Metaphor therapy

1. Introduction

Version followed: Richard R. Kopp's metaphor therapy as set out in Metaphor Therapy: Using Client-Generated Metaphors in Psychotherapy (Brunner/Mazel 1995; Routledge reissue 2015), Part 1, reconstructed from secondary summaries of the book (Turner 2016 workshop slides; Lloyd 2015 thesis) plus Kopp & Craw (1998), Kopp (1999) and Kopp & Eckstein (2004) as cited by others. Status of the sources (Oct 2026): the table of contents, chapter titles (including early memories, ch.3, and the family chapters, chs 11–12) and author details come from the publisher's page; the bibliographic details of Kopp & Craw (1998, Psychotherapy 35, 306–311) and of Kopp's Adlerian paper (1999, Journal of Individual Psychology 55(4), 466–473) come from citing or index sources; general Adlerian early-recollection elicitation comes from Belangee (Counseling Today). The book's full text and the full texts of Kopp & Craw (1998), Kopp (1999) and Kopp & Eckstein (2004) are not drawn on directly. So the following remain [uncertain]: whether the quoted questions are Kopp's own wording, his exact early-memory steps, the content of the family chapters, and any contraindications he gives.

What it is. Metaphor therapy is a structured interview for working with the metaphors clients use themselves, not stories or metaphors the therapist supplies. Kopp (1942–2012) was a clinical psychologist and Adlerian psychotherapist at the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles, and faculty at ICASSI. [source: Routledge book page; Lloyd 2015 p.63; AdlerPedia people index] It is a technique and integrative framework, not a stand-alone school. Part 2 of the book connects it to psychoanalytic, Jungian, Ericksonian, cognitive-behavioural, Adlerian and family-systems therapy. [source: Routledge TOC]

How change happens (Kopp's account).

Kopp treats metaphor as a form of knowing and cognition in its own right, alongside empirical observation and rational thought. People rely on it when experience is unclear or uncertain. [source: Hermanson 2022, BPS Psychologist, summarising Kopp]
Metaphor therapy "broadens the concept of cognition" beyond propositional thought to include imaginal and metaphoric cognition. [source: Kopp 1995 p.133, quoted in Turner 2010]
In Adlerian terms, a client's lifestyle or "personal mythology" (guiding fiction) is represented in their metaphors and early-memory images. [source: Lloyd 2015 pp.57, 63, quoting Kopp 1995 p.127]
Change comes from exploring the client's own image, inviting the client to change it, and then carrying the change back to the real-life problem. [source: Lloyd 2015 pp.63–64; Turner 2016]
Transforming an early-memory metaphor is said to give the client an experience of freedom of choice. [source: Millar 2018 lecture listing, Conway Hall]

2. Framework

Metaphor therapy does not set out treatment phases across a course of therapy. It is a within-session interview sequence that can be run whenever a usable metaphor appears, inside any ongoing therapy. [source: Routledge TOC; Lloyd 2015 p.63] Kopp describes two applications. [source: Routledge TOC chs 1–3; Lloyd 2015 p.63]

A. Client-generated metaphor sequence ("Through the Looking Glass", Kopp 1995 ch.1). Six steps. [source: Turner 2016; Lloyd 2015 p.63]

Step	Goal	Move on when
1. Notice the metaphor	Catch a figurative phrase the client uses for the problem	The phrase carries emotional weight and is about the presenting issue [synthesis]
2. Explore the metaphoric image (2a: fallback if no image comes)	Turn the phrase into a picture the client can see	The client describes a concrete image
3. Explore the metaphor as a sensory image	Fill in setting, other people, actions and time sequence	The scene is vivid and the client is speaking from inside it [synthesis]
4. Explore feelings and meaning	Name what it is like to be in the image	A feeling or meaning is named
5. Invite change ("revision")	The client changes the image in whatever way they wish	A changed image exists and the client accepts it
6. Connect back ("back to the tea party")	The client finds parallels between the image, the change and the real situation	The client names a concrete link or next step

