Narrative Therapy Consultation I

I just had a consultation session with my course tutor, Sue Mitchell, in Australia and had to put this down for my own record.

I appreciate the "absent but implicit" in my work but find myself fumbling to uncover more of it for my clients. What I learned is that the presence of significant others in the session can distract me from being curious, from asking more about the importance of the absent but implicit.  In a mother and son session, the mum's complaints about the son distracted me into trying to defend the boy.  What might be helpful for me is to set the context for them so that the mum becomes an audience to the son's telling.

In terms of the practice of Outsider Witness Group (OWG), I thought I knew the differences between this and the traditional forms of reflecting.  The challenge for me was finding the right time to use it.  However, one fine distinction escaped my notice.  This difference was not in the therapy room itself but occured outside of it.  The traditional practice of reflecting was used to help "unstuck" a therapist, so when Sue was explaining that OWG is used to help strengthen and develop the evolving preferred story and to keep it alive, it dawned on me that it was not about timing the use of OWG but that I had unknowingly positioned it as an "unstucking" practice.  I'm now more aware of other counselling discourses that permeate my clinical practice and am more prepared to navigate my practice through the uneven terrains ahead.

In the conversations with Sue, she also supported me in finding out what I hope for my clients.  I hope that clients can be liberated from judgement, this judgement can be self-judgement or judgement by others.