The passengers on the bus: steering despite the noise
Imagine your thoughts and feelings as passengers on a bus you are driving — they can be loud, but you choose the route.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Imagine your thoughts and feelings as passengers on a bus you are driving — they can be loud, but you choose the route.
- Why it works: Metaphor restructures the functional relationship between self and thought without requiring propositional argument. The bus metaphor encodes that the self is the driver (agent, chooser of direction) and thoughts/feelings are passengers (present, sometimes loud, but not in control). This preserves agency while reducing the fusion between the person and the unhelpful thought, which is the core defusion goal.
- Evidence: Established clinical or therapeutic practice.
- Avoid: Using the metaphor to try to quiet or eject the passengers (suppress the thoughts) rather than driving despite them — ACT metaphors are about coexistence and agency, not silence.
Why it works
Metaphor restructures the functional relationship between self and thought without requiring propositional argument. The bus metaphor encodes that the self is the driver (agent, chooser of direction) and thoughts/feelings are passengers (present, sometimes loud, but not in control). This preserves agency while reducing the fusion between the person and the unhelpful thought, which is the core defusion goal.
How to do it
- 1When a thought or fear is interfering with action, imagine yourself as the driver of a bus.
- 2Name the passenger: "Anxiety-passenger is shouting that I’ll fail."
- 3Acknowledge the passenger — "I hear you" — and keep driving toward your chosen destination.
- 4Revisit the destination (your committed value or action) to confirm the route is yours.
What the evidence says
Clinical practiceThe passengers-on-the-bus metaphor is among the most widely used ACT therapeutic images, included in Hayes, Strosahl & Wilson’s foundational ACT text. ACT metaphors as a class are associated with defusion and values-consistent behavior; this specific metaphor has not been individually trialed.
Honest caveat: Metaphors in ACT are evaluated as part of the whole protocol; individual metaphors are not separately studied for effect. The mechanism (functional relational shift) is theoretically well-grounded.
- — Hayes, Strosahl & Wilson (1999), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Guilford Press
Common mistake
Using the metaphor to try to quiet or eject the passengers (suppress the thoughts) rather than driving despite them — ACT metaphors are about coexistence and agency, not silence.
IX Coach introduces the bus metaphor when you report feeling stuck or controlled by a recurring thought, then walks through naming the passenger and articulating the destination you are steering toward.
Practice this with IX Coach →