It’s the way we humans make sense of the world…
What is your life like? I mean really like…
Take a moment to complete this sentence:
My life is like…
By finishing that one line, you can uncover powerful truths about yourself and how you truly view your life — whether it’s fulfilling and meaningful, or stuck and stagnant.
I’ve heard countless responses to this question over the years. Some are whimsical:
My life is like an amusement park.
Others are thoughtful and reflective:
My life is like a library.
And occasionally, I hear deeply disempowering ones:
My life is like a prison camp.
What you’re using here is metaphor — one of the oldest tools in human language. A metaphor gives us an intuitive grasp of something abstract by connecting it to something concrete. It creates a shortcut that conveys a world of meaning in a single sentence. One image can speak louder than an entire paragraph of explanation.
Here’s the interesting part. When our lives shift in meaningful ways, our metaphors change too.
But it also works in reverse. When we consciously change our metaphors, our lives often begin to align with the new image. This idea was central to the work of Dr Milton Erickson, who I still believe was the greatest hypnotist of all time.
About thirty years ago, I dug deeply into Erickson’s work. I became fascinated by his use of metaphor in therapy — often subtle, sometimes hypnotic, but always effective. I began using metaphors in my own sessions, and the results were often startling.
In Cornwall, Ontario, after I delivered a keynote speech to the local Chamber of Commerce, a woman approached me. She was burdened with high anxiety stemming from her relationship with her estranged adult daughter. I offered her a simple metaphor about a tropical plant. There was no explanation. Just the image.
Her brother called me the next day, because within twenty-four hours, her anxiety vanished. She experienced a reset that she couldn’t quite explain, but she didn’t need to. That single moment reminded me of just how transformative a well-crafted metaphor can be.
It felt like something straight out of Erickson’s playbook, and I still think of it as one of the best interventions I’ve ever delivered.
Fast forward a few years. I was reflecting on how powerful the right metaphor could be, especially when delivered at the perfect moment. For Erickson, it came naturally. But for most of us, it doesn’t. Finding the right metaphor can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack.
And then something clicked.
What if we didn’t need to come up with the metaphor ourselves?
What if the client’s unconscious mind could provide it for us?
That thought struck me like a bucket of ice-cold water. Which, now that I say it, is a metaphor too.
I needed to test the idea to see if it could actually work. Chris Thompson was the first to experience this new, raw method. He volunteered to be the initial test subject - patient zero - and the results were far beyond what I expected.
That first session became the seed of something new. A method. A model. A tool for change.
It became MINDSCAPING.
Mindscaping is an original and highly effective modality for personal growth, therapeutic transformation, and creative problem-solving. Over time, I refined the process, tested it across different contexts, and shaped it into the version that exists today.
Here’s how it works. MINDSCAPING accesses a spatial map that emerges from the subject’s unconscious mind. This map appears all around them in a three-dimensional mental space. By interacting with this internal landscape, clients begin to uncover patterns, receive insights, and often resolve the very issue they came in with. Often in one session. Sometimes in just minutes.
Today, practitioners around the world use MINDSCAPING as a go-to approach in therapy, coaching, hypnosis, and NLP. It’s flexible enough to fit almost any situation. It helps people get results they might have spent months chasing with more traditional methods.
Best of all, it’s easy to learn and simple to apply. No two sessions are the same, because the metaphor changes every time. And the beauty is that the solution is already within the client. You don’t need to guess or hope. You just follow the method and let the map do the work.
It’s deep hypnosis without ever needing to mention hypnosis. And I believe Milton Erickson would have loved it.
On August 12, we begin our next live online training for anyone who wants to be certified in this life-changing modality.
It’s one of the most powerful things you can add to your toolkit. It has the potential to transform your work with clients.
As one of my students, psychologist Dr Bruce Eimer said, “MINDSCAPING is mind-blowing.”
I hope to see you in the class. I’d love to help you develop a new superpower.
To join us visit this page and choose the live class option.
