Meta-Fives in action

One of my favorite ways of using therapeutic metaphors is something I learned from Dave Dobson. Dave used to jokingly call these “meta-fives” because are one step better than metaphors in that they draw upon the person’s own unique personal history.

The first step in creating a meta-five, then, is to find out what positive resource experiences he or she has in their past. A process we call “Gold-Mining” because you are searching to uncover the “gold” in their past.
Then the process of meta-fiving is to draw parallels between their past resources and their current challenge.

It’s a simple process but extremely effective. It’s also a process that requires and deserves more explanation than I’m giving it now and there will be a time when I do so. Meanwhile, let me offer you an example of how I used it recently.

I friend of mine I know from running marathons in Brooklyn is currently very very ill with a mysterious illness that is keeping him in the hospital with round the clock care. He’s suffering from having to stay in the hospital if nothing else.

In an email correspondence with him yesterday I wrote to him that it is a good thing he’s run marathons because this protracted recovery time is just like running a marathon. That even though you might be experiencing discomfort from the effort and even though the finish line seems unimaginably far away, you just keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually you cross that finish line.

His response back was the most positive I’ve seen him to be in a couple of weeks now. He could relate. He knew that feeling in his bones.