How to use Metaphors in Coaching

The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins

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How can metaphor help your clients see themselves differently?

Have you ever found yourself lost for words when trying to articulate how you feel? Or maybe you've worked with a coaching client who struggles to express their experience? In those moments, metaphors can open up powerful new pathways.

In this episode, we explore the art and practice of using metaphor in coaching. It’s a topic we’ve touched on before, but today we wanted to really dive in. Metaphors are more than clever imagery, they’re a bridge to the unconscious, a creative tool for insight, and often, a much gentler route into emotional exploration.

Jo has always loved metaphors. I’ll admit, I used to roll my eyes when she brought them up, early in my coaching journey, I didn’t see their value. But over time, I’ve grown to love them, not just as a coaching technique, but as a deeply human way of understanding and being understood.

We talk about the science and soul of metaphor: how it can help clients shift stuck energy, bypass logic, and reflect on difficult or unknown emotions in a more depersonalised way. Whether a client says they feel like they’re “carrying a heavy backpack” or “climbing a mountain”, those metaphors reveal something essential.

This episode is filled with real coaching examples and reflections. We discuss clean language, the visual nature of metaphor, and how sometimes our own intuitive imagery as coaches can become powerful tools for client insight.

We also touch on:

How to deepen and explore a client’s metaphor
The importance of timing and sensitivity
What to do when a client brings a metaphor back into future sessions
And how metaphors can become anchors, guiding a client’s growth long after the session ends

Metaphors are not about being clever, they’re about connecting. And as we reflect on our experiences and share some memorable client stories, we hope this conversation inspires you to listen more closely to the metaphors your clients offer, and perhaps even the ones that arise within you.

Timestamps:

00:28 – Why metaphors matter in coaching
01:23 – Zoe’s journey from scepticism to love for metaphor
02:22 – Moving beyond logic: using metaphor to unlock stuckness
03:18 – Working with client-generated metaphors
04:42 – How metaphors shift energy and enable playfulness
06:10 – Depersonalisation and the power of symbolic language
07:35 – Metaphor as language for growth between sessions
08:57 – The client who visualised their journey through art
09:26 – Visualisation and emotional metaphor in coaching
10:47 – Tips for noticing and using metaphor in session
12:38 – Creating movement and reconnecting with session goals
14:32 – Coach-generated metaphors and intuitive imagery
16:31 – When metaphors work best: even with 'non-visual' clients
17:26 – Anchoring emotion and experience with metaphor
18:54 – Why metaphor accelerates understanding and insight
20:49 – Using metaphor when clients want to remain private

Key Lessons Learned:

Metaphors allow clients to express deep emotions without needing to verbalise them directly
They can help bypass logical resistance and tap into the unconscious mind
Clean language is a powerful tool for exploring client-originated metaphors
Visual and symbolic metaphors can become long-term anchors for growth
Coaches can offer their own intuitive metaphors to enrich the dialogue—but only when the client is ready

Keywords:

metaphor in coaching, clean language coaching, using metaphors with clients, symbolic coaching techniques, coaching tools for emotions, how to use metaphor in therapy, coaching metaphors examples, unconscious mind in coaching, visual coaching techniques, coaching confidence with metaphor,

Links & Resources:

Emotions Coaching: https://www.igcompany.co.uk/emotions-coaching

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