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Reimagining Narrative Therapy Through Practice Stories and Autoethnography
Travis Heath, Tom Stone Carlson, David Epston, Travis Heath, Tom Stone Carlson, David Epston
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eBook - ePub
Reimagining Narrative Therapy Through Practice Stories and Autoethnography
Travis Heath, Tom Stone Carlson, David Epston, Travis Heath, Tom Stone Carlson, David Epston
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About This Book
Reimagining Narrative Therapy Through Practice Stories and Autoethnography takes a new pedagogical approach to teaching and learning in contemporary narrative therapy, based in autoethnography and storytelling.
The individual client stories aim to paint each therapeutic meeting in such detail that the reader will come to feel as though they actually know the two or more people in the room. This approach moves beyond the standard narrative practice of teaching by transcripts and steps into teaching narrative therapy through autoethnography. The intention of these 'teaching tales' is to offer the reader an opportunity to enter into the very 'heart and soul' of narrative therapy practice, much like reading a novel has you enter into the lives of the characters that inhabit it. This work has been used by the authors in MA and PhD level classrooms, workshops, week-long intensive courses, and conferences around the world, where it has received commendations from both newcomer and veteran narrative therapists.
The aim of this book is to introduce narrative therapy and the value of integrating autoethnographic methods to students and new clinicians. It can also serve as a useful tool for advanced teachers of narrative practices. In addition, it will appeal to established clinicians who are curious about narrative therapy (who may be looking to add it to their practice), as well as students and scholars of autoethnography and qualitative inquiry and methods.
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Section II STORIES IN ACTION
Chapter 2 WILBUR THE WORRIER BECOMES WILBUR THE WARRIOR
Kay Ingamells
DOI: 10.4324/9781003226543-4
One Monday morning in the spring of 2010 I opened my inbox:
Hi Kay,
You were recommended to me by Dr Moiva who is a specialist in Wellington in eating disorders. My son Wilbur who is now eight has suffered from anorexia since the age of five. Could you please let me know whether you might be able to offer Wilbur some counselling? I would appreciate it if you would give me a call.
Thanks,
Liz
A boy with anorexia since the age of five? I had worked with many a young person carrying this most frightening of diagnoses, but an eight-year-old with a three-year history? Incredulous and in trepidation, I picked up the phone. Liz’s voice began to crack as any loving parent’s would as she told the tale of how ordinary childhood worries had slowly become more extreme and then assumed the voice of anorexia. Her mother’s sorrow rose above and beyond her words as she described how Wilbur, desperate to shed weight from his already slender frame, had begun to run in circles around the dining room table after meals until he dropped to the floor in exhaustion. Despair attended her sorrow as she told me that Wilbur had also talked about taking his own life.
We made an appointment for the following week. Liz explained that her husband would also come even if it meant cancelling important meetings. I learned that Liz and her husband Doug were both senior research scientists. Devoted parents, they had first consulted with a psychiatrist. Consequently, Wilbur was assessed twice including an assessment in his school environment. The psychiatrist concluded that Will was progressing well and needed no further treatment, but Sue and Doug were unconvinced.
Session One
It was 11:03 am. My mobile rang:
Hi Kay, this is Liz, Wilbur’s mum. I’m really sorry, we’re running late. Wilbur didn’t want to come. He’s saying there’s nothing wrong with him and he doesn’t want to meet you. We’ve been fighting to get him into the car. We’re on our way now though.
I had already been approaching our meeting with some trepidation, wondering whether I might be able to help Wilbur and this family, so the news of his reluctance unnerved me more. I gathered myself as a professional athlete might do when, minutes before an important game, the team’s best player has had to withdraw due to injury. The spring sun had blessed Auckland early this year and the day was unusually warm. I went downstairs from my upstairs office to the kitchen, took four glasses from the cupboard and set them ready on the counter. I heard the door click open. I crossed the waiting room, hand-outstretched, as is my way of greeting reluctant young people. I met Wilbur’s eyes as he hesitated at the entrance.
YOU MUST BE WILBUR, good to meet you. You must be hot after your journey! Would you mind helping me get some water for everyone?
I glanced fleetingly towards his parents to signal my welcome. On the strength of Wilbur’s nod, I ushered him through to the kitchen, and placed two of the glasses I had already filled in Wilbur’s hands.
Wilbur, would you mind carrying these upstairs for your parents? You go up and I’ll tell you which door to go through when we get there.
Wilbur unwittingly led us up the stairs to our session. I followed closely behind him keenly aware that any moment he might think better of it.
Hey Wilbur, how about you put the glasses on that table over there, one on each side for your parents and then how about you sit here.
I leant down and picked up my basket bulging with richly colored pencils.
Wilbur, have you ever seen pencils like this before? Have you ever seen colors so bright?
I made a few rough strokes on the butcher’s paper I also had to hand. Wilbur stared at the bright strokes ripping across the page. He sank onto the cosy carpet in front of the table.
