The hidden meanings of metaphors in family therapy

This study investigates how two therapists' beliefs and practices influence the therapeutic process when they organize social interaction according to a metaphor of a royal family. The therapeutic process is described through the case of a boy called Pelle. He comes to therapy together with his Fami ly. It is shown how the therapists collaborate in the process of implementi ng the worldview of the predefined normative standard for family life. In t he short term the therapists' use of the metaphor can be seen as an interve ntion to accomplish immediate change in a non-threatening way. In the long term the cost of using the metaphor was that the mother got a confirmation about herself as a less powerful parent and the child pot an image of being a failure. This study points out that metaphors as therapeutic tools have to be analyzed critically before they are used or more specifically the the rapists have to examine what kind of values and meanings are hidden in the metaphor and who will gain and loose if it is used as an intervention.