Workshop 15 Handouts - The Eleventh International Erickson ...

Inclusivity Therapy – Bill O’Hanlon
Clients and therapists tend to think EITHER/OR rather
than BOTH/AND. Either a person is depressed or not.
Clients can be released from this restricting bifurcation
by oxymoronic suggestions:
• happily sad or sadly happy
• depressingly energetic or energetically depressed
• calmly tense or tensely calm
• you can feel angry, and you don’t have to feel angry
• you can forgive and not forgive at the same time
• that was either a terrible thing or it wasn’t
Metaphor – Therapist or Client-Generated
• Metaphors need to be sufficiently VAGUE and involve
MANY possibilities. Client picks what he/she needs
from the choices.
• Some Basic Themes: visit to guru or wise person;
hero’s journey; construction of a building; weaving;
baking; sailing; growing plants
• Richard Kopp: client-generated metaphors
9/6/2011
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