Poststructuralism and therapy: what’s it all about — Leonie Simmons

In this audio recording of a favourite paper from the journal’s archives, a team from Dulwich Centre, coordinated by Leonie Simmons, offers answers to frequently asked questions about poststructuralism and therapy. Narrative therapy is influenced by poststructuralist ideas and yet, for many of us, it can be quite a challenge to understand what poststructuralism is and what it might mean for our practice as therapists. This brief piece sets out structuralist and poststructuralist ways of seeing the world and how they have shaped therapeutic approaches.

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Read more about the article “Still standing”: Armenian revivalism and narrative practice – a story of a unique initiative — Ani Margaryan, Sara Portnoy and Heghine Poghosyan
native Australian wattle tree in full bloom featuring the typical round yellow flowers, the plant is also symbol of the country

“Still standing”: Armenian revivalism and narrative practice – a story of a unique initiative — Ani Margaryan, Sara Portnoy and Heghine Poghosyan

Having faced wars, genocide, dispossession and natural disaster, the Armenian people have a long history of finding ways to survive, drawing on history and spiritual values.

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使用神兽隐喻进行叙事实践 在中国文化背景中 Using traditional Chinese mythical animals — Wenjia Li

Metaphors invite imagination and suggest possibilities for developing multiple stories in narrative practice. Using familiar elements of the local culture as metaphors can contribute to resonant conversations. In this video, Wenjia describes how she has explored the use of traditional Chinese mythical animals as metaphors in narrative practice within the context of Chinese culture. Dominant discourses in psychology often emphasise the individual and their boundaries, which may bring about a sense of alienation for people in distress.

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Read more about the article Response to “Re-authoring identity conclusions in borderline personality disorder” — Tiffany Sostar
Albany Banksia - Banksia coccinea also scarlet, waratah or Albany banksia, erect shrub or small tree in Proteaceae in south west coast of Western Australia, red blossom in the green bush

Response to “Re-authoring identity conclusions in borderline personality disorder” — Tiffany Sostar

Tiffany Sostar is a narrative therapist and community worker living on Treaty 7 land (in Calgary, Alberta, Canada), and is part of the BPD Superpowers group. Here, Tiffany offers a response to Alicia Bruzek’s paper “Re-authoring identity conclusions in borderline personality disorder”, which is published in this issue of the journal.

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Read more about the article Re-authoring identity conclusions in borderline personality disorder — Alicia Bruzek
isopogon candy cone native western australian plant with bright pink flowers and yellow tips

Re-authoring identity conclusions in borderline personality disorder — Alicia Bruzek

This paper describes the use of narrative therapy with people who had been given a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. In a context of significant stigma against persons with this diagnosis, perpetuated both within and beyond mental health systems, this paper shows how concepts of identity developed in narrative therapy were used to resist totalising identity conclusions and uncover possibilities for hope.

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Read more about the article Response to “Body as A Picture Book: A tool for narrative conversations inspired by tattoos” by Paul Graham — Jacob Tumanako
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Response to “Body as A Picture Book: A tool for narrative conversations inspired by tattoos” by Paul Graham — Jacob Tumanako

Jacob Tumanako works with young people, families and communities intersecting with the criminal justice system. He is also a Māori man with tattoos or tā moko. Here, Jacob offers a response to Paul Graham’s paper “Body as A Picture Book: A tool for narrative conversations inspired by tattoos”, which is published in this issue of the journal.

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Body as a picture book — Paul Graham

This article introduces a tool for narrative therapy conversations with young people using tattoos as a point of entry. It is inspired by trauma-informed tattooing and discusses how elements of narrative practice can be adjusted to use in conversations about tattoos, whether real or imagined. Narrative practices of externalising, re-authoring, re-membering, the absent but implicit and outsider witnessing are demonstrated. By using a template that invites the person to imagine tattoos or body paint, conversations about tattoos are made available to people who have not been tattooed themselves, including young people.

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Read more about the article The Read Everything Michael White Published Project — Will Sherwin
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The Read Everything Michael White Published Project — Will Sherwin

This paper tells the history of The Read Everything Michael White Published Project, in which I read all the works available to me that were published by Michael White, the co-originator of narrative therapy. I describe the reading project’s conception, its effects on my work, some practices that Michael White believed were useful for therapists, tips for others considering a reading project of their own, and new initiatives this project was generative of in my work.

