. Since the interpretations of metaphors featured in the cards are completely in the eyes of the beholder, the same card can trigger different reactions in different participants (OH cards institute 2014) There are many kinds of cards, I use ECCO which are just one of the few decks out there .If anyone is interested in finding more about these cards which are specially useful when words are not enough to express how one feels. I became more fascinated by them when one of my favorite therapists-Mooli Lahad spoke of them. He has quoted about them in another site as (the) cards help us create a space in which we allow ourselves to invent, make believe and day dream, while knowing all along that the “fantastic reality” is there to serve our coping skills and not in order to cut us off from reality (Lahad, 2003).
I can go on and on….but I think I will leave you with websites that can shed more light on them and hoping that they will inspire to be used as an effective creative therapeutic tool in counseling:
http://www.oh-cards-na.com/areas-of-use/therapy-and-counseling/
http://www.oh-cards-institute.org/2012/metaphoric-cards-an-effective-tool-in-therapy/
*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA