About this course

Learning Objectives

• Attendees will evaluate the creative use of language, including the use of metaphors, to enhance client engagement in counseling sessions.
• Attendees will identify at least two creative listening strategies to interpret client language and uncover deeper meaning in presenting issues.
• Attendees will demonstrate creative counseling techniques that reflect and transform client language into therapeutic insight.
• Attendees will evaluate the ethical and culturally responsive use of metaphors in counseling, in accordance with the ACA Code of Ethics and Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies, recognizing how social, cultural, and linguistic factors influence metaphor interpretation and client meaning-making.

Learning Levels

• Beginner

Course Instructor(s)

• 

  Dr. Lisa Burton, NCC, LPC

  Dr. Lisa Burton is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in West Virginia, Louisiana, and a TLHT LMHC in Florida, an ALPS in West Virginia, a National Certified Counselor (NCC), and a Certified School Counselor in West Virginia. With over 30 years of experience, Dr. Burton is currently a full-time Professor at Marshall University in the Counseling Department, where she also serves as the Program Coordinator and School Counseling Coordinator. Additionally, she works as a part-time teletherapy counselor. Dr. Burton has presented at national, regional, and state conferences on topics including vision boards, school counseling programs, solution-focused counseling, supervision, metaphors, workplace ethics, effective teams and groups, teen dating violence, creative counseling techniques, termination, bullying, and mediation.

Disclosure

References

• Aragno, A. (2009). Meaning’s vessel: A metapsychological understanding of metaphor. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 29, 30–47. doi:10.1080/07351690802247021
• Clean Language, Symbolic, Modeling and the Metaphor Therapy: Benefits, Techniques & How... https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/clean-language-symbolic-modeling-metaphor-therapy. Accessed 28 Mar. 2025.
• Evans, V. (2010). Figurative language understanding in LCCM theory. Cognitive Linguistics, 21, 601–662. doi:10.1515/COGL.2010.020
• Fainsilber, L., & Ortony, A. (1987). Metaphorical uses of language in the expression of emotions. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 2, 239–250.
• Gladding, S. T. (2021). The creative arts in counseling. (6th ed.). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
• Kopp, R.R. (1995). Metaphor therapy: Using client-generated metaphors in psychotherapy. New York, NY: Brunner/Mazel.
• Kopp, R. R., & Craw, M. J. (1998). Metaphoric language, metaphoric cognition, and cognitive therapy. Psycho-therapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 35, 306–311.
• Lakoff G, Johnson M. (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago press.
• Lubart, T. I., & Getz, I. (1997). Emotion, metaphor, and the creative process. Creativity Research Journal, 10, 285–301.
• Malkomsen, A, Røssberg, J., Dammen, T, Wilberg, T, Løvgren, A, Ulberg, R, & Evensen, J. (2022). How therapists in cognitive behavioral and psychodynamic therapy reflect upon the use of metaphors in therapy: A qualitative study. BMC Psychiatry, 22, Article 433. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04083-y
• Mashal, N., & Kasirer, A. (2011). Thinking maps enhance metaphoric competence in children with autism and learning disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 32, 2045–2054. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.08.012
• Millikin, J. W., & Johnson, S. M. (2000). Telling tales: Disquisitions in emotionally focused therapy. Journal of Family Psychotherapy, 11, 73–79.
• Shkembi, F. & Treska, V. (2023). European Journal of Social Science Education & Research. Metaphor as a technique in therapy, 10 (1), 39-48.
• Siegelman EY. Metaphor and meaning in psychotherapy. New York: Guilford; 1990.
• Sims, P. A. (2003). Working with metaphor. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 57, 528–536.
• Steen, G., Dorst, A., Herrmann, J., Kaal, A., & Krennmayr, T. (2010). Metaphor in usage. Cognitive Linguistics, 4, 765–796. doi:10.1515/COGL.2010.024
• Wagener, A. (2017) Metaphor in Professional Counseling. The Professional Counselor, Vol. 7 (2), 144-154. doi:10.15241/aew.7.2.144.