Documents & Audiences
Narrative practices have a rich history of creating and sharing documents and engaging audiences. Here we look at a number of different ways of doing this!
Image from Shaun Tan’s book – The Red Tree
One of the early defining characteristics of narrative therapy was the creative use of documentation or the written word.
In this video presentation, David Newman describes the ways in which he is using living documents with young people in an inpatient ward.
Further reading:
Here is an earlier paper by David Newman describing his use of the written work within narrative therapeutic practice: Rescuing the said from the saying of it by David Newman
This paper illustrates how we can use four different categories of document. Examples of each of the following documents are offered and the author also shares some of his experiences, dilemmas and learnings in creating therapeutic documentation.
Letters recording a session
Documents of knowledge and affirmation
News documents &
Documents to contribute to rites of passage
Using Therapeutic Documents Hugh Fox
Ncazelo Nucbe-Mlilo is a Zimbabwean psychologist and narrative therapist living and working in South Africa. Here, she introduces the ‘Narratives in the suitcase’ project which seeks to use journey metaphors and creative documentation to assist child refugees.
This work is inspired by the work of Glynis Clacherty and The Suitcase Project (see link below). It also draws upon ideas from Sherri Osborn.
In this paper we read responses to the following 8 questions.
1. What is meant by the term outsider witness?
2. Why is it important for there to be witnesses to preferred stories?
3. What is the history of these ideas and ways of working?
4. What are definitional ceremonies?
5. What sort of responses do outsider witnesses make?
6. What are some of the common hazards of outsider-witness practice and how can these be avoided? Do you have any helpful hints about these?
7. What are the different contexts in which outsider-witness work takes place?
8. What do you enjoy most about outsider-witness practices?
Marilyn O’Neill, Hugh Fox, Gaye Stockell, Anne Schober, Jeff Zimmerman, Emily Sued & Dirk Kotzé all provided material which Maggie Carey, Shona Russell compiled and which David Denborough’s editing and writing brought together in the following article.
Outsider Witness Practices Paper
For Reflection
What forms of documentation might be most relevant or resonant in your context?
Are there particular ideas or practices you found within these materials you might draw on in your future meetings with people?
Have any of these questions got you hooked? Have you got another question you would like to pose to those joining you in this online learning? Please let us know below! Please include where you are writing from (City and Country). Thanks!
Nancy C.
May 30, 2023This chapter has given me ideas of how I can help people to creatively engage in expressing their journey and thickening their second story. The Narrative in a Suitcase project has really inspired me on how to encourage richer descriptions.
rmgarland
May 22, 2023Hello, Megan from Hamilton, Victoria, Australia here. Wow. This section flipped my thinking upside down. As an experienced teacher, I regularly have clients writing as we work, brainstorming lists, recording feelings, teasing out conflicting and confusing thoughts, etc. When I started to read this section about writing “letters’, though, I really thought, “Who has time for that??! And what if my clients are literacy challenged?” Bullet points, short thoughts, that’s what I work with. However, you convinced me of the value of this methodology. I see its power in the different ways it was used, including in individual client work, which is what I do.
And then the outsider-witness concept – how shockingly powerful too. I liked the statement by the last writer: “Outsider-witness practices enable a link to be made between what happens in the therapy room and the rest of a person’s life.” I am keen to see if we can explore this with at least one of my current clients and their significant family members.
Isaac from Yakima, Washington, USA.
This is a very power technique because it uses a blend of many things: relationship, empowerment, and story. The ability to give people a voice that have lost it through the words of others as jump-points, as well as listening to them with outside observers really does work powerfully. It is through the mutual edification of others that we can form a better picture of what’s around us and that’s what this material highlights.
I serve with formerly incarcerated individuals as well as those on the hunt for jobs and there is a wide range of stories and experiences. In my classroom I have the sacred trust of being able to create a hospitable environment where people can talk and discuss without judgment the struggles they are going through. The value of having this in written form is that the living document can continue to speak when the words won’t come (as mentioned in the aforementioned papers). The goal of a teacher is to inspire by bringing both invitation and challenge to the lives of students. The strength of the teacher lies not in the lecture, but in the “Aha!” moments of self-discovery and self-actualization. My joy comes when I see students bouncing excitement off of each other and resonating back and forth. It is a beautiful melody. I definitely see the value of having outside witnesses listening and adding imagery, learning to not be condescending through praise, and keeping my mouth shut for the majority of the time. I also see the power of using online tools like this forum to help people process their words and stories. As we have seen through countless situations of bullying where people feel they can say whatever they want online because of the screen distancing themselves, this can also be a tool harnessed for good where those who have encountered trauma or hard situations can use the screen to type in a dissociative way and analyze their situation without triggering the shut-off responses.
