This material is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical, psychological, or psychotherapeutic advice. If you are experiencing an acute psychological condition or need professional support, please contact a doctor, psychologist, psychotherapist, or crisis service.
A symbol begins where a direct explanation is no longer sufficient. A door can be part of a house, or it can mean a transition. A circle is a geometric shape, but at the same time an image of integrity, repetition, movement and return. The same picture for one person reminds of freedom, for another - of loss, and for the third it remains just a beautiful shape.
This is the power of symbolization: the experience takes on a form that can be seen, named, changed, put into a story, and shared with another person. A symbol does not cancel reality and does not decipher us according to a universal dictionary. It creates a bridge between an experience for which there are still no words and a conscious understanding.
Sign and symbol: what's the difference
Sign required for accuracy. The red light of the traffic light should stop traffic, and the arrow should show the direction. Its effectiveness increases when the value is unambiguous and shared by all.
The symbol works differently. It stores multiple values simultaneously and comes to life in context. A tree can be a lineage, growth, rooting, seasonal loss, or the site of a specific childhood memory. None of these values are automatically correct. It is important what exactly a person noticed, what emotion arose, what detail attracted attention and what the image connected with in his life.
Where does the symbolism come from?
The first symbolic actions appear long before complex explanations. A child can calm down next to a favorite toy, which reminds of a loved one and a sense of security. In the game, a stick becomes a sword, a box becomes a house, and a drawn line becomes a border. This is not an error of perception, but the ability to retain what is absent through the image.
With development, a person creates broader symbolic systems: language, music, art, rituals, money, professional roles, family stories. They help transfer experiences in time, coordinate actions with others, and return to what is no longer physically present.
Four layers of one image
One image can hold personal, cultural, situational, and temporal layers at the same time.
- Personal layer: own memories, bodily reactions and associations.
- Cultural layer: fairy tales, religious subjects, art and community arrangements.
- Situational layer: what is happening in life now.
- Time Layer: How the Meaning of an Image Changes with Human Experience.
That is why it is impossible to compile a definitive dictionary of symbols. Even universal images—path, water, home, circle—acquire personal importance only in a specific story.
What is the secret of symbolization?
Symbolization does not conceal a code available only to a psychologist. Its strength lies in transformation: a feeling becomes an image, the image gradually acquires words or develops into a story, and the story becomes a shared focus of attention. An experience that once overwhelmed the person as a whole gains form and can be explored gradually.
What changes when the experience takes shape
- Psychological distance appears: "something is wrong with me" can turn into "there is this storm in my story."
- There is a sequence: before, during and after; cause, reaction, effect and possible next step.
- Experience becomes communicated: it can be shown, described, drawn or acted out.
- Flexibility increases: the image can be supplemented, moved, scaled or found a different finish for it.
Symbolization and traumatic experience: where help can really be found
After a traumatic event, memory sometimes returns in fragments: a bodily reaction, a fragment of an image, a smell, a sense of danger, or a sharp emotion without an understandable context. In evidence-based trauma-focused approaches, the gradual inclusion of a memory in an autobiographical story can play an important role. This is complex clinical work, not a simple exercise with a picture.
A symbol or metaphor can become an auxiliary container. Instead of an immediate, detailed retelling, the person talks about a "house without a door," "icy water," or "a lump in the throat." The image allows you to get as close to the experience as is currently safe, and at the same time preserve the right to pause.
Symbolic form can place a difficult experience before us so it can be explored gradually.
An important limitation: symbolic practice alone does not treat PTSD and is not a substitute for trauma-focused psychotherapy. During an acute crisis, suicidal thoughts, psychotic state, severe dissociation or severe disorientation, professional help of the appropriate level is required.
Example 1. "Storm in the room"
A person describes anxiety as a storm that suddenly starts inside a room. The question "what does a storm mean?" may be too broad. It is more useful to examine the details: where the person is in this image, whether there is a window in the room, what happens before the wind appears, which helps to hold the support. This is how the metaphor gradually turns into a map of triggers, reactions and ways to take care of yourself.
Example 2. "Closed doors"
For one person, a closed door means rejection. For the other - protection and the right not to let in. If the specialist is quick to call the door a fear of intimacy, he will replace the client's experience with a ready-made interpretation. A more accurate question would be: “What will change if the door remains closed? And if you yourself choose when to open them?”
Metaphorical associative maps: the image as a third participant in the conversation
MACs create a common object of attention. It is not necessary for a person to talk about himself directly: first you can describe a character, space, color or plot on a map. This reduces the pressure and gives more freedom for associations.
