Symbolic modelling is a therapeutic and coaching process developed by psychotherapists Penny Tompkins and James Lawley, based on the work of psychotherapist David Grove. Using Grove’s Clean Language, a progressive questioning technique using clients’ exact words, the facilitator works with a client’s internalized metaphors to clarify personal beliefs, goals, and conflicts, and to bring about meaningful change.
Contents
Background
The practice of Symbolic Modelling is built upon a foundation of two complementary theories: the metaphors we live by, and the models we create by. It regards the individual as a self-organizing system that encodes all feelings, thoughts, beliefs, experiences etc. in the embodied mind as metaphors.
Intent
The Symbolic Modelling process guides the client through an exploration of the client's own metaphors, their organization, interactions, and patterns. The therapist or coach discovers the client’s internal metaphors, the language of the his or her sub-conscious, and uses them to bypass the limitations of the client’s conscious thought. These embodied metaphors can restrict a client’s ways of viewing the world and his or her coping strategies, due to the inner logic prescribed by the metaphors. Without shifting these metaphors, lasting change is difficult, as the embodied mind continues to work within the constraints of this old paradigm. By helping the client determine how these metaphors can change to meet their desired outcomes, transformative shifts can occur within a client's “metaphor landscape”, bringing about meaningful change on cognitive, affective and behavioral levels.
Process
Symbolic Modelling proceeds through five defined stages, as follows:
Clean Language techniques are used throughout, to avoid contaminating or distorting the developing metaphor landscape through the form, content or presentation of the therapist's questions.
Evidence Base
There appears to be no efficacy evidence for this approach.