B. Early-memory metaphor sequence (Kopp 1995 ch.3; Kopp & Eckstein 2004).

An early recollection is treated as a metaphor for the client's present outlook. Adler held that people remember the images that confirm their current view of self and world. [source: Millar 2018; Shaked 2015]
The memory is linked to a current problem, felt sensations or feelings are connected to it, its image is developed, and it may be transformed and linked back. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.63; Shaked 2015 citing Kopp & Eckstein 2004]
Kopp's own step wording is not given in the sources used. This covers book ch.3, "Back to the Future: Exploring and Transforming Early Memory Metaphors", and Kopp & Eckstein (2004). [uncertain] How to elicit the memory follows general Adlerian early-recollection practice. [source: Belangee, Counseling Today] A published case applies Kopp's (1995) metaphor technique to a symbol inside an early recollection. [source: Ibrahim-Dwairy & Shifron 2025] See 4.9.

Session count and format.

Individual adult work is the main context. The book also has a chapter of brief metaphor therapy case examples (ch.2, "Derailing the Locomotive") and a further case example by Susan Speraw (ch.4). Two chapters cover families: "Metaphor Therapy and Family Systems Therapy" (ch.11) and "Metaphor Therapy: Integrating Individual and Family Therapy" (ch.12). [source: Routledge TOC] The content of these chapters is not drawn on. [uncertain]
No session count is prescribed in the sources used. [uncertain]
In practice, one six-step sequence usually takes part of one session, about 15–40 minutes, and can be repeated whenever new metaphors appear. The transformed image can then be revisited in later sessions. [synthesis]

Flexibility. Kopp acknowledged that a linear stepwise model can feel constraining to experienced therapists, so the steps are a guide rather than a script. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.63]

3. Guiding principles

Client-generated over therapist-generated. Kopp distinguishes client metaphors from therapist metaphors and builds the method on the client's own. → Wait for and use the client's image rather than offering yours. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.63]
Metaphor is cognition, not decoration. → Treat an image as a real way the client is structuring the problem, as worth working with as an automatic thought. [source: Turner 2010 quoting Kopp 1995 p.133; Hermanson 2022]
Metaphors express lifestyle and personal mythology. → Listen for recurring images as clues to the client's core convictions about self, others and life. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.57; Kopp 1995 p.127]
Stay inside the metaphor. Steps 2–5 work in the language of the image; translation to literal life comes only at step 6. → Ask about the locomotive, the wall or the hole, not yet about "your marriage". [source: Turner 2016 step sequence]
The client makes the connections. Step 6 asks the client what parallels they see. → Do not interpret the image for them; ask. [source: Turner 2016]
Therapist images only as a tentative offer. Used in the step-2a fallback, asking permission first. → Offer it lightly and drop it if it doesn't fit. [source: Turner 2016] Therapist metaphors should fit the client's experience. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.38, on Kopp and Rennie]
Change the image, change the stance. → A client-chosen revision of the image is the main lever of change; invite it rather than suggesting the content. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.64; Millar 2018]
Early memories are present-tense metaphors. → Use an early recollection to understand current outlook, not to establish what happened in childhood. [source: Millar 2018; Shaked 2015]
Keep it simple and non-judgemental; collaborate. → Use short, plain questions and accept whatever the client produces. [source: Turner 2016 slide annotations] Turner frames this in terms of the zone of proximal development, his own CAT-informed framing rather than Kopp's.
Structure as scaffold, not script. → Skip or loop back through steps as the material needs. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.63]
Interpretations stay tentative. In Adlerian early-recollection work, offer hypotheses as "could it be…?" questions. [source: Shaked 2015]

4. Intervention inventory

The step structure in 4.1–4.7 comes from Kopp (1995) as summarised in Turner (2016) and Lloyd (2015). Questions in quotation marks are Turner's slide versions of Kopp's questions. Whether these match Kopp's own wording in the book, Kopp & Craw (1998) or Kopp (1999) is unverified. [uncertain] All other example language is illustrative.

