Narrative Groupwork with Young Women – and Their Mobile Phones— Judith Milner

This paper describes part of a narrative project with a small group of fourteen/fifteenyear-old young women attending a pupil referral unit following their exclusion from mainstream schooling. Narrative therapy promotes the idea of engaging with the experiences and meaning of people in whichever way or shape the expression of this meaning occurs. In this instance it involved a deliberate decision on the part of the therapist to include group members’ conversations on their mobile phones. These conversations had the effect of recruiting a wider audience, facilitating the expression and enactment of alternative ways of being, and developing a support network.