I created the below metaphor called, The Moon, to help facilitate the process of Self-as-context (SAC) into clinical practice. Please see the metaphor below:
The Moon
The moon is a planetary body that rotates the Earth and has been in existence for billions of years.
Picture yourself as the moon. Now imagine looking at your life from that point of view. From the moon’s perspective, you have witnessed many changes over time and as you rotate around the Earth. You have seen life unfold, growth, and significant experiences, without being altered by them. As you continue to revolve around the world, you witness the seasons change, severe storms, and landscapes shifting from space. You witness human circumstances (financial difficulties, death, relationship struggles, health complications, violence, abuse, and unfortunately many more things). You have gone through phases of life where you are a Full Moon, fully illuminated by the Sun and living your best life, or you are the New Moon, where your illumination is not visible to Earth and you are in a dark place not able to see events in your life from another perspective. These are massive, intense experiences, yet the moon itself remains steady and unchanged.
As you witness these events and changes from the moon’s perspective, do they define you? When events happen below, does the moon change its rotation or lose its path, or does it continue moving as it always has? The phases of the moon change, but the moon itself remains. Can you be like the moon, allowing experiences to come and go without being pulled off course?
By
Alexander D. Simmons, LMSW-C
This metaphor helps to facilitate SAC while emphasizing the following conceptual subcomponents:
Enduring – the moon has gone through many life cycles and has always been present.
Perspective-taking – viewing events/changes from the vantage point of the moon allows clients to see things in a different way.
Distinction –The experiences stated in the metaphor do not define the moon. The moon can see them as not a part of its planetary body
Transcendent - the moon is a planetary body that exists outside and beyond our life changes and events.