Words have power and the more I can let others unlock them, the more empowered they become to write their own story and take ownership of it.
dyc123
May 19, 2023Hi!
My name is Dawn and I live in Ontario, Canada. I found inspiration from listening from David Newman’s video involving the tearing down of walls that prohibit people from reaching out and seeking help, due to their inability to communicate effectively through language. That is where living documents can help those who find difficulty expressing their experiences of trauma.
I also resonated with the practice of procuring outside witnesses to reflect on the client’s worldviews, which offers acknowledgment and validation to the client, who can transport their experiences outside of their own heads to be shared with others who have experienced similar trauma/anxiety. (Definitional Ceremonies).
charlieobree@gmail.com
May 14, 2023What forms of documentation might be most relevant or resonant in your context? – I think for me letters recording a session and documents of knowledge and affirmation would be most relevant. Giving helping people shape the notes of the session would dramatically increase their sense of agency and their sense of respect and feelings of being an expert in their ow experience. Documents of knowledge would be really helpful for recalling skills and knowledge that they have worked out is helpful.
Are there particular ideas or practices you found within these materials you might draw on in your future meetings with people? – Outsider Witness! That is a revolutionary practice that I will be using with my work with families and young people! My mind is exploding with ideas! thickening people’s preferred narrative with their community in a therapeutic way would take some organizing but I can see the transformative impact.
Elena Brieño
May 5, 2023Elena From Cd. Juarez, México.
This lesson was rich and exciting because it gave me the necessary knowledge to work with my clients actively. In my experience with the clients I work with, I considered that the documents of Authority and the documents of circulation would make a big difference in the therapeutic practice because clients with emotional pain are frequently seen as having a poor auto concept. They have a lot of limited thinking that will take them at a disadvantage position.
ahunt
May 3, 2023I found this chapter to be very interesting. I think having clients write documents of their stories could be so helpful and draw on people’s creative sides. What really resonated for me was the documentation of the learning in session in writing make it more permanent. Verbally summaries are fleeting but writing it on paper gives it more weight and allows the person to continue to reflect on the concepts repeatedly. It lasts longer than the impact of the verbal conversation. I am also intrigued by the Outsider Witness. At first I was worried about confidentiality and privacy but with consent, I can see how impactful it would be for a client to hear how their story resonated with another, It strikes me that the concept of the Outsider Witness could be particularly meaningful in cultural communities that are more group or family centric rather that individual centric.
Jason Gorbett
May 1, 2023I found David Newman’s presentation quite compelling. I understand how sometimes the words just won’t come, but the ink will flow. There is a non-confrontational aspect to sitting down with pen and paper. I also love the living document aspect, reading what other people have written can help us see how others have coped with the same problem, but also reassure us that we’re not alone. I can see many applications for the documents approach.
Nina Mc
May 1, 2023This was a wonderful section. I love the idea of creating a suitcase and giving people in group a project of collating ideas to help future groups. I think that act empowers by its very nature and is a wonderful idea. I can imagine this being helpful in a charity I volunteer for that helps grieving children. Thank you!
Lynn
March 30, 2023I am grateful for learning about creative ideas on documentation. I tend to consider documentation to be boring, official and factual messages about problems. I am excited to learn and try different ways of documentation. This chapter inspired me to reflect on potential of positive charting, which includes problems, resources, affirmations and their efforts, determinations and so on. I tried to invite a client to draw a picture of her life and she drew a garden and made meaning of the history of this garden and her hope for it. It shifted the focus from them to the garden, which made them more comfortable taking and sharing and generated really interesting and Indepth reflections. I also agree that letters, musics, poems are great forms of documentations.
ytydc
March 21, 2023ty from hong kong.
What forms of documentation might be most relevant or resonant in your context?
1. Letters work a lot for me when writing novels. It has been already a long period of time since I first sensed that protagonists might use letters to communicate better with each other (and with the outside readers) when they found it difficult to directly speak what they felt. Letters seem to have the magic for things to be better said, explained, and accepted. Though such writings are not directly related to therapies, I think it is relevant. (In the real world, sometimes when I feel my inner feelings are just too bitter to deal with, I write to myself, where I describe what has happened to me and what now I am feeling, but do not judge, suggest, or push me to do things. That helps.)
