David Grove Metaphor Therapy and traumatic memory resolution with incarcerated sex offenders

Alternative Therapies

May 2021

Full Citation

Wing, S. B. (1994). David Grove Metaphor Therapy and traumatic memory resolution with incarcerated sex offenders (Doctoral dissertation, The Union Institute).

Abstract

This dissertation presents qualitative research in the form of nine case studies utilizing David Grove Metaphor Therapy as a therapeutic intervention with incarcerated sex offenders at Southeastern Correctional Institution in Lancaster, Ohio, who were victims of sexual abuse themselves prior to becoming perpetrators. The research also considers what the participants indicated their reactions were to the intervention. The purpose of the study is to illuminate the factors influencing offender perception of the imagery experience in their treatment process. The dissertation also discusses the intervention, developed by David J. Grove, which utilizes a linguistically-based technique that has become known as Metaphor Therapy. The modality, which evolved from a variety of disciplines including linguistics, information processing, the medical model, the laws of physics, strategic family therapy and Erickson's work with hypnotherapy and metaphors, is designed to alleviate traumatic experiences, memories, recurring nightmares, or other traumas suffered by children and adults. Because childhood traumatic experiences often recapitulate and are re-experienced as adults, Metaphor Therapy was chosen as a modality for addressing these kinds of experiences. The childhood traumas experienced by the inmate/clients who participated in this study were traced from psychosomatic symptoms and their physiological locations were translated into metaphors. According to inmate/client reports, resolution occurred when this symptomology was no longer reported as present and when the metaphors gave up their pathology. The dissertation also explains the process and methodology of the intervention, including the use of "clean language", a method of honoring and utilizing the exact linguistic format presented by the inmate/client, and naturalistic-trance age regression which allows the client to deal with and "heal" the woundedness experienced during an earlier period of life. In addition, the dissertation contains a literature review focusing upon the behavior of the sex offender, current treatment interventions for this population, and the use of metaphors in psychotherapy, as well as conclusions stemming from the study and recommendations for future research.