#9 Digging holes

Metaphors for Life

Your supposed to avoid and escape from uncomfortable feelings and circumstances, right? In my experience, this is not always possible. When you're trying to cope with a difficult situation it's worth checking in with your sense of how well a strategy is working for you. You might find that while feeling stuck you're making things more difficult for yourself in your efforts to dig yourself out, control the situation and problem solve! This episode is based on the "person in the hole" metaphor, from the 1999 ACT book by Steven Hayes, Kirk Strosahl and Kelly Wilson - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behaviour Change. I interviewed Steve Hayes about the use of metaphors in ACT, in episode 6 of this podcast, and David Gillanders made reference to this metaphor in episode 8!