or construct guiding metaphor (focus on the Source domain of one of the chosen type and note/elaborate on ideas);

Case B: Two reference points;
Elements: Wife - Agent (self), Affected Parties (house), Force/Motion (self-propelled as to work and devotion she put into house; Location (place or mental space where house is); Possessions (money, effort, devotion); obstacles (work is too hard, whatever kept house from being finished, whatever keeps house from being more valuable now).
Elements: Husband (same as Wife, except Obstacle of her no longer being passionate about house, of wanting to get money out).
Incongruity: Wife - "lost" interest, something disappeared as if without some thought process; wants something to "show", metaphorically understood as a demonstration, investment, etc..
Incongruity Husband - "loves" house, as if it were a being and he keeps faithful, loyal, more important than most other things in life, more important because it is so special, honorable, earth-friendly, going through life together wherever it leads.
Gaps Wife - when you decide to stop devoting yourself to something why do you have to have something to show? Idea of having made a mistake in the first place?
Questions Wife - Where do you think your great interest in this house went? What does it mean if you invest heavily and end up with little or nothing?
Questions Husband - Are there several different things that make you want this house and to continue owning and working on it? Would you ever sell it voluntarily? Can you love it as much without a wife?

Case B: Two reference points (Father's possible metaphor of how the parenting schedule will work, and Mother's);
Elements in Father's possible metaphor -- Agent (Father), Affected Parties (children), Movement of children from place to place, activity to activity; Locations, homes, activities; Possessions (time?), Obstacles, time limits, meals, homework tasks. (Parenting is Sequencing/Maping)
Elements in Mother's -- Agent, herself, Affected Parties (children), movement (she seems to want to hold kids in orbit), Possessions (kids?), Obstacles (the schedule), Locations (same as Dad). (Parenting is Orbiting/Keeping Momentum)
Questions for Father: What are you up against to make this work? Is there enough time?
Questions for Mother: Are the kids' activities kind of fluid in your home? Is it easy or not so easy to keep things going smoothly?

See Lakoff & Turner's "More Than Cool Reason" for suggestions on extending where they discuss composition of novel metaphor.

One useful way to expand your capacity with metaphor is to organize and become more familiar with useful categories of Source Domains.

If Guiding Metaphor: Put up examples from each category of metaphor (Common Activities & Objects, Cultural, etc.) and talk about how they may be used; having chosen the Source for a guiding metaphor, remind group about Target and Source.

Offer a case example (such as one on level -1), and ask
same question; see what ideas people have about how to use metaphor (e.g., people may see similarities between Target and one of the metaphor examples; people may see potential in a metaphor for guidance, etc.)

Should participants role play? This would require at least 3 in a group. Might work to have all 3 understand the case, then role play a simple discussion (for clarity of the case). Then group could discuss strategy for metaphor, and then one or more participants role play the mediator with this strategy.

She says, because they have two children whom they both love, that they could find a way to stay together.

The other parent believes nothing is wrong, except perhaps that the first parent limits the children, often doesn't seem to pay them enough attention, and doesn't let them just be kids.

And that entirely different source domains could have been used.

Simple extensions are possible...

Finally, larger-scale schematic metaphors are based on these more generic ones (e.g., causality).

"It is important that the mediator... avoid... forcing a process on the parties."
"...that the process focus on meeting the mutual interests of all the parties rather than forcing a party to agree to a predetermined position..."
"...forcing people to choose ..."
"...a modest amount of forcing power to prevent them from avoiding the issue. For incorrigibles, the level of force must be increased substantially..."
"...Cognitive dissonance occurs... forcing some level of change in that person's belief system..."
"...pointing out opportunities for recognition without forcing them."

Do children keep people on a path together?
Can children be brought by two parents on different paths? Are we on only one path at a time, or do we actually travel simultaneously on different ones? When the Three Musketteeres rode off in different directions, where they working together or separately?

Are they limited in their growth or in having fun?
How might limiting a child help development?

A blockage to moving forward. What do you do? Keep looking for a way forward, around, over the obstacle, eliminate the obstacle, stay where you are, turn back?

Are they passengers in a vehicle called "marriage"? Is it the vehicle, the passengers or something else that determines which routes are chosen?

"good indicators of the direction a mediator is taking ..."
"...taking an optimistic view..."
"You can't do that because you're taking away the self-determination of the people."
"...anyone not taking a vocal position toward one side or another is suspect."
"When taking the definition of issues put forth."
"...and that way you're not taking one side..."
"...one negotiator is taking an integrative approach and the other is taking a distributive approach."
"By picking any one point of view, you're essentially taking a position, and pushing your own theory."
"...the mediator is taking a... role in the intervention."
"...Taking advantage of these different expectations..."
"...taking an optimistic view of the parties' competence and motives..."
"...turn-taking..."
"...fostering perspective taking..."
"Trust is built by incremental and reciprocal risk taking."
"...you're taking away the self-determination of the people."
"...the direction a mediator is taking..."
"...ways of advancing their case by taking care of interests on the other side."
"...we're taking ourselves too seriously."
"...taking it in."
"...taking the decisionmaking process away from the parties...."
"Taking this responsive posture means that the mediator is comfortable not knowing where things are headed..."

Do you find a familiar pattern of relationships among elements?

Do you find Time accounted for in a distinctive way?

Recall that metaphor, compared to analogy where a comparison or likening is explicit, is usually imbedded in discourse or description that may sound literal but is actually metaphoric. This can be the case with Narrative or "higher level" metaphor where a sequence of events of a certain type, or a story line, corresponds to a well-known metaphor or allegory (e.g., when his son got home late he interrogated him about everthing that happened (parental discipline is criminal investigation); she was an expert in detecting the slightest source of trouble (identifying fault is the Princess and the Pea)).

Sequences may be different from different Points of View...

Individual acts can be taken together to form a sequence. Missing parts of the sequence are searched for and included (also see How Gaps Filled In). Such a sequence may not form a narrative, but may become one by finding and adding layers of strategy or direction.

What is a narrative? As mentioned, we may regard an account of series of events (in the Performing layer) to be a narrative once we understand some of the other layers (Aims/Direction; Strategies/Emerging Qualities). The multiple levels working together give a "story quality" to the account. Strategies may be revealed by examples in the Performing layer. Aim/Direction may have to be inferred.

In one sense the narrative isn't a metaphor because it is meant as literal (even though it may perhaps contain simple metaphoric terms that summarize or enliven the account). In another sense the whole narrative account can be meant as the Source Domain of a metaphor mapped to a problem/dispute Target Domain.

After looking for the characteristics, below, then what is crucial is formation of questions (to clarify/confirm) and extensions (to guide).

Elicitation of clients' metaphors may also be possible, even when no evidence of operating metaphors is found (see notes by clicking title of
this page).