Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness (33 page)

& Gilbert, 2008). It should be noted, however, that much of the therapeu-

tic work is often focused on the fear of, resistance to, or inability to, feel

compassion for the self.

Conclusion

This chapter looked at a neurophysiological model of psychological sensi-

tivities and explored ways in which mindfulness and compassion-focused

therapies may impact on neurophysiological systems. Mindfulness oper-

ates through attentional training which facilitates different brain states and

enables people to gain new insights and management over distressing

thoughts, feelings and memories. Compassion-focused therapies utilise mind-

fulness but in the service of creating compassionate feelings and thoughts

within oneself. One of the reasons for doing this is because trying to gen-

erate compassionate feelings within oneself will stimulate a particular kind

of affect system which has soothing qualities. It was suggested that such a

system evolved with attachment and gives rise to attachment-type feelings of

calming, sense of connectedness and empathy for others.

Mindfulness teaches a non-judgemental observing of the arising and

emergence of thoughts and feelings onto the screen of our consciousness.

Compassionate mind training utilises this but also focuses on (re)directing

attention, with a focus on trying to generate feelings of warmth, gentleness

and kindness
(Gilbert, 2000;
Gilbert & Irons, 2005).
When people feel threatened and traumatised and have few emotional memories or schema of being

helped, loved or wanted, they may not be able to access their soothing and

reassurance affect system. Through processes that involve learning to nur-

ture compassionate attention, thinking, imagery, behaviour and feeling, peo-

ple can be trained to develop a self-compassion orientation to themselves

and difficulties. This orientation aims to shift focus from the threat system to

the soothing system and may be especially helpful in the face of high affect

and when engaging with painful emotional memories.

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7

The Use of Metaphor to Establish

Acceptance and Mindfulness

Alethea A. Varra, Claudia Drossel, and Steven C. Hayes

All instruction is but a finger pointing to the moon. He whose gaze is

fixed upon the pointer will never see beyond.

Buddhist Allegory

Figurative speech plays two distinct roles in clinical psychology: It serves as

a useful clinical tool and guides clinicians’ conceptualizations of presenting

problems and subsequent interventions (see
Leary, 1990,
for a discussion of metaphor in the history of psychology). Given its utility it is not surprising that metaphors, allegories, similes, analogies, adages, and maxims

are found across therapeutic interventions
(Blenkiron, 2005; Eynon, 2002;

Lyddon, Clay, & Sparks, 2001; Otto, 2000).
The current chapter focuses on the functions of figurative speech that are especially related to acceptance-and mindfulness-based approaches. We are emphasizing on acceptance and

commitment therapy (ACT, said as one word, not initials; Hayes, Strosahl,

& Wilson,
1999)
both because we know it well and because it seems to raise the key issues in this area that apply to mindfulness approaches more

generally.

ACT is a therapeutic approach that focuses on the creation of psycholog-

ical flexibility by undermining the overextended impact of literal, temporal,

and evaluative human language and cognition. The basic theory underlying

ACT views human verbal abilities as a two-edged sword, allowing us to solve