Considering the absent but implicit and addressing personal failure

I am doing a series of reflections as part of a post graduate course on Narrative Therapy. Overall there will be about ten reflection papers on various concepts and practices that currently form and shape Narrative Therapy.

I found the set of readings to be heavy going because the sheer volume of writing by Michael seems to point to something very important in narrative therapy and its practice (White, 2000, 2004).  For me it urges the opening of our sight on seeing people, including ourselves, as living outside the definition of norms, the dominant discourses that surround us, or universal truths -- that there is not a specific “substance” but a “form” of how we are.

In practice, it creates for me a deep sense of hope that there will always be something that escapes the dominant problem stories that clients and those concerned with them present to me.  This something could come from various acts, thoughts, or expressions in response to problems, including the response to personal failure.  Such responses to problems point to a violation of what is valued by clients.  Problems become an opportunity for a “cross-over” to preferred stories.

In reading about the ethics of living and professional ethics, I feel encouraged to continue to actively question the various traditional practices and systems that may limit helpful developments for clients and my own practice.  Reading Jane Hutton’s article in which she explored her personal failure in relation to being a mother also reminded me of how such questions can be used in my own personal life as an ethical way of living (Hutton, 2008)

Whenever I encounter problem narratives I try to tune in to what is left unsaid or abandoned by others.  A school counsellor recently told me that a student was continually defiant to his teacher and had been complaining about him to her.  She had referred the student to me because she could not access his emotions and thus advised me that getting through to his emotions would be difficult because of this “complaining”.  I got very curious about what he is complaining about as in what exactly is he responding to so strongly.  Culturally “complaints” were meant to be kept private or otherwise they were perceived as “distractions” or “defensiveness”.

The discovery was not surprising as he described how this teacher was behaving oddly in class, spending time sharing his personal stories, especially mentioning his mum being ill in hospital.  There were signs that the teacher needed help. In the school system, questioning the performance of a teacher seemed taboo when I consulted the school counsellor about this.  I sensed my discovery and intervention in this situation posed a dilemma for the school counsellor.

In wanting to negotiate the relationship between the teacher and student I am in the midst of setting the context for some form of dialogue between them.  It is somewhat daunting but I am beginning to appreciate what was described as “another version of ethics … not passively received … is an activity in which we find ourselves exercised and stretched” (White, 2004).

References

Hutton, J. (2008). Turning the spotlight on the normalising gaze. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 1, 3-16.

White, M. (2000). Chapter 3: Re-engaging with history: the absent but implicit. In M. White (Ed.), Reflections on Narrative Practices: Interviews and Essays. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.

White, M. (2004). Chap 5: Addressing personal failure. In Narrative Practice and Exotic Lives: Resurrecting Diversity in Everyday Life. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.

Documentation of alternative stories/knowledges

I am doing a series of reflections as part of a post graduate course on Narrative Therapy.  Overall there will be about ten reflection papers on various concepts and practices that currently form and shape Narrative Therapy.

On reading Michael’s response to tackling the challenges of crafting therapeutic documents, it struck me as precisely addressing the kind of lethargy I feel about including this practice into my work (White, 1998).  I had attempted using documents on a few occasions and reviewing the work done helped me to consolidate a sense of achievement knowing what went well in some instances.

In 2008 I attempted my first therapeutic document. It was a document of declaration crafted from an interview with a 16 year old girl who sometimes felt frustrated with her studies. It documented why she wanted to go to school, how she hangs on to studies, how she relaxes when stressed, and who she would like to celebrate her exam results with. An audience for the document was also identified and this included her teachers, mother, and social workers.

When the document was ready, she was asked where she might place her own copy and it surprised me that she wanted to keep it under her pillow.  I realized the success of this project was something cumulative because it spanned two sessions for setting the “receiving context”, interview, and discussion of the final document (White, 1998). 

Another document was based on a Transformer cartoon character named Jazz who was a hero in the eyes of an 8 year old boy brought in for anger issues.  The humorous and heroic traits of Jazz stood out for him as he identified himself closely with Jazz.  He was very pleased with the document that included a picture of Jazz.  Having brought Jazz into the discussion also enabled his mum to speak of his kindness via the voice of Jazz.  In this case the document not only helped document skills and knowledge in managing anger but also allowed externalizing conversations to take place.

There were also times when documents did not work well.  There was an attempt to send email summaries of sessions to an 18 year old client who came in for relationship issues with his mother.  He had been keeping typed records of his feelings and so I thought reading and writing emails would be meaningful for him.  After a few tries I stopped the emails because he later admitted he was not good at using email.  Looking back I had not set the “receiving context” and had let my enthusiasm run ahead of us.  Much later, I realized by accident that he was interested in reading my printed case notes rather than emails.

Email summary of sessions were also sent to a couple to invite reflections.  Though the emails were read, it never became an active part of the work.  In this case it was due to my less than deliberate attempt to weave documents into the work with them.

For me the dilemma has not been whether to use documents or not because they have been shown to work well, the challenge is for me to take an active influencing role in setting the “receiving context” and researching with the client on what type of “document” fits for them.  By this I mean the transmission mode, medium, frequency, presentation (words or pictures), and other acts that support the production and delivery of a “document”.

I am motivated by documents being a “gift of consultancy” from clients and how such gifts can be gathered into a collective “living document” that could make skills and knowledge available to future clients (Epston & White, 1990; Newman, 2008).  These ideas and the concept of “legacy” which I wrote about in the reflection on re-membering have given me more grounds to consider what project I might be able to embark on with the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) community.

References

Denborough, D. (2008). Collective documents as a response to collective trauma. In Collective Narrative Practice: Responding to individuals, groups and communities who have experienced trauma (pp. 26-49): Dulwich Centre Publications.

Epston, D., & White, M. (1990). Consulting your consultants: The documentation of alternative knowledges. In Experience, Contradiction, Narrative & Imagination: Selected papers of David Epston & Michael White (2nd ed., pp. 11-26): Dulwich Centre Publications.

Newman, D. (2008). Rescuing the said from the saying of it: Living documentation in narrative therapy. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work(3), 24-34.

White, M. (1998). Therapeutic Documents Revisited. In Re-Authoring Lives: Interviews & Essays (pp. 199-213): Dulwich Centre.