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We are a spider’s web: Friendship in times of mental health crisis — Frankie Hanman-Siegersma

Community responses to those experiencing mental health crisis and distress are important. However, in Australia and many other colonised countries, responses to distress have become highly medicalised, punitive, individual and privatised. Exploring friendship responses to mental health crisis may increase the possibilities for building on community connectedness and local support networks. The work described in this paper aimed to make visible the acts of care, solidarity, friendship and mutuality that friends and members of the community have taken up in response to someone close to them experiencing distress. The work was guided by intentional peer support and narrative practices including re-authoring, collective documentation and outsider witnessing.

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When grief arrives — Anne-lise Ah-Fat

When Grief Arrives is a narrative therapy and oral history project aimed at re-storying narratives of grief and loss within queer, trans and Black, Indigenous and people of colour communities. The project documents multi-storied accounts of grief that resist the individualisation and isolation of grieving that is common under settler colonialism and capitalism. By honouring overlooked landscapes of experience, the project seeks to generate solidarity and interconnection through shared knowledges. This article discusses the project’s methodology, ethical considerations, and the transformative potential of collective storytelling in fostering solidarity and healing within marginalised communities.

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Delusions: Seeking epistemic justice for the most unusual of stories — Hamilton Kennedy

The label of delusion can be so powerful that people so labelled are no longer believed or supported in preferred ways by those around them. This leads to a lack of meaningful and non-pathologising support for their significant, and at times unusual, beliefs. This phenomenon constitutes a form of epistemic injustice. To address this issue, this paper outlines specific approaches practitioners can adopt to better respond to such beliefs, illustrating these strategies with real-world examples from practice. By doing so, it aims to foster a form of epistemic justice that respects the knowledge and experience of people labelled as delusional and supports them to understand and lessen the impact of these often-distressing experiences. This paper is informed by research undertaken with people who had been labelled by psychiatry as “delusional”.

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Existimos y resistimos como retazos u nidos: Prácticas narrativas colectivas en contexto activista: Desafíos y respu estas frente a u n crimen por lesbo-odio — Yasna Mancilla Monsalve

Este artículo ilustra un proceso de trabajo metafórico y participativo en el cual un grupo de activistas feministas, lesbo-feministas y disidentes nos reunimos para responder terapéuticamente a los efectos del lesbo-odio. El contexto terapéutico se creó progresivamente, junto al despliegue de un conjunto de metáforas relacionadas con el arte textil, inspiradas en las conversaciones de reautoría propuestas por Michael White.

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Read more about the article We exist and resist as woven patches: Collective narrative practices in an activist context challenging and responding to an anti-lesbian hate crime — Yasna Mancilla Monsalve
Australian wattle background, Winter and spring yellow wildflowers, Acacia fimbriata commonly known as the Fringed Wattle or Brisbane Golden Wattle

We exist and resist as woven patches: Collective narrative practices in an activist context challenging and responding to an anti-lesbian hate crime — Yasna Mancilla Monsalve

This article describes a participatory process in which a group of feminist, lesbian feminist and dissident activists came together to respond therapeutically to the impacts of anti-lesbian hatred. The therapeutic context was created gradually, together with the deployment of a set of metaphors related to textile art, inspired by the re-authoring conversations proposed by Michael White.

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Read more about the article Caring for trans community – Tiffany Sostar
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Caring for trans community – Tiffany Sostar

This audio practice note and the collective document it describes are part of “narrative projects in support of trans lives”, and are the first to be published in this collection of work. Not to fix anything, but just to offer a millimetre of relief or breath or humour or companionship": A collective document about caring for trans community brings together many stories of care within and with trans community. Our hope is that this document will help connect readers to a sense of community and collective action, and will invite readers, regardless of gender identity, to join us in taking actions of care within a social context that is increasingly hostile to trans lives. These stories, reflection questions, and invitations describe and welcome a wide range of care, including small, personal, and beautifully imperfect actions taken by and alongside trans community.

