Tell me a story: the therapeutic metaphor in the practice of pediatric occupational therapy.

In the crafting of therapeutic intervention, pediatric occupational therapists are challenged to provide therapeutic modalities that are as stimulating and imaginative as the child's world, while offering appropriate and meaningful solutions to the child's problems. Storytelling, coupled with the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic stimulation of guided affective imagery, offers a stimulating treatment approach for both the child or adolescent and the occupational therapist. This paper provides an overview of the use of storytelling, metaphorical forms and expressions, and guided affective imagery in occupational therapy with children.