Body Language and Imagery

Abstract

Virtually all role-players naturally use imagery in their language and behaviour. However, most are unconscious of doing so and do not recognize the communicative power of a picture. The author’s approach is to draw attention in workshops to imagery as it occurs so that players might better access their own existing resources and expand them by borrowing from the practice of others.

Conscious awareness and deployment of rhetorical devices such as metaphor, simile, and antithesis significantly enhance the power and clarity of communication. Professionals develop set pieces such as dramatized metaphors and speeches to express complex issues but are often relatively oblivious to them. Role-players often underestimate the power of a diagram and benefit from a mini tutorial when a diagram is appropriate.

In this chapter, we explore the importance of story and imagery as expressed in language, physical gesture, and diagrams on paper. The approach suggested here is to draw attention in workshops to the ways that we all naturally resort to imagery so that players might better access their own existing resources and expand them by borrowing from the practice of others.