Although much has been written about the use of metaphors during psychotherapy sessions, the complementary question of how the therapeutic process might itself be metaphorically conceptualized is seldom asked. This article adopts the notion of ‘discourse metaphors’ (Zinken et al., 2008) and provides a case study of the metaphor THERAPY IS A JOURNEY across various levels of psychotherapeutic discourse, including the formulation of theoretical constructs, pedagogical frameworks and transcripts of actual therapeutic talk. I show how the inherent meaning stability as well as flexibility afforded by conceptual metaphors renders them particularly suitable for conveying a necessary sense of theoretical continuity across the levels, while accommodating variations according to situated discourse objectives within each level. Answering calls for metaphor research to be more practically relevant, I also suggest how the present approach can contribute to the increasing therapeutic concern with establishing ‘feedback’ across the different participatory levels of psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy is a mental health activity where therapists assist clients through verbal interaction. The phenomenon of transference, where clients superimpose their past experiences onto present life situations, occurs frequently in psychotherapy and may have varied effects on treatment outcome depending on how it is managed or 'worked through'.While previous work has linked transference to metaphor based on their theoretical similarity, this paper explores the relationship on the basis of actual psychotherapy talk between a therapist-client dyad at a Chinese university counseling centre. It combines clinical and discourse analytic observations to model 'working through transference' as an interactional process of constructing a PRESENT IS PAST conceptual metaphor, and suggests that the process involves guiding the client to move from an awareness of correspondences at the conceptual level (i.e. between entities, attributes, and relations), to the transferential level (between feelings, emotions, and attitudes). Methodological, theoretical, and practical implications for contemporary metaphor research and psychotherapy practice are discussed, and some directions offered for future research.

Therapists' use of metaphor in psychotherapy is ubiquitous. However, compared to theoretical and clinical claims about the potential effectiveness of using metaphor, research investigations pose challenges and remain relatively sparse. We provide examples of metaphors in sessions and then systematically review the empirical literature. This research suggests that collaborative coelaboration of metaphors with clients is related to positive in-session client outcomes, particularly cognitive engagement. Future research might benefit from a more in-depth focus on the process and impacts of using metaphors. We draw out implications from the research for clinical training and psychotherapy practice. Clinical Impact StatementQuestion: Psychotherapists and their clients often use conventional metaphors (e.g., "You seem down today") and, on occasion, novel metaphors (e.g., "I stab people with my voice") over the course of treatment. Here, we review the sparse evidence for the links between metaphors and outcomes. Findings: Tentative links between collaborative coelaboration of metaphors and client cognitive processes such as problem-setting, reflecting, and connecting have been established. Meaning: Collaboratively working with clients to develop metaphors related to major themes of therapy can be an effective intervention. Next Steps: Additional research that brings together therapists, clients, and researchers for in-depth analyses of metaphor use over the course of psychotherapy is needed.

Although there has been an increasing number of studies investigating media representations of the COVID-19 outbreak around the world, less international attention has been given to Chinese media outlets’ coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak than that of their western counterparts. This study employs corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis to investigate how China is linguistically represented in a state-run English-language news media. The analysis reveals that China is respectively represented as a victim, a fighter, and a cooperative/supportive country with ideological implications for global solidarity and humanitarianism. This study sheds light on the effective use of discursive strategies in promoting international cooperation and building a national image amid a global health crisis. The value of using corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis to examine national image is also highlighted.

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