4.1 Noticing the client's metaphor (Step 1)

Purpose: catch a figurative phrase the client uses for the problem, self or relationships, and choose it as the doorway into the work. [source: Turner 2016; Lloyd 2015 p.63]
When to use: any time a vivid metaphor appears, especially when the client is describing the presenting problem or is stuck in literal description. [synthesis]
Steps:
1. Listen for phrases where the problem is described as something else, such as "hitting a brick wall", "I'm drowning", "walking on eggshells" or "a train out of control".
2. Prefer a metaphor that is the client's own, about the current issue, and spoken with feeling. Do not pick one you introduced. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.63; selection criteria are synthesis]
3. Repeat it back in the client's exact words. Do not paraphrase it into a different image.
4. Check that the client is willing to explore it. Turner's slides tie this step to willingness and the therapeutic alliance. [source: Turner 2016]
Example language (illustrative): "You said it feels like you're 'drowning'. Could we stay with that word for a minute and look at it more closely?"
Watch for: dead or conventional metaphors the client attaches no image to, such as "I see what you mean". Choose a live one instead. [synthesis] Also be careful not to seize on a metaphor the client is not ready to explore.

4.2 Eliciting the metaphoric image (Step 2)

Purpose: turn the verbal metaphor into an image the client can see, so it becomes a shared object for exploration. [source: Turner 2016; Lloyd 2015 p.63]
Steps:
1. Ask what picture comes to mind when they use that phrase. Turner's slides give: "When you say … what image/picture comes to mind?" [source: Turner 2016]
2. If needed, ask what they see in their mind's eye or ask them to describe it. [source: Turner 2016]
3. One perspective-taking prompt from the slides is: "If I were seeing it the way you see it what would I see?" [source: Turner 2016]
4. Record the image in the client's words.
Example language (illustrative): "When you say you're drowning, what picture comes to mind? What do you see?"
Watch for: the client explaining the metaphor instead of seeing it, as in "I just mean I'm overwhelmed". Gently ask for the picture again. If none comes, go to 4.3. [synthesis] A concrete, specific image is the sign it is working.

4.3 Step 2a: the fallback when no image comes

Purpose: keep the process collaborative when the client cannot produce an image. [source: Turner 2016]
Steps:
1. Ask permission to share an image that occurs to you. The slide prompt is: "May I tell you what image occurs to me?" [source: Turner 2016]
2. Offer a brief image built from the client's own phrase.
3. Hand it back by asking whether it fits and how theirs differs.
4. Continue only with the client's version. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "May I say what I pictured? Someone in deep water, a long way from shore. Is it anything like that, or is yours different?"
Watch for: compliance, where the client adopts your image to please you. Look for them correcting or adding details to it. If they only agree, slow down. [synthesis]

4.4 Exploring the metaphor as a sensory scene (Step 3)

Purpose: enlarge the image into a full scene, with setting, other people, actions and what happens next, so its structure becomes visible. [source: Turner 2016; Lloyd 2015 p.63, "expand to sensory images"]
Steps:
1. Ask what else they can see and ask them to describe the scene. [source: Turner 2016]
2. Ask what else is going on, and what any other people in the image are doing or saying. [source: Turner 2016]
3. Ask about time: "What happens next?" [source: Turner 2016]
4. Optionally ask about other senses, such as sounds, temperature or body position. [synthesis]
5. Stay in the present tense and in the image. Do not yet link it to real life.
Example language (illustrative): "Where is the water? Is anyone else there? … And what happens next?"
Watch for: the client stepping out of the image into literal discussion. Bring them back with an image-language question. [synthesis] Repeated sequences, such as a rescuer who never comes, are often where the client's pattern shows. [synthesis]

4.5 Exploring feelings and meaning in the image (Step 4)

Purpose: name what it is like to be in the image, which ties the image to emotion and personal meaning. [source: Turner 2016; Lloyd 2015 p.63]
Steps:
1. Ask what the client feels, being in that scene.
2. Help them define the feeling simply, without judging it. Turner's notes stress "accessible, simple, non-judgemental". [source: Turner 2016]
3. Optionally ask what the image says about them, others or life, to reach meaning. [synthesis, Adlerian lifestyle framing per Lloyd 2015]
Example language (illustrative): "What's it like for you, being out there in that water? … What's the feeling?"
Watch for: rising distress. Use the image itself to pace, for example "Is there anything to hold on to?", and see section 5. [synthesis] A clearly named feeling is the cue to move to step 5.

