Metaphors of Movement · Levels 1 & 2
When a client says “I’m stuck”, what do you hear?
Learn to recognise the structure in your clients’ metaphors and work with what they are describing.
Live online training with Andrew T. Austin, creator of Metaphors of Movement.
8 × 4-hour sessions · Demonstrations, practice and discussion
Format
Live online
8 sessions on Zoom
Next course
Dates TBC
Register your interest below
Session times
10am–2pm
UK time, all sessions
Training fee
£600
Or 12 × £50
Listen more closely
There is detail in the language you hear every day
“I’m going round in circles.” “I’ve hit a wall.” “I’m carrying everyone else.” Your clients already use metaphors to describe their experience. How much of that description makes it into the work you do together?
Metaphors of Movement (MoM) gives you a structured way to explore that language. You learn to notice position, direction, boundaries and recurring patterns, and to follow the client’s description accurately. Small distinctions can change your understanding of the problem they are presenting.
Across Levels 1 and 2, you will examine how people describe being stuck, how they relate to others, and how their attempts to solve a problem can repeat its pattern. Demonstrations and practical exercises help you connect these ideas with what you actually hear in a session.
Who this is for
For practitioners who want to sharpen how they listen
This course is for therapists, hypnotherapists, coaches, NLP practitioners and others whose work involves helping people understand their experience. It is especially relevant if you want to:
- Understand a client’s description more precisely before deciding what to do next.
- Recognise when your own assumptions are filling gaps in what the client has said.
- Explore why a familiar problem persists despite repeated efforts to change it.
Levels 1 and 2 are the starting point for learning MoM and the required foundation for further practitioner training. Returning participants can revisit the material with their practice experience in mind.
Level 1
The Foundation
Build the listening and observation skills that underpin a MoM session. You will learn how to elicit a metaphor, follow its structure and recognise the language associated with it. Guided exercises give you opportunities to practise each stage.
What you will study
- Session structure: how the stages of a MoM session fit together.
- Idiomatic language: hearing the significance of ordinary expressions that can otherwise pass unnoticed.
- Position, direction and boundaries: paying attention to the details of the client’s description.
- Problems, solutions and outcomes: recognising when a proposed way forward repeats the existing difficulty.
- Recurring metaphor patterns: an introduction to the MoM taxonomies, including obstructions, containers, burdens and elevations.
Level 2
The Metaphoric Hierarchy
Build on the foundation by exploring how metaphors connect with relationships, emotional experience and time. You will study how one metaphor relates to another and how these patterns appear across different areas of life.
What you will study
- Situational and relational positioning: how people describe where they stand in relation to circumstances and other people.
- The Hurts: the course framework for exploring metaphors of emotional injury.
- Fulfilments and emotional exchange: how needs, giving and receiving are represented in metaphor.
- Dreams and symbolism: an introduction to applying metaphoric analysis to dream material.
- Time: how past, present and future appear in metaphoric descriptions.
- Business and money: introductory applications that lead into the specialist training at Levels 4 and 5. The time material also introduces themes developed at Level 6.
Skills to take into your practice
A more precise way to hear, describe and explore
The course gives you a framework to keep practising. Throughout the training, you will work on learning to:
- Hear metaphors and idioms in everyday client language.
- Keep your observations separate from your assumptions.
- Follow a metaphor’s structure without losing important details.
- Recognise patterns in descriptions of stuckness and attempted solutions.
- Explore how relationships are represented in metaphor.
- Bring the stages of a basic MoM session together.
How you will learn
Watch the work, try it, then bring your questions
Andrew teaches through explanation, demonstrations, discussion and guided practice in Zoom breakout rooms. You have opportunities to try the material, notice where you get stuck and ask about what happened.
The combined course includes:
- Eight four-hour live sessions covering Levels 1 and 2.
- Two additional one-hour Q&A sessions, arranged with the group.
- The Levels 1 and 2 training manual to support your study.
- Session recordings to revisit demonstrations and catch up on missed teaching.
This is detailed material. Repetition and continued practice help you recognise distinctions that may be difficult to spot at first.
You can return to the recordings as your understanding develops, with the manual alongside you.
Video content is available for one year after the end of the training.
Training dates
Two blocks of four days, live online
Level 1: The Foundation
TBCFour consecutive days · dates to be confirmed
Level 2: The Metaphoric Hierarchy
TBCFour consecutive days · dates to be confirmed
All sessions are 10am–2pm UK time.
The two additional Q&A sessions will be arranged with the group.