ABSTRACT
Figurative language offers us the opportunity to create images that stimulate the senses (Barlow, Fine, Pollio & Pollio, 1977). Creative verbal imaging can provide a perspective from which a shared experience can elicit visceral responses about a moment in the group process. The use of figurative language in psychotherapy is a means of communicating sensitive material aimed at interpreting defenses in a personal manner (Yeomans, Clarkin, Altschul & Hull, 1992). A metaphor is hatched or an analogy is constructed all in the service of translating a defense or demonstrating mutuality between group members.