The same image can evoke different associations; the meaning remains authored by the person viewing it.
Metaphorical cards are not a projective test in the clinical sense, do not predict the future, and do not contain a single hidden meaning. The person looking at the image remains the author of its interpretation. A psychologist or partner can support the exploration with open questions, reflect what they hear, and help notice contradictions without imposing diagnoses or ready-made explanations.
Five questions for any image
- What did I notice first?
- What feeling or bodily reaction did you have?
- What about this image is similar to my situation, and what is not at all similar?
- What detail is missing here?
- If an image could change by one step, what would appear or disappear?
The Dreams deck is especially appropriate where a direct explanation is already going around in circles. The combination of an image and a personal association can open a different perspective, but the following conclusion is always tested by a person's real life.
“I Have the Right” metaphorical cards: images and supportive messages that open space for personal associations.
In the I Have the Right deck, a short message becomes a symbolic entry point. It is important to notice not only consent, but also protest: what old rule conflicts with permission to feel, want, refuse, or ask for support?
A fairy tale, a myth and a life scenario
A fairy tale compresses a complex experience into a figurative structure: a hero, a ban, a test, an assistant, a loss, a return. It allows you to notice the role that a person unconsciously repeats: the eternal savior, the invisible child, the one who has to earn the right to return home.
Workbook "Story Therapy" combines a symbolic plot with written questions. The image here becomes the beginning, not the final answer: after it, it is important to see a concrete choice, limit or action in the present.
Symbol in branding and logo
A logo is strong when it is recognizable by its shape, but cannot be summed up in a single sentence. A circle can convey completeness and movement; open line — continuation; grain - potential; a bridge is a connection. Value is born not only from graphics, but from the repeated experience of contact with the brand.
That is why rebranding is not limited to a new sign. If the product, the tone of communication, and the actual interaction contradict the image, the symbol is empty. When they are aligned, a simple form is a memory: people recognize it not just as a company, but as their own experience, hope, value, or belonging.
Dmytro Telushko — psychologist, author, and founder of MriyaRun.
For me, a strong symbol does not dictate to a person what they should feel. It's precise enough to hold attention and open enough to let a personal story emerge. This is how the image in the card, name, logo and therapeutic conversation works.
Symbolizing the goal: from a beautiful image to a route
A goal symbol gains power when it becomes criteria, a sequence, and an achievable first step.
A goal also often begins as a symbol: a home of your own, a peak, the open road, a degree, a certain amount of money, or a new professional role. The problem arises when the image remains the only content. Then a person may strive not for the result itself, but for the sense of security, recognition or freedom associated with it.
It is useful to expand the image into three questions: what experience do I associate with this goal; what real conditions are required; What action can I take in the near future? Thus, the symbol does not disappear - it becomes a source of direction, and not a substitute for a plan.
CBT SHIFT helps translate an image or insight into a structured observation: situation, thought, emotion, behavior, alternative view, and action. This is a useful counterbalance to the risk of falling in love with a beautiful metaphor and not testing it with facts.
EQ Diary supports another part of the process: recognizing the emotion, its intensity, need and context. When the image receives emotional words, the symbolic work becomes clearer and less like free guesswork.
When symbolization does not help
- When a ready-made interpretation is imposed on a person as truth.
- When a metaphor takes away from the facts, responsibility, or necessary decision.
- When the practice approaches the traumatic material too quickly and the person loses the sense of the present.
- When an image is used to diagnose, predict, or evaluate a person.
- When a beautiful insight is not connected with behavior and real life conditions.
Safe mini-practice: a snapshot of the current state
Choose an object, photo or map that reminds you of your current state. Describe only what you see without interpretation. Then name the association, emotion and bodily response. Ask: what in the image already supports me; what is missing; what one change would make it a little safer or livelier. End the practice with a concrete action for today.
If there is strong excitement, a feeling of unreality, a loss of memory or a loss of orientation, the practice should be stopped: look around, name the date and place, feel support under your feet, contact a loved one or a specialist.
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Sources and limits of statements
The article is prepared on the basis of the lecture material "Symbols", the author's interpretation of Dmytro Telushka and modern publications on metaphor, narrative and trauma-focused approaches. Data on the effectiveness of narrative exposure therapy cannot be automatically transferred to MAC or stand-alone symbolic practice.
Symbolization does not make experience simple. It makes it more accessible to attention: complexity remains, while form, distance, and the possibility of movement become available. This is its real strength.