Nicoleta Răban-Motounu
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creative meditation, nature metaphors, metaphor analysis, psychotherapy.
The article presents some of the ways natural elements may be used to explore the inner psychological dynamics for psychotherapeutic and prevention purposes. They all rely on projection, a defense mechanism, which is thus transformed into a valuable tool for the discovery of personal resources. A qualitative design with metaphor analysis was conducted. Three personal development or psychotherapeutic exploratory techniques integrated into a process of four steps supporting personal transformation have been used: one creative meditation, one dynamic gestalt technique, and the genogram with the support of natural elements. The analysis comprises material from the cultural background regarding the symbolism of the chosen elements from the universal and Romanian point of view and, in the results section, the psychological content elicited by the exercises, and the personal development effects. The results confirm the value of the natural elements in accessing both past experiences which have been labeled as negative at the time, and psychological resources undiscovered yet.