4.6 Inviting the client to change the image (Step 5, "revision")

Purpose: the central change move. The client transforms the image in whatever way they wish, creating a new metaphoric stance toward the problem. [source: Turner 2016; Lloyd 2015 pp.63–64]
Steps:
1. Ask the core question. The slide version is: "If you could change the image in any way how would you change it?" [source: Turner 2016]
2. If the client struggles, ask about one element at a time ("What if the x part were … ?") or ask what the image would look like if they felt better. [source: Turner 2016]
3. Let the client decide the content of the change. Do not suggest the solution. [source: principle per Lloyd 2015 p.64; wording synthesis]
4. Explore the new image briefly, as in 4.4–4.5: what is different, and how it feels. [source: TPC 2017 article, attributing to the Kopp & Craw lineage; uncertain]
5. Turner's adaptation also asks what the client needs to do to get to the new image (the "exit"). [source: Turner 2016]
Example language (illustrative): "If you could change that picture in any way at all, how would you change it?" … "And now that there's a boat, what's that like?"
Watch for:
- magical revisions that erase the problem, such as "the water just disappears". These are acceptable to explore, but ask what makes the change possible. [synthesis]
- revisions that only swap one trap for another.
- signs it is working: relief, a shift in posture or tone, or the client spontaneously elaborating the new image. [synthesis]

4.7 Connecting back to the original situation (Step 6, "back to the tea party")

Purpose: bring the change back from the image to the real-life problem, through parallels the client draws. [source: Turner 2016; Lloyd 2015 p.63, "link the metaphoric change to the real-life issue"]
Steps:
1. Ask what parallels the client sees between the image and the original situation. [source: Turner 2016]
2. Then ask how the change they made might apply in their current situation. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.64]
3. Turn the parallel into a concrete next step or experiment. [synthesis]
4. Note the image and its revision for use in later sessions. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "What connections do you see between the drowning picture and what's happening at work? … You put a boat in the water. What might the boat be, at work, this week?"
Watch for: the therapist doing the translating. Let the client find the link, and offer a tentative hypothesis only if they ask. [source: principle per Turner 2016; Shaked 2015 for tentative form] It is working when the client names a specific, owned connection or action.

4.8 Exploring the transformed metaphor (mapping)

Purpose: use the changed image to clarify goals, feelings and patterns before applying it to life. [source: TPC 2017 article, citing Kopp & Craw 1998 and Tay 2012; how much is attributable to Kopp & Craw specifically is uncertain]
Steps (as described in the TPC article):
1. Respond to the metaphor with reflections and questions that build awareness.
2. Invite the client to change it into how they would like it to be.
3. Explore the changed metaphor through one or both of these:
  - class inclusion: what kind of thing the new image is, and what else belongs to that category.
  - correspondence mapping: which element of the image corresponds to which element of real life.
Example language (illustrative): "In the new picture, you're holding your partner's hand in the eye of the whirlwind. Who or what is the whirlwind in your life? And the hand?" This follows the TPC composite case (whirlwind, feeling alone, a changed image of holding a partner's hand), with the wording paraphrased.
Watch for: correspondence mapping turning into the therapist decoding the image. Keep each mapping question open. [synthesis]

