Thursday, September 27, 2007

Narrative Therapy

This week I attended a lecture on narrative therapy given by Paul Morrison from who teaches at our uni, and thought that some people might be interested in it. Narrative therapy is a form of therapy that uses the tool of stories to help in the therapy process. It is beloved that listening and telling or retelling stories about people and the problems in their lives is helpful in the therapy process. One story that Paul Morrison uses in therapy and shared with us was called “The Chicken and the Eagle”. I really liked the story and tried to find it on the internet, I couldn’t find the exact one but the story below is a similar story.

“Once upon a time, there was a large mountainside, where an eagle's nest rested. The eagle's nest contained four large eagle eggs. One day an earthquake rocked the mountain causing one of the eggs to roll down the mountain, to a chicken farm, located in the valley below. The chickens knew that they must protect and care for the eagle's egg, so an old hen volunteered to nurture and raise the large egg.

One day, the egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born. Sadly, however, the eagle was raised to be a chicken. Soon, the eagle believed he was nothing more than a chicken. The eagle loved his home and family, but his spirit cried out for more. While playing a game on the farm one day, the eagle looked to the skies above and noticed a group of mighty eagles soaring in the skies. "Oh," the eagle cried, "I wish I could soar like those birds." The chickens roared with laughter, "You cannot soar with those birds. You are a chicken and chickens do not soar."

The eagle continued staring, at his real family up above, dreaming that he could be with them. Each time the eagle would let his dreams be known, he was told it couldn't be done. That is what the eagle learned to believe. The eagle, after time, stopped dreaming and continued to live his life like a chicken. Finally, after a long life as a chicken, the eagle passed away. The moral of the story: You become what you believe you are; so if you ever dream to become an eagle follow your dreams, not the words of a chicken. “

At first I thought that narrative therapy sounded a bit strange and even silly, however after listening to the lecture and some of the stories I changed my mind. I think that stories are a great tool to use in therapy. Most people grow up reading or listening to stories so would easily be able understand and use stories as a way of communicating there feelings or problems. It may even be easier to explain your problems through a story.

Anyway I just thought I would share

Story from: http://www.thebabyboomerdiva.com/April15/chicken_or_eagle.htm

3 comments:

James Neill said...

Josie, thanks for sharing this - fancy me (a lecturre) learning from you (a student) about what someone else is teaching about at UC - shows the power of potential of giving students voices as part of this university education/learninging business.

So, thanks for sharing about Paul's work and narrative therapy. We could talk more about stories and narrative therapy in psychology (and social psychology). I've always being fascinated by Joseph Campbell's anthropological work on the story themes which appear across cultures and time - and the connections with Jungian collective un/consciousness, archetypes, etc.. "The Hero's Journey" is one of our cultural favourites and maps on well to modern classics such as Star Wars.

Although the "Chicken and Eagle" story didn't have a heroic ending it resonated for me with Jonathon Livingston Seagull - although JLS gives flying a real go and breaks free! - perhaps my favourite story of all time - I rode high for years on that story :) Must dig it out again...

Anonymous said...

Hey Josie,

I wish I could have gone to the lecture, it sounds really interesting.

I think these different methods for therapy are so interesting. I have been looking into Art Therapy which seems to be really helpful with children who do not vocabulary to express themselves. More info can be found on Art Therapy in Australia at www.arttherapy.org.au

I once had a tutorial which used toys to depict a story/situation-I can't remember what it was called. It surprised me how effect it was. For example one girl was anxious about leaving uni and going to a new job. When she set up the different groups with toys she than could move some friends and family members (or Barbie dolls and animals in this case) closer to her in the new job to symbolize their continual support in the new job. Seeing and moving the toys in the situation made her feel better about the new job. It sounds simple but it seems to really work for some people.
I didn't really know about Narrative Therapy so thanks for sharing :)

Karen Woods said...

This is great - thanks so much for sharing this with us. I'm very interested in Narrative Therapy - bought a book from the Co-op Bookshop on it and have chosen Psychodrama as my Blog 2 topic as an extension of my interest in art based therapies - I'm doing a creative writing major as part of my degree and want to eventually incorporate psych with it in wherever I go in my psych career - I'm doing a double degree so my 3rd major is counselling - they should all marry up quite well.

I'm disappointed I didn't hear about the Narrative Therapy lecture, I would love to have attended it.

In fact there are a few crossover fields of interest here at UC but the depts don't seem to be communicating which is a shame - there could be a lot of stuff we're missing which would be really useful.

For instance, I know someone who is doing Law and they have had some lectures on Domestic Violence which would have been interesting for psych students.

I'm sure some of the nutrition-based unit lectures would also be interesting to psych students interested in body image issues, and even social psych in general. Here's a unit description for Nutrition, Society and Health as an example:

"This unit examines the factors influencing food habits and food choice in different populations and age groups. The social, economic, political and ecological influences on food supply and food policy will be examined. The focus includes public health nutrition, community health approaches and strategies for change. The role of agriculture and industry and the effects of income, religious beliefs, traditional cultures and social customs on food use will be discussed. Information is taken from demographic, epidemiological and anthropological sources."

I think there's a "talk to the VC" session coming up soon, maybe I'll bring this issue up with him then. It would be a very good use of resources to share information/knowledge/educational resources across divisions.

If anyone has any comment on this, let me know and I'll bring it up at the VC talk-session.

cheers
Karen
(kazwoo)