HEALING BEYOND WORDS: A METAPHOR-BASED PSYCHOEDUCATION IN PSYCHOSIS

Abstract

The article presents the case study on the effectiveness of metaphor- based psychoeducation with a 47-year male with chronic psychosis. He was MBBS graduate and had an outstanding academic record, but developed the belief of people against him that started at internship which further became persecutory delusion followed by social withdrawal that accompanied by medication treatment for the time being, but symptoms persisted and intensified by the interplay of social stressors and genetic vulnerability. For his chronic symptomology, conventional method of psychoeducation was found less effective due to rigidity in beliefs revealed by assessment. A metaphor-based psychoeducation was implemented, which helped with better comprehension of psychological process like cognitive flexibility and enhances therapeutic alliance too. Moreover, clinically significant improvement was noted in shape of reduction in severity of delusions, reflected in lower scores on clinician rated dimension of psychosis severity. Furthermore, the intervention also improved recall of psychoeducational content, that can help with longer term results. Findings points out the potential of metaphor as a culturally adaptive and recovery-oriented replacement for conventional interventions in psychosis, further research would add on to the broader clinical utility of it.