4.9 Exploring and transforming early-memory metaphors (Kopp 1995 ch.3; Kopp & Eckstein 2004)

Purpose: use an early recollection as a metaphor for the client's current convictions, and transform it to open new choices. [source: Routledge TOC ch.3; Millar 2018; Shaked 2015 citing Kopp & Eckstein 2004]
When to use:
- when a current problem seems to be driven by a long-standing outlook.
- in Adlerian lifestyle work.
- when a present feeling or body sensation "feels familiar". Kopp links bodily sensations to early memory. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.63]
Steps (outline from sources; Kopp's own wording for this sequence is not given in the sources used, so the elicitation questions below follow general Adlerian practice, not Kopp [uncertain]):
1. Anchor in the present problem. Identify the current situation and the feeling or body sensation it brings. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.63; Shaked 2015]
2. Elicit an early memory. Ask for a single, specific incident from early childhood that plays like a short video, with a beginning, middle and end and a feeling attached. Belangee gives the age range as before 10, preferably before 7. A general report, such as "we always went to the beach", is not a recollection; recollections carry a definite feeling. Write it down in the client's own words. [source: Belangee, Counseling Today, general Adlerian ER practice; Shaked 2015] An alternative entry point is to ask for a memory connected to the present feeling. [synthesis based on Lloyd 2015]
3. Explore the memory as an image. Ask for a feeling for the whole memory. Then ask the client to "freeze" the most vivid moment as a snapshot and to name the feeling in that moment. [source: Belangee, Counseling Today, describing general Adlerian ER practice, not Kopp's protocol] Then explore that frame with the image moves of 4.4–4.5. [synthesis; not verified whether Kopp uses this exact "most vivid moment" question, uncertain]
4. Explore a symbol in the memory (optional). If an object or figure in the memory stands out, ask what it stands for or means to the client now, treating it as a metaphor. A published panic-attack case does this: the therapist used Kopp's (1995) metaphor technique to explore the subjective meaning of an object in the client's recollection. [source: Ibrahim-Dwairy & Shifron 2025]
5. Invite transformation. Ask how the client would change the memory-image if they could change it in any way. This applies the step-5 logic to the memory. [source: Millar 2018, "transforming early memory metaphors"] [uncertain: Kopp's exact wording]
6. Link to the present. Ask what parallels the client sees between the original memory, the changed memory and the current situation. Adlerians read the memory as answering the question "what is this and what should I do?" for the present. [source: Shaked 2015 citing Kopp & Eckstein 2004 and Adler]
Example language (illustrative): "Think back to an early time, before about age ten, a single moment you can picture. … What stands out most? What are you feeling right then? … If you could change that memory-picture in any way you like, how would it go? … What links do you notice between this and what's happening with your boss now?"
Watch for:
- The memory is treated as the client's present construction, not as historical fact. Never use the method to search for or "recover" forgotten events. [source: Millar 2018 "metaphorical constructions"; the no-recovery rule is the writer's safety rule, synthesis]
- If the memory is traumatic, do not transform it in this format. See section 5. [synthesis]
- Signs it is working: the client recognises a familiar stance ("that's exactly how I still react") and finds the changed version freeing. [synthesis]
- For lifestyle assessment, as opposed to working with one memory as a metaphor, Adlerian practice collects at least three recollections, looks for themes across them, and shares those themes tentatively and collaboratively. [source: Belangee, Counseling Today]

4.10 Drawing the image (Turner's adaptation, not Kopp)

Purpose: make the image external and shareable, especially for clients who struggle with verbal imagery, and in grief work. [source: Turner 2016]
Steps:
1. Agree with the client that you will help create and explore the picture, not intrude on it. [source: Turner 2016]
2. The client draws the image, or you sketch it under their direction.
3. Run steps 3–6 on the drawing.
4. Add the revision or "exit" to the drawing at step 5. [source: Turner 2016]
Example language (illustrative): "Would it help to draw it? You tell me where things go."
Watch for: your sketch adding content the client did not give. Draw only what they specify. [synthesis]

4.11 Brief metaphor therapy (Kopp 1995 ch.2)

Purpose: use one or a few metaphor sequences as the main intervention in brief work. [source: Routledge TOC ch.2, "Derailing the Locomotive: Case Examples of Brief Metaphor Therapy"]
Steps:
1. Identify the central metaphor of the presenting problem early on.
2. Run the full six-step sequence.
3. Use the transformed image as the reference point in follow-up sessions, checking how the new image is being lived out. [synthesis; chapter content not drawn on, uncertain]
Example language (illustrative): "Last time the train had a new track. How has the train been running this week?"
Watch for: the client's life failing to follow the changed image. Re-run steps 2–6 on the image as it stands now. [synthesis]

