An exploration of the therapeutic use of storytelling, metaphor, and anecdote as central tools in Ericksonian and experiential psychotherapy. Participants examine how vague language, pauses, and client-generated imagery invite deeper engagement of the unconscious, allowing meaning and change to emerge without direct interpretation or advice. Through clinical stories, teaching dialogue, and lived examples, the session shows how metaphor becomes a flexible, culturally responsive way to support insight, learning, and emotional movement across ages and settings.
Heroism has long been cast in a single mold, bold, solitary, and triumphantly masculine. In this thoughtful invited address, the speaker reclaims heroism as a fully human capacity, drawing on myth, psychology, and contemporary life to explore how connection, responsibility, and moral courage have shaped women’s often unrecognized forms of bravery. Moving from Prometheus and Eve to everyday acts of dignity and resistance, the talk invites therapists to recognize “ordinary” courage in their clients and to help redefine heroism as something lived in kitchens, classrooms, courtrooms, and consulting rooms alike.
Commentary by James Bugental, PhD