2. Documents of knowledge and affirmation are very helpful in terms of providing volunteer service for patients, especially pediatric patients. In my volunteer service and my research thereon, I have witnessed how adults try to comfort pediatric patients. Those patients are young, some very little, and have suffered from education deprivation and social isolation so many of them cannot follow adults’ dialogue topics or cannot enjoy such a chat, as they do not have “rich” enough life experiences to exchange with volunteers (healthy adults having a whole life out of hospital). So volunteers turn to invite those patients to express what they want to and can say. Some children talk about very tiny things, such as a sweater, a meal, a scene outside of their ward window, or a new word their nurses do not say often. Volunteers then give very clear and strong affirmation that they have heard of what the patient said and that they do agree with what they said (“Oh yes, I think your sweater is lovely.” “I agree with you that the rice looks a bit too soft.” etc). By that affirmation, the patients feel they themselves are heard, their ways of seeing the world and talking about the world, and their ways of BEING IN THE WORLD are affirmed and accepted. They are therefore accepted social creatures related to others. Patients can enjoy relief and comfort thereby.
mcosta_01
March 21, 2023Writing from Philadelphia, PA – USA.
What forms of documentation might be most relevant or resonant in your context?
Letter writing is perhaps the most relevant form of documentation for my current context. I work on an inpatient psychiatric unit for young adults, as well as a unit for members of the LGBTQ community. I often run a group where we talk about externalizing (I show them the clip of The Black Dog) and then end the group with a letter writing activity during which everyone writes a letter to the problem they have externalized. After they are done, I ask whoever is comfortable to share their letter with the group. Usually there is hesitancy, but once one person volunteers, many of the patients follow suit. I have noticed that in writing their letters, patients often “befriend” their problems, or at the very least acknowledge why their problem exists and what they can learn from the problem. This acknowledgement always excites me, as I am often reiterating to patients that there are no “bad” or “good” emotions, just comfortable and uncomfortable emotions, and we can learn a lot about ourselves and our values from our uncomfortable feelings. This is a rather different approach than our CBT or DBT therapists take, and I’ve noticed many patients find this take refreshing and relieving. Rather than trying and failing to get rid of their problem, or their uncomfortable emotions, through reframing, medication, unhealthy/healthy coping skills – they are able to accept the presence of pain, give that pain a name, and learn what they can from the pain. Writing a letter to this pain usually helps the patients let go, or loosen the grip their dominant problem-saturated story has on their lives.
Learning about narrative therapy in general as a counselor in training has been eye-opening. It seems to be easily combined with other modalities that intrigue me like Acceptance and Commitment therapy and Emotion-focused therapy. Really falling in love with this work, and getting so much more out of it than I got from years of receiving CBT and DBT therapy as a client.
Are there particular ideas or practices you found within these materials you might draw on in your future meetings with people?
The narratives in the suitcase project got me thinking more about different art activities I could do in group therapy where I work, or with individual clients once I start my internship. Outsider-witness practices were harder for me to envision myself utilizing in the United States due to the limitations of insurance and the confidentiality laws that go along with insurance and the ethical codes for LPC in America (many of which are based in white colonialist ideologies). However, I do think outsider witness practices could be utilized in a group therapy session where clients are using insurance to pay for sessions. I am sure there are other ways to utilize outsider witness practices with individuals, which is something I’d be interested in exploring after getting more experience in the field and after receiving my counseling license.
Olena
March 14, 2023For me, the most relevant documents are the letters recording the session and the letters of knowledge. I’ve actually been using them in my practice, so now im very happy I’ve found a confirmation that it is useful and valuable. The letters of circulation and of the rite of passage as of now seem very unusual for me, but im sure I will use them in future.
The practices or ideas that might be useful for me is that the letters recording the sessions will be structured as stories, not as reports, which I used before
Olena fron Dubai, UAE
Olena
March 14, 2023Thank you for this chapter which was really very useful for me.
In my context most relevant forms of documentation would be the letters recording a session and documents of knowledge. These I have actually been using intuitively, so im very happy now that I also found some grounds for that.
The other two types – the documents of circulation and of rite of passage right now sound quite new and unusual to me, but I think I will start using them in the future as well.
