Product Description

The Magic of Metaphor presents a collection of stories designed to engage, inspire and transform the listener and the reader. Some of the stories motivate, some are spiritual, and some provide strategies for excellence. All promote positive feelings, encouraging confidence, direction and vision. Containing sixteen suggestions for effective storytelling, advice on organisation, style, and storytelling skills, and a selection of seventy seven stories that can be adapted and developed, The Magic of Metaphor is an inspirational sourcebook for counsellors, health workers, psychologists, professional speakers, managers, leaders and NLP practitioners, as well as for teachers, trainers and therapists.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5977 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-08
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
"The Magic of Metaphor is one of the most richly rewarding books I have read in a very long time - every page you turn brings a new revelation, a new insight, a new understanding, in a simple and beautiful way. Images come tumbling out, and with them truths about ourselves: who we are, what we are, and most importantly, how the tools we need for life are to be found within each and every one of us." --Richard Reed - Better Business

Nick Owen has produced a bit of magic in this brilliant book; it is a collection of stories which can be used in a variety of settings, from teaching, to counseling. This is a highly enjoyable and readable book which inspires, and delights the reader on every page. The stories can be used as they are or adapted for different situations but each and every one of them has a message for most encounters in life. I found the last chapter particularly useful as it provides a guide to how the stories can be used in different situations. This is a book I will continue to use in many situations from telling stories to children to teaching adults for many years to come. I will be highly recommending this book to both my students and colleagues. --Julie Foster, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health Medical Sciences and Social Care University of Cumbria

Nick Owen has produced a bit of magic in this brilliant book; it is a collection of stories which can be used in a variety of settings, from teaching, to counseling. This is a highly enjoyable and readable book which inspires, and delights the reader on every page. The stories can be used as they are or adapted for different situations but each and every one of them has a message for most encounters in life. I found the last chapter particularly useful as it provides a guide to how the stories can be used in different situations. This is a book I will continue to use in many situations from telling stories to children to teaching adults for many years to come. I will be highly recommending this book to both my students and colleagues. --Julie Foster, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health Medical Sciences and Social Care University of Cumbria

Patrick Hare, Kaizen Training
...suitable for both public and private sector audiences, counsellors to CEO’s.

About the Author
Nick Owen is an experienced trainer, consultant, and coach. He has also enjoyed successful careers as professional actor and theatre director, radio and print journalist, writer and storyteller. He combines work in the corporate and professional sectors with work in the arts and education, bringing a broad range of creative and innovative perspectives to the work at hand. As well as working in the UK with many top FTSE organisations, he has worked internationally across a wide variety of contexts. His work ranges from organisational and professional development across Europe in large corporations and SMEs to change work with some of the poorest and most disadvantaged communities in Africa and South East Asia. He is author of two best selling books on creativity, personal development, and leadership, an associate at the de Baak Management Centrum in the Netherlands, and has been a Visiting Professor at Insead/Cedep Business School in France. He is an NLP Trainer and Master Practitioner, holds qualifications in Reversal Theory, Time Line Therapy, and Spiral Dynamics, and is a certified practitioner of the Harthill Leadership Development Framework. He is Director of Nick Owen Associates, Ltd., London.

Customer Reviews

The Magic of Metaphor : 77 Stories for Teachers, Trainers
This book had a lovely twist in that it is a story in itself, and that the metaphorical stories are woven into the story. All of us seek a teacher who will inspire us and encourage us to fulfil our potential, so using the teacher/pupil to do the speaking throughout the book and leading into the metaphorical stories is very clever.

I found the stories very easy to follow, and some exceptionally humorous, which immediately raised my own spirits. I have already begun to share some of the stories found within this book on my seminars and seen others ‘get the insight’ or have their spirits raised too.

One of the strengths of this book is that it contains short anecdotal stories as well as the more long winded versions. Thereby catering for different lengths of presentations. The sub-sections are useful in that cover different aspects of leadership which is paramount to the world of self-actualisation.

Again, my personal recommendation would be that this is a book sold in audio format alongside the book, so that the reader is listening to the audio and reading at the same time. This would make a big impact in the learning of the principles that is integral to each story.

The author has also done well to recommend different ways of using the stories within different situations, which enables trainers, teachers and therapists to understand how they can adapt the stories to suit their clients needs. I also like the fact that the author understands that importance of acknowledging sources where possible. Very often people forget to acknowledge their sources and as a result many people believe that the information being shared has only just been discovered, where in fact it has existed for millennia, and the magic is when each of us is able to bring that higher truth interpretation to the ears and hearts of others that inspires, touches and motivates them to take up a call to action.

77 Stories for all .
Why should Teachers, Trainers and Thinkers have all the fun?
I purchased this book having attended and been stimulated by one of the author's "Communicating with Influence" courses.
The course very quickly swept away my preconceptions and the book did likewise. Instead of studiously wiling away the daily commute for a couple of days I actually found myself spending a significant majority of the time reflecting on the stories, their meanings for me and their subsequent uses.
Those lucky enough to have experienced (a carefully chosen word) Nick's storytelling first hand will find the collection particularly evocative whilst for new readers a rich multisensory experience awaits.

A real stimulus to tell stories
This book gave me the courage, and the resources, to tell a story to a group I was training. They loved it and so did I. I've told stories to children, of course, but thought that adults were too grown up for them. I had forgotten that inside every adult is a child who loves stories but is rarely told one.