Wilbur, you can draw as much as you want if you feel like it. How about you listen in as I talk to your parents and just let me know if there is anything you want to say.
Wilbur nodded, as if in a trance, pencil already in hand. Liz and Doug took their seats and looked expectantly towards me. Aware that unless I found some antidote to Wilbur’s understandable reluctance, the meeting could be over before it had started, I gleaned my opening words from similar conversations with other young people who also had revolted against the idea that something might be wrong with them:
Before we begin, I need to make sure that you haven’t come to the wrong place.
Doug and Liz looked at one another, then back at me, somewhat bewildered.
Let me explain… sometimes when young people are brought along to meet with me, they get the idea that there’s something wrong with them and that I am here to help fix them. Very often this is not what parents think, but somehow young people get this idea. I don’t expect you think there’s anything wrong with Wilbur that needs fixing, although I appreciate that you are here because you are worried about him. I want to be sure that you know that I am not a kid fixer. I wouldn’t want you to be talking to the wrong person.
Through the corners of my eyes, I could see that, while Wilbur’s eyes were fixed on the paper, his ears were keenly tuned to my words. Liz and Doug looked baffled. This would certainly not be the opening they had expected. A knowing glance passed between them as they seemed to make the link I had hoped they would make to the phone call a few minutes earlier.
Liz exclaimed, “It sounds like we are in the right place then, because we certainly don’t think Wilbur needs fixing.”
Doug joined in, “As you said, we are all here together to help. These are not just Wilbur’s worries; they are all our worries as a family.”
Now that the way was clear, I proceeded.
Liz and Doug, even though I know we are here to talk about what is worrying you all, will it be alright with you if we put that aside for a few minutes? I ask this because I find that worries often try to take over my conversations with people. As if it’s not enough to worry people in their own homes, those same worries try to gate crash into this room and take over. If it’s okay with you, I would like to know a little bit about Wilbur and his life when the worries are not around. I have a strong feeling that I may be able to discover some things about Wilbur that we can use together to pit against these worries.
Liz paused, then let out a bemused “sure.” Doug looked at me, as if hoping I knew where I was going.
Wilbur, is it alright with you if I ask your parents some questions about you for a few moments?
Wilbur’s eyes immediately snapped away from his drawing and locked on mine. As he stared at me with an imperiousness more usual in a courtroom, I became very aware that this young man did not suffer fools gladly.
If you want, you can just listen in, or you might just want to keep drawing.
Wilbur hesitated, and then gave me a solemn nod of consent before turning his attention back to the paper.
Liz and Doug, can you please tell me what you think I will come to appreciate and respect about Wilbur if I come to know him as well as you do?
Liz replied eagerly.
Well, Wilbur is great at thinking out ideas. He thinks of things I would never think of in a million years. Sometimes I just sit with my mouth open in amazement when I hear about some of the inventions he has come up with.Could you tell me a story about one of these inventions that Wilbur has thought up?
Liz quickly told me of Wilbur’s plans to make a new form of remote controlled lightweight hovercraft which would rescue people at sea. I was about to ask more about Wilbur’s intentions to rescue people with his hovercraft when an excited voice cut through my thoughts.
I would send my hovercraft out when the waves were big so I could help the life-savers.
Quick to make the most of this opportunity, I changed tack.
Wilbur, do you mind if I ask you a question about how you would get your hovercraft out to the people that needed saving? I know about as much about hovercrafts as I do about Rugby and that’s not much at all.I know lots about Rugby.Do you? Do you play too or do you just like knowing about rugby?
Before he had a chance to answer, my eyes were alerted to a large number 12 on the back of his shirt – a rugby jersey!
Hey Wilbur, is that a rugby jersey?
Wilbur proudly nodded.
Can I ask you what team it’s from?
Wilbur looked at me sidewise, perhaps finding it hard to believe that a sentient being would not recognize an Auckland Warriors rugby jersey.
“It’s a Warriors’ jersey!” he said indignantly.
Hey, I’m sorry Wilbur, you must think I am stupid. Do you just like the Warriors, or do you like other teams too?
Wilbur relaxed as he began to take up his role as rugby educator.
I like the Titans, the Bronchos, the Cowboys, the Chiefs, the Crusaders and rhe Blues.Hey, does that mean you don’t like the All Blacks then?
A momentary look of scorn crossed Wilbur’s face.
No, he said with scathing disdain, of course I like the All Blacks!Your mum said earlier that you are good at remembering a lot of things. Would you mind telling me a little bit about what you know about rugby?I know about Ben Matulino, and Simon Mannering.1Really?I know about lots of other sports too.Like what?Well, I know a lot about tennis and fencing because I play those, and I do hip-hop too at school, and swimming so I can be a life saver when I grow up. And I want to play cricket and basketball, and golf, and soccer.
Liz chipped in.
Wilbur loves sport and he wants to do all of them. He loves music too. He plays the guitar but wants to start the piano and the flute. We have to tell him that he just can’t do t...