2022: Issue 4 Archives - The Dulwich Centre

Engaging with imagery in the context of grief after suicide — Miguel Feliciano

Dulwich Centre — Wed, 03 May 2023 04:49:43 +0000

Following a loved one’s suicide, bereaved persons are sometimes revisited by pain in the form of intrusive imagery. This paper focuses on externalising intrusive imagery. It also addresses the potential for imagery to be evoked to support re-membering conversations. Through the use of narrative practices, an image can become a site where new, preferred meaning can be made.

Feliciano, M. (2022). Engaging with imagery in the context of grief after suicide. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (4), 54–61. https://doi.org/10.4320/ELJR5699

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The power of hope in action: Raising Our Heads Above the Clouds Facilitation Guide — Caleb Wakhungu

Dulwich Centre — Wed, 03 May 2023 04:48:54 +0000

This facilitation guide has been created to assist practitioners to use the ‘Raising our heads above the clouds’ methodology from the Mt Elgon Self-Help Community Project. It first outlines the local values that this approach is built on. It then outlines the narrative assumptions and principles that underpin it before taking the reader through each of the steps of the process. The paper also includes stories from practitioners in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda and reflections about how this approach fosters community economy through collective narrative practice.

Wakhungu, C. (2022). The power of hope in action: Raising Our Heads Above the Clouds Facilitation Guide. International
Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (4), 29–53. https://doi.org/10.4320/CHDS4491

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Resisting the cycle of apocalyptic overwhelm: Exploring place, spiritualities and acts of resistance in the face of climate crisis — Chelsea Size

Dulwich Centre — Wed, 03 May 2023 04:33:40 +0000

This paper considers the confronting existential realities of the climate crisis and ways in which narrative practices can be used to help resist overwhelm and sustain climate activism. Recognising that stories shape our lives and the life of our planetary home, the paper examines both broad systemic issues and the everyday effects of living in a time of climate crisis. Recognition is given to modern/colonial ways of being and anti-colonial practices. Narrative questions are offered in connection to three themes: place, spiritualities and acts of resistance. The paper documents rich stories, insider knowledges and skills of living to invite further exploration of collective practice to respond to the climate crisis in urgent and significant ways.

Size, C. (2022). Resisting the cycle of apocalyptic overwhelm: Exploring place, spiritualities and acts of resistance in the face of climate crisis. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (4), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4320/IMRA1814

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To leave or not to leave — Ng Joyce

Dulwich Centre — Wed, 03 May 2023 04:33:38 +0000

Michael White described therapy as ‘joining with people around issues that are particularly relevant and pressing to them’. At the moment, considerations about staying or leaving are on the minds of a lot of people in Hong Kong. This paper seeks to demonstrate the application of narrative practice in supporting people to respond to the challenges associated with leaving the land we call home. It addresses different moments in the migration experience, from making the decision and preparing for departure, to finding ways to maintain connection with people and places when separated by distance. The skills and knowledge that participants developed through each of these stages were recorded in a series of collective documents that tell a different story about the resilience of Hongkongers during this period in history, and their eagerness to contribute to others experiencing similar predicaments.

Ng, J. (2022). To leave or not to leave: Stories of migration from Hong Kong. International Journal of Narrative Therapy
and Community Work, (4), 12–28. https://doi.org/10.4320/CFKB4047

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Bearing witness, externalising and re-authoring — Franca Butera-Prinzi, Nella Charles and Karen Story

Dulwich Centre — Wed, 03 May 2023 03:34:26 +0000

A response to Joanna Bayes’ ‘Narrative therapy in trauma care'

Butera-Prinzi, F., Charles, N., & Story, K. (2022). Bearing witness, externalising and re-authoring: A response to Joanna Bayes’s ‘Narrative therapy in trauma care’. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (4), 68–71. https://doi.org/10.4320/AZAV1849

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Narrative therapy in trauma care — Joanna Bayes

Dulwich Centre — Wed, 03 May 2023 03:26:19 +0000

The telling of stories is how we make sense of our lives. With trauma, our understandings of our stories are dramatically altered and somewhat reduced. This is particularly so when a patient has a near-death experience, multiple serious injuries and must be passive in order to survive. There is a need to rebuild a narrative in which the person is active, congruent and competent. My story starts with falling off a balcony on the first night of a holiday. Initially I adapted poorly to the loss of agency that is essential to recovery. I clashed with the intensive-care nurses as I fought to protect myself from pain within a state of sedation, delirium and confusion. Trauma deeply disturbs and destabilises a person’s sense of themselves. It can permanently impair many facets of our lives and damage our relationships to family and community. The collaborative and interactional process of narrative therapy can rebuild agency and empower trauma survivors. It can help prevent the patient from extending trauma-related vulnerability, damage and passivity into the future. It can assist with processing trauma and gently fostering new stories to incorporate the uniqueness, depth and complexity of trauma and human lives.

Bayes, J. (2022). Narrative therapy in trauma care. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work,
(4), 62–67. https://doi.org/10.4320/GNEH6840

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