4.12 Metaphor work within CBT and other therapies (Kopp 1995 Part 2)

Purpose: treat client metaphors as a form of cognition that can be worked with alongside propositional thoughts. [source: Turner 2010 quoting Kopp 1995 p.133; Routledge TOC chs 6–10]
Steps:
1. When a client's thought record or formulation is dominated by an image, such as "I'm a ticking bomb", run steps 2–6 on it instead of, or before, disputing the literal belief. [synthesis]
2. Record the transformed image alongside the alternative thought. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Rather than test the thought 'I'm a ticking bomb' right away, can we look at the bomb picture first?"
Watch for: turning the image into another belief to dispute. That is a different method. [synthesis]
How Kopp relates metaphor therapy to psychoanalytic, Jungian, Ericksonian and Adlerian practice is not described in the sources used. [uncertain]

4.13 Couple and family applications (Kopp 1995 chs 11–12)

Purpose: use metaphors that family members produce about the family or relationship. [source: Routledge TOC]
Steps: Kopp's two family chapters, per the publisher's table of contents: ch.11, "Metaphor Therapy and Family Systems Therapy", and ch.12, "Metaphor Therapy: Integrating Individual and Family Therapy". Their procedure is not described in the sources used. [source: Routledge TOC; content uncertain] No published step-by-step family procedure is used here; the adaptation below is the writer's synthesis [synthesis]. A cautious adaptation would be:
1. Elicit each member's image of the shared problem.
2. Explore each image in turn.
3. Invite each member to change their own image.
4. Look for overlap between the changed images to set joint goals. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Each of you, when you think of the arguments at home, what picture comes to mind?"
Watch for: one member rewriting another's image. Each person changes only their own. [synthesis]

4.14 Therapist-generated metaphors (limited use)

Purpose: Kopp recognises that therapists also generate metaphors, but his method centres on the client's. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.63]
When and how: use only as the step-2a offer (4.3), or to reflect the client's image back in slightly heightened form. The metaphor must fit the client's experience. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.38; Turner 2016]
Watch for: substituting your story for theirs, which is the move the method is designed to avoid. [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

The published sources used say little about troubleshooting. Apart from the two sourced items below, everything in this section is [synthesis].