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Read more about the article Standing upright against trauma and hardship: Checklists of innovative moments of social and psychological resistance – Muhammed Furkan Cinisli
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Standing upright against trauma and hardship: Checklists of innovative moments of social and psychological resistance – Muhammed Furkan Cinisli

Trauma represents a profound and emotionally intense experience within the human condition. Beyond its evident impacts on both the physiological and psychological dimensions of an individual, this complex phenomenon encapsulates moments of resistance and strength in the face of adversity. From a narrative standpoint, individuals invariably manifest unique responses to trauma, which necessitate a close and nuanced examination for recognition and comprehension. This article proposes a framework for the systematic collection and organisation of diverse responses to trauma through a checklist of innovative moments of social and psychological resistance, contributing to a greater comprehension of this intricate phenomenon.

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Read more about the article Narrative therapy, Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese medicine: An interview with Ming Li, Mandarin translation read by Ming Li and Qianyun Yang
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Narrative therapy, Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese medicine: An interview with Ming Li, Mandarin translation read by Ming Li and Qianyun Yang

In this audio translation of a paper from the journal’s archives, David Denborough interviews Ming Li, a narrative practitioner in Beijing, China, with an interest in the resonances he sees between some narrative ideas and practices, and those of Buddhism, Taoism and other aspects of Chinese culture, history and medicine. Ming draws on multiple domains of knowledge and experience to describe some of the congruencies and points of difference he has noticed, and to explain what draws him to using a narrative practice approach in his own context.

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Read more about the article “It’s a sausage, not a scone”: A recipe for getting through hard times in response to the suicide of a loved one – Beth and Ben Shannahan
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“It’s a sausage, not a scone”: A recipe for getting through hard times in response to the suicide of a loved one – Beth and Ben Shannahan

Ben Shannahan began meeting with Beth and her family soon after Beth’s older sister Amberly ended her own life. Their conversations lead to Beth writing a song in honour of Amberly. Here, Beth and Ben share the song along with the story of how it was written and eventually performed to family members and friends.

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Read more about the article Games and narrative practice by Noor Kulow
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Games and narrative practice by Noor Kulow

In this presentation to the International Narrative Therapy and Community Work Conference in Rwanda, Noor Kulow introduces a range of narrative practices that have been used with children in Somalia who have lost their biological parents early in life. Externalising conversations, the Team of Life approach and traditional children’s games are used to respond to stigma, reconnect children with their hopes and dreams, and respond to trauma and hardship. Movement-based activities like leapfrog and jumping, and traditional games like girir and jar, provide entry points to therapeutic conversations.

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Feminist insider research by Marnie Sather

In this presentation, made at the launch of the Narrative Practice Research Network, Marnie Sather introduces some of the possibilities and complexities of feminist insider research. Drawing on her experience of completing doctoral research with women who had lost a male partner to suicide, Marnie sets out some of the options for positioning the researcher in insider research – from not disclosing insider status to placing it as the centre – and describes how she came to a position of careful utilisation of her own experience in the research process and in the writing of her thesis.

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How we deal with Autistic burnout by KJ Wiseheart

In this video, KJ introduces the accompanying collective document “How we deal with Autistic burnout: A living document created by Autistic adults for Autistic adults”. This document was created through a series of interviews with lived experience experts who generously shared their skills and hard-won knowledges. KJ describes the process of creating this document, and how they endeavoured to adapt and localise existing practices of collective documentation, for accessibility and cultural resonance with Autistic community values and ways of being.

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A search for justice using AI-assisted image creation — Lucy Van Sambeek

As artificial intelligence becomes pervasive, therapists might be left wondering about its implications for narrative practice. This paper explores an unexpected discovery about the power of artificial intelligence in re-imagining a story of injustice. Lucy (the therapist) and Miles (the client) used an AI image creator to assist in the externalisation of problems.

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Imagination and metaphor in narrative therapy and collective practice — John Stubley

In this paper I explore the use of metaphors in the creation of externalised problem narratives for individuals and larger collectives, as well as in the creation of preferred alternative narratives. Through practice examples, I relate some of the ways in which I have been working with imagination and metaphor in my own context in Western Australia.

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The effort and intricacies of generating experience-near language – David Newman

In this paper I explore Clifford Geertz’s distinction between experience-near and experience-distant language. In the process, I draw from mad studies and mental health service user epistemology, both written and generated through my work. I also draw on the work of the historian of emotion Tiffany Watt Smith.

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The Rainbow of Life: A collective narrative practice with young LGBTQIA+ people with a health condition – James McParland and Jaymie Huckridge

This article describes the use of narrative practices for LGBTQIA+ young people with a health condition. It presents a collective narrative practice: the Rainbow of Life. This adapts the Tree of Life metaphor to invite rich story development opportunities when working with LGBTQIA+ people. It involves exploring their commitments, special moments and those who stand alongside them in solidarity, and creatively mapping these on to a rainbow image.

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An Episode of Your Life: Rich narrative engagement with episodic stories — Julie Stewart, Tiffany Sostar, Ian Myhra, Sonia Hoffmann and Jyotsna Uppal

This article describes a new practice map, an “Episode of Your Life”, which adapts existing narrative “... of life” practices to an episodic story from a person’s life using metaphors from film and television production. This practice map draws significantly on ideas of “peopling the room” and the Team of Life in order to scaffold safety in imagining the process of telling painful stories through the collectivising of the storytelling process. This practice map specifically does not require that the storyteller tell the story, but rather invites them to imagine how they might tell a story from their life in a way that aligns with their values, hopes and preferred storylines. Some of the significant effects that we discovered were related to the richness of the visual metaphor for adding another layer of possible meaning-making in the storytelling process, and allowing for a “proliferation of what’s possible” in the imagining of the storytelling, such as through the use of time jumps; computer-generated imagery; inviting rich descriptions of preferred relationships, histories and values; and dignifying of stories that otherwise might be left unspoken. Participants were left with a feeling of solidarity and a “safe riverbank” from which to imagine telling their stories.

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Psychosocial support initiatives in the aftermath of the 2023 earthquake: A university-led community approach — Mehmet Dinç and Canahmet Boz

This article discusses the response of a university psychology department to the devastating earthquakes that struck Türkiye on 6 February 2023, resulting in significant loss of life and widespread destruction. This paper focuses on the narrative practices undertaken by a university psychology department in the affected region, particularly the establishment of a psychological support telephone line staffed by volunteer psychologists.

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Safety and solidarity: Using collective documents to share sex workers’ insider knowledges — Julia Sharp

Western culture and Western health care systems have created places of sexual health care that are highly individualised, privatised and professionalised. For people engaged in sex work, this reduces the possibilities for sharing skills and knowledges and instead leaves people with internalised feelings of shame, guilt and isolation. This paper describes collective therapeutic work that elicited insider knowledges, skills and sparkling moments from sex workers.

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Departing from stigma and secrecy and elevating stories of agency: Narrative practice in the voices of sex workers — Kaur Serendipity

This paper explores the use of narrative therapy and community work to respond to the complexities surrounding women’s experiences in the sex industry. It offers practices for therapists and community workers seeking to engage with sex workers in ways that are respectful of their hard-won knowledge and seek to elicit double-storied accounts in relation to hardship, thicken stories of preferred identities, and explore absent-but-implicit values, hopes and commitments.

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Read more about the article My album, by Chaste Uwihoreye, Jean Marie Zivugukuri and Emmanuel Kigundu
Snow gum trees (Eucalyptus pauciflora) in Baw Baw National Park, Australia.

My album, by Chaste Uwihoreye, Jean Marie Zivugukuri and Emmanuel Kigundu

My Album is a poignant collection of artworks by children and adolescents engaged in “Mobile Arts for Peace” (MAP) clubs across multiple schools in Rwanda. The artworks vividly portray painful pasts, current challenges, and aspirations for the future. The vibrant tapestry of colours, symbols, and metaphors encapsulates the resilience and courage of these young people.

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Indigenous storyWORK as research by Tileah Drahm-Bulter

First Nations peoples have been conducting research for millennia. As research methodology, Indigenous storywork puts Indigenous voices at the centre, transforming colonial structures by countering colonial stories that have spread across our land and claimed space. Indigenous storywork might also be thought of as a prequel to narrative practice. It offers synergies for First Nations therapists, community workers and scholars to understand contemporary issues in alignment with Indigenous world views.

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On critical thinking by Mary Heath, read by Mary Heath

In this audio recording of a favourite paper from the journal’s archives, Mary Heath sets out a personal history of her journey toward becoming a critical thinker. She considers two common barriers to critical thinking: cultural disapproval of critique, and confusing critical thinking with criticism. In response, Mary argues that rigorous thinking offers benefits – and not only risks – to cultures as well as individuals.

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