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.
Imagine that you are in the process of climbing up a big mountain that has lots of dangerous places on it. And imagine that my job is to watch out for you and shout out directions if I can see places you might slip or hurt yourself. But I’m not able to do this because…
An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Metaphor Imagine that you got a new house and you invited all the friends over to a housewarming party. Everyone is invited, except for one guy who you don’t invite because he’s trouble. So all the neighbors show up, the partyʼs going great, and here comes guess-who. You have a choice…
Ride the Sushi Train of the Mind My daughter used to love those restaurants where sushi dishes paraded past on a little train track. Long-time Edmontonions may remember that there used to be one in WEM. In this new video, Russ Harris uses the sushi train as a beautiful metaphor for the relationship that we all…
An Acceptance and Commitment Metaphor There are things in our language that draw us into needless psychological battles, and it is good to get a sense of how this happens so that we can learn to avoid them. One of the worst tricks language plays on us is in the area of evaluations. For language to work at…
Imagine that you selected a spot to plant a garden. You worked the soil, planted the seeds, and waited for them to sprout. Meanwhile, you started noticing a spot just across the road, which also looked like a good spot — maybe even a better spot. So you pulled up your vegetables and went across…
Recall a time when you were in high school and were in love with someone who rejected you. Can you remember how terrible the pain seemed to be at the time? For some people, this pain leads to lifelong scars, to a pattern of not trusting other people and avoiding opportunities for real intimacy. Look…