The client can't form an image.
- Use the step-2a fallback: offer your image tentatively, with permission, and hand it back. [source: Turner 2016]
- Or offer drawing (4.10). [source: Turner 2016]
- Or work with a body sensation instead of a picture: ask where they feel it and what shape it has. [synthesis, consistent with Lloyd 2015 p.63 on bodily sensations]
- Some people have little visual imagery. Don't push. Work with sound, movement or the literal phrase, or drop the method. [synthesis]
The client keeps leaving the image to explain or analyse. Gently bring them back: "Let's stay in the picture a bit longer. What's happening there now?" If they do it repeatedly, ask whether working this way feels useful. Some clients prefer literal work. [synthesis]
The client can't change the image ("there's nothing to change").
- Ask about one element ("What if the x were … ?") or what it would look like if they felt better. [source: Turner 2016]
- If they still can't, explore what keeps the image fixed. The stuckness is itself meaningful: ask what would happen if it changed. [synthesis]
The changed image is magical or avoidant, for example everyone vanishes or they fly away. Accept it and explore it, then ask what in the new picture makes it possible and what a first small version of that would be in real life. Don't argue the client out of their image. [synthesis]
No link to real life emerges at step 6. Ask about one element at a time ("what in your life is like the wall?"). Return to it next session; links often appear between sessions. Don't impose the translation. [synthesis, consistent with the client-generated principle]
Resistance or suspicion ("this feels silly" or "like a trick"). Explain the rationale briefly: images are another way the mind organises a problem. Ask permission and make it optional. The procedure is fully conscious and collaborative, which distinguishes it from hypnotic or covert suggestion. Never use it to bypass the client's agreement. [synthesis]
Overwhelm during exploration (the image becomes frightening, or the client floods or dissociates).
- Slow down and step out of the image into the room: orient to the present, ground through the senses, and slow the breath.
- Within the image, the client can step back from the scene or add safety, such as distance, a wall or a helper, before you continue. [synthesis]
- Do not push on to transformation while the client is flooded. Close with a containment step and a debrief. [synthesis]
Traumatic early memories (4.9) or trauma-laden images.
- Screen first: ask about trauma history and current stability before early-memory work. [synthesis]
- Where the memory is a trauma memory, do not run metaphor transformation as a substitute for a trauma-focused protocol. Stabilise first, and refer for or switch to an evidence-based trauma treatment with its own readiness criteria. [synthesis]
- Treat all memories as the client's present experience. Never use imagery or the change question to "uncover" what really happened. [synthesis; Domain VI rule]
Psychosis, severe dissociation or concrete thinking. Imagery work may blur the line between image and reality, or the client may take the image literally. Use the method cautiously or not at all, and keep to grounded, literal work. [synthesis; no contraindications are stated, uncertain]
Non-adherence or between-session fade.
- Give a light take-home task: notice the image and the new image during the week, or keep a drawing of the revision. [synthesis]
- Open the next session with the image. If the old image has returned, re-run steps 4–6. [synthesis]
Rupture: the client feels misunderstood or hijacked ("that's not my picture"). Apologise, return to their exact words, and check whether you imposed content at steps 2a, 5 or 6. Repairing by handing control back is in line with the method's client-generated principle. [synthesis]
The therapist over-interprets (a modality-specific trap). Adlerian practice offers hypotheses tentatively ("could it be…?") and leaves room for ambiguity. [source: Shaked 2015] Hold back your reading until the client has offered theirs. [synthesis]
The steps feel mechanical. Kopp himself acknowledged that the linear model can frustrate experienced therapists. Use the steps as a map, loop back, and skip what is already done. [source: Lloyd 2015 p.63]
Elaborate, story-like metaphors. Hermanson (not Kopp) observes that simple images tend to be more productive than elaborate ones, which pull clients into storytelling. Pick a simple, central image. [source: Hermanson 2022]
Cultural and language differences. Metaphors are culturally and linguistically specific. Ask what the image means to the client rather than assuming its conventional meaning, and allow work in the client's first language. [synthesis]

Contraindications. None of the sources used (the Routledge book page, the Adlerian early-recollection sources and the 2025 case study) states contraindications for metaphor therapy. Whether Kopp gives any in the book is unknown. [uncertain] The cautions above on overwhelm, trauma memories, psychosis, severe dissociation and concrete thinking are therefore [synthesis], not Kopp's.

Sources

Sources used

Books and papers cited (through the sources above)

Kopp, R.R. (1995). Metaphor Therapy: Using Client-Generated Metaphors in Psychotherapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel (Routledge reissue 2015). This is the primary text; it is used here through its table of contents and secondary summaries [uncertain].
Kopp, R.R. & Craw, M.J. (1998). Metaphoric language, metaphoric cognition, and cognitive therapy. Psychotherapy, 35, 306–311. [source: volume and pages as printed in Moix 2006, which gives the co-author as "Jay, M."; the issue number (3) and the co-author's name are unverified, uncertain]
Kopp, R.R. & Eckstein, D. (2004). Using early memory metaphors and client-generated metaphors in Adlerian therapy. Journal of Individual Psychology, 60(2), 163–174. [details as cited by Shaked 2015; not independently verified, uncertain]
Kopp, R.R. (1999). Metaphoric expressions of lifestyle: Exploring and transforming client-generated metaphors. Journal of Individual Psychology, 55(4), 466–473. [source: AdlerPedia bibliography]
Sims, P.A. (2003). Working with metaphor. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 57(4), 528–536.
Tay, D. (2012). Cited in the TPC article for the effects of the changed metaphor; full reference not given here. [uncertain]

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