The ideas for my future work with people are that the letters will definitely be more structured as stories, rather than reports, which I used before. I think this is the main idea.
Also I like the idea of sharing the story with the audience rather than keeping it strictly private. of course, taking into account any sensitive issues and consequences for the clients’ lives.
Olena from Dubai. UAE
jo_zimmerman
March 13, 2023What forms of documentation might be most relevant or resonant in your context?
I really like the idea of positive documenting in form of letters or emails to the person after each session and possibly a longer one when the person choses to finish up. This would be so valuable for both parts to see how far they have come and what they managed to work through and what learnings and insights they have gained during their time together.
Are there particular ideas or practices you found within these materials you might draw on in your future meetings with people? I loved the suitcase project especially the ones made up like a collage at the end of the video where the children’s different journeys were illustrated like a river. I have done this exercise myself once, The river of life exercise. It was such a great way to reflect over my time on earth as multiple stories came back to me when doing it. This made me feel both proud and humbled over all the lessons that I learned along the way and that my life and my story is mine and only mine.
susan fagerland
March 10, 2023Hello from Yarra Junction, Victoria, Australia.
What forms of documentation might be most relevant or resonant in your context?
I guess that would depend on the person who was sitting in front of me, and as Mark from the previous unit stated if something is not working modify what you say or what you do to benefit the person who has had the courage to ask for help. I loved the idea of a living document that can help people find their language through the language of others. Reading the way other people have felt a similar situation can help you find the words for your feelings about a situation. The idea of a picture would be an amazing idea for people of all ages as the artwork could be developed for the person’s abilities and allows them to get creative with the solutions. I am inspired by the creativity of the people in these units.
Are there particular ideas or practices you found within these materials you might draw on in your future meetings with people?
I will definitely use the ideas above as a fun creative way for people to get involved especially if they are struggling to put their feelings/emotions into words. These suggestions will benefit those who struggle to say what they mean.
Chereen Moreau
March 2, 2023Kia ora koutou (Hello everyone),
Writing to you from Tamaki Mākauri, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand).
I love the practice of “rescuing the said from the saying of it.” So often in life we say things and then wish we had recorded it because it had so much meaning but we couldn’t remember all the details of what we had said.
What forms of documentation might be most relevant or resonant in your context?
In my context, I have found that using poems created from the words clients have spoken, is a doorway into thickening the alternative story. Many of my clients have said after reading their poems that they could not believe they said that. This brings to life the idea of “rescuing the said from the saying of it.”
Are there particular ideas or practices you found within these materials you might draw on in your future meetings with people?
The ideat that resonates so much with me is the written form given back to clients and how this contributes to the continuing growth of a rich alternative story.
jennyheraghty
February 17, 2023Writing from Mareeba, FNQ, land of the Muluridji mob and others
I love the concept of capturing what is said from the saying of it. I have used between session emails in my practice to remind people about what was discussed and the objectives of the week or fortnight. After studying this chapter I will be more mindful of using people’s own words in emails while describing strengths and aims. I believe all the documentations described are important and useful, but I am not clear on what news documentation are. Are they are documents which get circulated to a support team?
I think the sharing of documentations of knowledges and coping tips is a wonderful idea, the “said” is truly rescued and put to good use. I will certainly put this practice to use in my meetings with people.
I look forward to the upcoming chapters.
Regards
Jenny
Jane from Adelaide on Kaurna land, South Australia.
What forms of documentation might be most relevant or resonant in my context? Emails – reflecting on conversations had earlier with friends, then later on exchanging emails with them to go back over concerns that came up, how the concerns were discussed and what/how/why they resonated with me.
Are there particular ideas or practices you found within these materials you might draw on in your future meetings with people? Many aspects of Outsider Witness practice have applications beyond the therapy setting: within any social setting where a caring group of people come together and listen to the narrative of a member of that group, it is reasonable for the members of that group to listen in a supportive manner, not judge the speaker, focus on their attempts to paint a better picture of themselves and reflect resonant aspects of that story. When I think of meaningful and memorable conversations I’ve had with friends, family and colleagues over the years, it’s these qualities of support that stand out. I can continue to apply these skills with a broader appreciation of the full, proven scope and effect outsider witnesses.
Robin McAnenay
January 11, 2023The use of letters to people in the context of my work would carry a lot of value. We encourage a lot of reflection and work very closely with people to develop their reflective capacities. Often some of the ