The Impact of Metaphor on Our Brains and Minds in Integral Coaching

       In Integral Coaching, coaches offer two metaphors for a client to describe the client’s current and new way of being. During a coaching session, I’m always amazed at the power of metaphors. In fact, every client gives positive feedback to me after I offer two metaphors. For example, one client gave me a comment: “How did you come up with the metaphor? And how did you gain such a deep understanding of me even though we have met each other only one time?” In addition, another client told me: “I was completely able to visualize the scene which your metaphor described. It was like a true movie…To tell you the truth, I’ve never seen such a wonderful movie. Thank you so much!” Every time I listen to my clients’ stories about metaphors, I always become happy and recognize the power of metaphors. Fortunately, I’ve experienced those impressive moments as a coach, but I came up with the idea about a metaphor: “What is happening in my client’s brain and mind while he or she is listening to my metaphor?” and “How does one metaphor affect our brains and minds?” I’d like to elucidate the phenomenon and mechanism in the following section.

       First, I was wondering which brain parts were activated while my clients were listening to a metaphor. It is true that a metaphor is a form of language, and one might say that we activate Broca’s area in our brain, whose main functions of which are language production and language comprehension. However, as one of my clients shared with me the visual image embedded in a metaphor, I come up with an idea that we activate different parts of brain from Broca’s area while we listen to a metaphor and visualize it. Regarding this point, Lakoff and Johnson (1999) explain: “Metaphor allows conventional mental imagery from sensorimotor domains to be used for domains of subjective experience” (p. 45). Lakoff and Johnson (1999) don’t directly mention which brain parts are activated, but when we conceptualize an idea while listening to a metaphor, we may form a visual image by activating sensorimotor cortex.

       Second, Kegan (1994) illustrates that a metaphor offers “the benefit of engaging the left and right side of the brain simultaneously, combining the linear and the figurative, the descriptive and the participative, the concrete and the abstract” (p. 260). As Kegan points out, clients can activate both left and right side of their brains at the same time while they are receiving a metaphor. Of course, activating both sides of brains may be beneficial for clients, but I noticed another interesting phenomenon. After I offer a metaphor, I’m always sure to ask my clients about a first impression of the metaphor. Then, I find clients’ fascinating activity that they always add a new meaning to the metaphor and create their own “story.” Kegan (1994) also clarifies that when a coach’s metaphor “addresses the internal circumstances of being a maker of meaning-structures, the client may find that, drawn to put his hands to reshaping it, he is engaged in reshaping the very way he knows” (p. 260). As a coach, I actually saw such a scene several times in a coaching session, so I believe that a metaphor includes a tremendous power to change clients’ way of being. Thus, I need to be careful to choose an appropriate metaphor for my clients because a metaphor includes a potential to define clients’ current and future way of being.

Reference

1 In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life
2 Philosophy in the Flesh : The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought