Reminder4mila

reminda4mila is to serve as a reminder for me on my assignment on the therapeutic use of stories. Decided to paste the article below from Alex from the link he sent us. I thought that was a clever idea for me b4 I get lost in the woods again...

Workshop Day - 28^th June 2009

Online Group Tutorial 1 -Wed 8^th July

Online Group Supervision -Wed 29^th July 8pm – 10pm

Online Group Tutorial 2 - Thurs 6^th Aug '09 8pm – 10pm

Action Learning Set Submission Date of Group Presentation

15^th August 2009

Personal Learning Journal Final Submission Date

22^nd August 2009

Therapeutic Use of Stories For Growth and Healing

Summary

This module introduces the participants to the therapeutic use of stories, with individuals, family and groups. Its therapeutic uses are wide ranging and diverse due to its universal healing and growth-promoting powers. The power of the story is immense and has been central to our human evolution. In this module it will address the use of stories for emotional and psychological assessment, for achieving therapeutic intentions such as development of self-esteem, psychological adaptation, problem solving, search for meaning, life review etc. It will address how it could be use for a wide range of problem or need context and client groups from different phases of their life span..

This is a six weeks learning cycle module and commences with a day workshop in week one. The workshop provides participants with an overview of the area of study as well as outlining the associated basic skills. Participants will be invited to formulate their questions relevant to their clinical context. This provides the focus for their own individual action learning. The individual will be allocated to an action learning set (ALS). A problem scenario pertinent to achieving the module outcomes is presented to the ALS. The ALS engages as a learning team in organising themselves to enquire, research, discuss and formulate their solutions to the presenting problem scenario. The ALS present and publish their group findings and receive feedback from the facilitator and from the other ALS by week six. The learning activities are supported by two 2-hourly online group tutorial session for each set during week two and week five. An online group supervision is provided to each ASL in week four/five to facilitate skills implementation and evaluation. The individual participant is expected to keep a personal learning journal of their learning experiences throughout the six week cycle. This is to include an evaluation and the learning acquired from their efforts in implementing the skills relevant to the module in their own respective work environment.

Aims

This module is intended to provide participants with the opportunity to develop the basic foundation skills of therapeutic story making and telling. It enables the participants to make sense of the personal stories of their clients. Such understanding takes into account that within client’s narratives, the source for such narratives may arise from the client’s subconscious, unconscious and collective unconscious. They are implicitly expressed through imagery, fantasy and contained by symbols and metaphors within the story. The module introduces the participant to such skills as crafting stories that could be shared with clients, stories which have the potential to activate and resonate the healing process from within, enabling the client to work through the difficulties and challenges they encounter. This module is one of the many interrelated modules of creative arts therapy which participants may decide to subscribe to in their CPPD. Other related areas of the creative arts therapy pathway are the use of small world play, role playing, puppets and masks etc. etc.

Intended Outcomes

At the end of the this module, the participant will be able to

· Develop an increasing an awareness of the therapeutic potential in creating, telling and listening of stories

· Begin to consider the therapeutic use metaphors and symbols within the narrative of the story

· Consider how stories could help in the assessment, identification and evaluation of therapeutic progress of actual and potential issues, underlying problems and needs of client(s)

· Utilise facilitative skills to effectively engage clients to tell their ‘stories’ and in helping healing stories to be heard.

Indicative Contents

*The specific contents of each respective module in the CPPD programme is dependent on the baseline knowledge and skills of the participants of the cohort. As the programme adopts an action learning approach to learning, the problems and challenges of practice that participants bring to the module will to a large extent determine the contents of the module. The content will be pertinent to the necessary relevant skills and knowledge required to address the issues brought forth. The indicative contents listed below provide a suggestive area of focus and is negotiable with each cohort.

· The skills of story telling and the use of props

· Understanding the therapeutic use of symbols and metaphors in myths, fairy tales and stories

· Assessment of inner psychological an emotional landscapes through story created

· The use mutual or reciprocal story making,

· Using story building models and frameworks - 6 Part Story Making Model, Monomyths

· Developing and using creative triggers to stimulate the imaginative faculties in story initiation

· Skills of facilitation in helping individuals to tell their stories and being a witness to the stories

· Exploring psychological themes in stories told and stories heard

· Sourcing ‘off the shelf’ stories that are cultural and developmentally appropriate to the listener and intent of the story teller.

· Use of stories for different age related and issues related client groups

Assessment

· Attendance of the module workshop

· Satisfactory participation and contribution to the action learning set which is peer evaluated and assessed.

· Provide satisfactory evidence of critical self-reflection, analysis, evaluation and synthesis in their personal learning journal

Reference

Specific references, reading lists or bibliography will be provided as the group progresses in their engagement with their action learning sets and determine by direction and area of their learning interest and research. The reference below is intended to provide a brief introduction to area of study.

• Gersie, A, King, N, (1997) Storymaking in Education and Therapy Jessica Kingsley
• Sunderland, M,. (2001)Using Story Telling as a Therapeutic Tool with Children Speechmark Publishing Ltd
• http://home.swipnet.se/~w-73784/golden.htm