For many years I’ve used a metaphor that I’ll call “Looking for the Keys” and I thought I’d share it here. I probably borrowed it from somebody else, but I don’t recall doing so. Pre-ACT I used it primarily with clients who were prone to worry and rumination and clients who were (in my judgment) overly attached to the notion that relief from their pain would come through figuring out the historical causes of their problems.
I’ve found that it fits nicely at times while working on creative hopelessness in ACT. I basically act out the metaphor using the keys to my office. It goes like this with lots of small variations:
I will take my keys and place them under or behind something in the vicinity of my seat. I then say something like: “Let’s say it’s the end of my day and I’m ready to lock up my files and leave the office. I quickly notice that I don’t have my keys -- so what do I do? I begin to look for them.” At this point I will check 5-6 places in my immediately vicinity, but not find them. I then go on: “So I’ve checked the obvious places, but no keys. I may even feel a little bit frustrated. So what do I do? I look again – I look in some new places and recheck some of the places I’ve already searched.” (Again I act this out in my immediate vicinity – usually sweeping my search in a semicircle around seat.) “Hmm, no keys. My stress might be building a bit at this point. What do I do? Perhaps start thinking about what I was doing, mentally retracing my steps. Then I continue to search.” (At this point I find the keys.) “Great, I've got the keys – The problem is solved and my frustration vanishes. – Sounds familiar, right?” (Client usually nods)
I then continue, “I had a problem and used a problem solving strategy to deal with it – the kind of thing we do every day with great success. It turns out that people also tend to use problem solving approaches like this when they feel emotion pain. Perhaps you're in bed, but unable to sleep. In your mind you might start to look through the various nooks and crannies of your past, thinking about different events and situations that you've experienced. You look for information -- for answers – in ways that are similar to the way I looked for the keys. And after looking in a dozen places, do you find the answer you’re looking for? (client is often reacting and smiling by this point) No, so what do you do? You look again, you keep searching. Perhaps you find yourself looking at many the same memories, over and over, as you also add new ones. (client typically affirms this.) But there’s a fundamental problem – there aren’t any keys – there’s no solution – no key piece of information that will solve your problem and make you feel better."
I find that many clients easily relate to this metaphor. I recently used it with a small group of adolescents and they found it easy to understand – both the process and the futility of it.
John :cool: