What we believe we know is often less about logic than about the images that shape our world. In coaching and therapy, every conversation is, at its heart, a conversation about belief. Beliefs about who we are. Beliefs about what is possible, what is safe, and what feels unreachable.
Sometimes clients state these beliefs directly:
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“I don’t think I’m leadership material.”
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“I can’t trust my team.”
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“I don’t manage conflict well.”
But more often, they surface indirectly—through tone, story, and especially metaphor. Metaphors give us a way into the emotional architecture of belief, allowing us to see and work with the images the brain has chosen to make sense of experience.
I have decided that I am going to work at coaching at the MCC level, if possible, in all my coaching sessions. This is asking of me to really create spaciousness and leverage silence, being in full partnership, as well as supporting client agency and ownership of their insights and learning.
Another piece of this has been a fundamental shift in the way I ask questions. I am taking my own advice and really taking my time and asking questions that invite the client to notice their own learning, invite them to shift our direction as they see fit, and invite them to explore what is emerging from what they are sharing and developing awareness around.
Coaching with Metaphors Certification
Learning to hear the metaphors your clients/thinkers use is one of the most powerful forms of listening and partnering in your coaching conversations.
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Coaching with the Power of Metaphors
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Light Up!
Light Up is a must read for both new and experienced coaches, showing you how to use the transformative power of metaphors. Lyssa translates theoretical insights into effective coaching practices to leverage the power of metaphors in fostering meaningful client transformations. With multiple coaching demonstrations and significant examples, this book will help you create many lightbulb moments in your coaching conversations.
Dr. Marcia Reynolds, MCC
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Light Up: The Science of Coaching with Metaphors
Light Up is a transformative read for coaches and therapists at any level. It illustrates the vital role of metaphors in coaching and delves into how metaphors clarify complex emotions and thoughts, aiding clients in better understanding themselves.
Credition: The Neuroscience of Belief
Traditionally, philosophy framed belief as something rational and deliberate, even tying it to the idea of justified true belief. But neuroscience tells a different story.
Credition: from the Latin credere, “to believe,” describes belief as a core brain function (Seitz, Angel, Paloutzian, & Taves, 2023). Rather than a conscious choice, belief is an unconscious neuro-emotional process that stabilizes how we act in the world.
Research shows us that:
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Beliefs form unconsciously. Neural activity shapes what feels “true” before we can articulate it.
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Belief is predictive, not absolute. The brain weighs new input against memory, emotions, and reinforcement.
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Emotion leads cognition. The amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex assign emotional weight before reasoning kicks in.
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Reflection comes later. What we say we believe is often a narrative layered on top of earlier unconscious processes.
Put simply: Beliefs are not window dressing on rational thought, they are the window into the meaning making mind.
And importantly, not all beliefs operate at the same level. Credition research distinguishes between two kinds:
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Primal beliefs are unconscious, embodied, and pre-linguistic. They emerge from direct sensory experience, for example, that up feels safe, heavy feels hard, light feels easy, or movement signals progress. These form the scaffolding of our meaning-making.
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Conceptual beliefs are shaped by language, culture, and shared narratives. They include ideas like freedom, leadership, trust, or identity. These beliefs give social and cultural form to the primal building blocks we all share.
Metaphors bridge these two levels. A phrase like “I see the light at the end of the tunnel” holds both a primal belief (light = safety, tunnel = constraint) and a conceptual one (the cultural narrative of moving through hardship toward resolution).
This is why metaphors are such powerful containers of belief, they carry both the body’s felt sense and society’s shared meaning, all in a single image.
Why Metaphors Matter in Coaching and Therapy
If credition is how the brain encodes belief, metaphors are how those encoded patterns find their voice in language. When a client says:
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“I feel like I’m spinning in circles.”
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“I’m carrying a heavy load.”
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“I feel frozen.”
…they are translating unconscious, embodied experience into image-rich speech. Metaphors give us access to the inner logic of belief systems.
This is why metaphors are not merely “decorative.” They are verbal containers of belief. They reveal how clients understand themselves, how they experience the world, and what they predict will happen next.
Seven Common Metaphor Types
Through years of coaching and study, I’ve seen recurring categories of metaphors that offer unique insight into belief and emotion.
Here are seven types and what they often signal:
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Action-Based → “I’m stuck.” → Progress, resistance, direction
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Visual-Based → “It’s unclear.” → Perception, insight, awareness
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Object-Based → “I can’t grasp it.” → Control, ownership, engagement
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Digestive-Based → “I need to digest that.” → Integration, internal processing
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Sensation-Based → “I feel frozen.” → Nervous system state, overwhelm
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Identity-Based → “I’m a doormat.” → Roles, self-concept, archetype
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Spatial-Based → “I’m at a crossroads.” → Decision-making, uncertainty
Re-Metaphoring: Shifting Beliefs Through Language
The work of coaching and therapy often involves re-metaphoring or helping clients shift from limiting metaphors to ones that open up possibility.
For example:
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“I’m stuck” → “I’m taking a step.”
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“It’s unclear” → “It’s beginning to come into focus.”
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“I’m frozen” → “I want peace.”
These shifts may sound small, but they are not cosmetic. They change the way the brain predicts reality. A new metaphor changes what feels possible, and with it, new pathways for choice and agency begin to emerge.
Coaching at the Level of Belief
When we work with metaphors in coaching or therapy, we are engaging with credition itself, the brain’s process of believing. We are not just helping clients find better words; we are helping them rewire how they see themselves, their challenges, and their future.
Metaphors reveal the structure of belief. They give voice to what the brain encodes in emotion. And when those metaphors shift, belief shifts too. That is why metaphor work feels so powerful in coaching and therapy, it gives people a way to transform not just what they say, but how they experience being alive.
Quick Insights on Belief and Metaphor
🔑 Insight 1: Beliefs are embodied before they are spoken.
Our brains encode experience through sensation and emotion first, long before reflection (LeDoux, 2003). Metaphors give those embodied patterns language.
🔑 Insight 2: Metaphors bridge primal and conceptual beliefs.
Primal beliefs (like “up is safe” or “heavy is hard”) are universal and embodied, while conceptual beliefs (like trust, freedom, or leadership) are cultural. A metaphor like “I feel the weight of responsibility” fuses both.
🔑 Insight 3: Coaching with metaphors reshapes prediction.
Because belief is tied to predictive coding, reframing a metaphor (e.g., from “thin ice” to “solid ground”) changes how the brain anticipates outcomes (Friston, Parr, & de Vries, 2017). This is why re-metaphoring can unlock new choices and agency.
References
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Angel, H. F., & Seitz, R. J. (2024). Credition: Believing as a core brain function. Springer.
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Angel, H. F., Seitz, R. J., & Paloutzian, R. F. (2017). Processes of believing: Where do they come from? What are they good for? F1000Research, 6, 1228. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.11674.1
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deHart, L. (2020). Light up: The science of coaching with metaphors. Barn Swallow Publishing.
- Greene, J. D., Sommerville, R. B., Nystrom, L. E., Darley, J. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science, 293(5537), 2105–2108. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1062872
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Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.
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LeDoux, J. (2003). Synaptic self: How our brains become who we are. Viking Penguin.
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Friston, K., Parr, T., & de Vries, B. (2017). The graphical brain: Belief propagation and active inference. Network Neuroscience, 1(4), 381–414. https://doi.org/10.1162/NETN_a_00018
Who is Lyssa deHart?
Lyssa deHart, LICSW, MCC, BCC is a Leadership Confidence and Whole Life Coach, Coaching Educator, ICF Assessor, and the author of three books, StoryJacking: Change Your Inner Dialogue, Transform Your Life, the Reflective Coach, Light Up: The Science of Coaching with Metaphors,and Sticky Outcomes! at the Intersection of Coaching, Neuroscience, & Lasting Impact.
She is also the host of the Coaching Studio Podcast, a Confidence Coach, a Certified Mentor Coach, a Coaching SUPERVision Partner, an ICF PCC Assessor, and a coaching educator. Lyssa leverages her knowledge in ICF Core Competencies and neuroscience to help professional coaches enhance their client outcomes by deeply listening, being client-led, and, ultimately, empowering their clients through partnership.
In 2018 Lyssa began developing the Power of Metaphor Certification Program. This program trains coaches to tune their ears and leverage their clients' metaphors. In 2022, Lyssa developed the Updated Credentialing Exam PREP, a resource that has helped over 5000 coaches prepare for the updated ICF Exam.
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