Metaphors Be With You: Using Stories for Change
How To Tell a Compelling Story and Help People Change
Taught By Bill O'Hanlon
Metaphors Be With You: Using Stories for Change is a mini-course, taught by Bill O'Hanlon, that explores the power of storytelling as a tool for facilitating change and healing. As George Miller, director of the Mad Max movies, once said, "Somewhere in our neuro-physiology, we’ve been hard-wired for story. There is a kind of narrative imperative—we can’t be without stories and we will find them where we can."
Humans have been using stories to communicate ideas, structure thoughts, and remember important events since the beginning of time.
In this mini-course, Bill shares what he started to learn about story while studying with Milton Erickson, who was himself a pioneer in the use of storytelling and metaphor in therapy. Bill explores how stories and metaphors can be used as indirect and gentle ways to invite change and introduce new perspectives and points of view. By validating clients and suggesting new ways of doing things, helping professionals can facilitate the therapeutic process and create lasting change.
Learning Objectives
- Identify the key elements of storytelling as a tool for facilitating change and healing in counseling and psychotherapy.
- Explore the elements of effective stories, such as character development, plot structure, scene setting, dialogue, and sensory details, and how these can be used to bring stories to life and engage clients.
- Apply different voices, postures, gestures, voice volume, speed, gaze, and body movements to live storytelling, and practice pre-planning and collecting stories that are suitable for each client.
- Utilize storytelling with trance, and examine different metaphorical interventions such as rituals, symbolic tasks, and physical objects to facilitate the therapeutic process.
*PsychMaven is responsible for all aspects for this program.
*PsychMaven has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP)- ACEP No.6624. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. PsychMaven is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. PsychMaven is approved for both Live/Real Time and Home Study continuing education (CE) programs. This program is designed to meet the standards of NBCC content areas No.1 (Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship).
*Note for Florida licensed clinicians (LMHCs, LMFTs, and LCSWs). PsychMaven's approval with NBCC is approved automatically for continuing education (CE) credit by the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling, pursuant to the rule 64B4-6.002(1)(e)1. However, PsychMaven is not registered with the systems of CE broker. Therefore, CE hours need to be self-reported by following the instructions found at the bottom of each CE certificate.
*Note for Ohio licensed counselors. PsychMaven's approval with NBCC is approved automatically for continuing education (CE) credit by the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board for counselors. However, PsychMaven is not registered with the systems of CE broker. Therefore, CE hours need to be self-reported by following the instructions found at the bottom of each CE certificate.
For the latest on the Continuing Education (CE) Approvals of PsychMaven, as well as guidance on CE requirements for different disciplines, visit us at www.psychmaven.org/ce-approval
Your Instructor
William "Bill" O'Hanlon is a world renowned leader in the fields of brief psychotherapy and clinical hypnosis. Bill is the author of 40 books and has delivered over 3,700 talks around the world, and teaches others how to write and publish their own books and how to become paid public speakers. Bill is the co-founder of the Solution-Oriented Approach, a therapeutic method that focuses on identifying unrealized possibilities while acknowledging emotional and contextual issues. During graduate school, Bill studied with the eccentric and creative psychiatrist Milton Erickson (he was Dr. Erickson's only work/study student), he later became a major teacher/translator of Dr. Erickson's approaches to clinical hypnosis and change. More on Bill can be found at www.billohanlon.org