Fish in the Water
An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Metaphor
We’re the fish, and our language is the water. How would a fish know if they were wet
if they’d never been out of the water? Jumping out of the water helps you to notice the
water.
An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Metaphor
We’re the fish, and our language is the water. How would a fish know if they were wet
if they’d never been out of the water? Jumping out of the water helps you to notice the
water.
When you are playing cards with your mind, how do the trumps work? Does ‘Rational’ or ‘Makes Sense’ always trump ‘Feelings’ or ‘Thoughts’?
The Cold Shower Based on a metaphor submitted to ACBS by Sarah McCormack You are thinking of taking a shower but you discover there is no hot water: If you had the choice to have a cold shower…or not to, you might choose not to. Because it’s cold, it’d be uncomfortable, you could do without…
Room full of Duct Tape Based on a metaphor submitted to ACBS by Philippe Vuille Picture your life as a room. One day you notice that a pipe near the ceiling in a corner is dripping. The sound of the falling drops makes you nervous and you’d like to get rid of it. So you repair…
Think of yourself as an expanding balloon. At the edge of the balloon is a zone of growth, where the same question keeps being asked: “Are you big enough to have this?” No matter how big you get, thereʼs always more “big” to get, and the same question keeps being asked. When an issue presents itself,…
Imagine you are going on a journey. Somewhere really special, where you really want to go, somewhere you’ve wanted to go your whole life. When you get to the train station you see two trains. One is a bit odd-looking and strange, some of the seats look a bit hard and overall it looks a…
An Acceptance and Commitment Metaphor Suppose we had this box here. This (put various items in; some nice, some repulsive) is the content of your life. All your programming. Thereʼs some useful stuff in here. But there are also some old cigarette butts and trash. Now letʼs say there are some things in here that are really ugly….