Use of metaphor can provide a powerful & useful framework for lowering resistance to the pain of bereavement for parental grief. Premature termination of treatment is often the result of the client’s desire to avoid direct confrontation of feelings associated with the death. Metaphor offers a graphic nonjudgemental symbolic representation through which the mourner may freely express the sorrow, loss, anger, & guilt that is necessary to accomplish the tasks of grieving. (5 refs.)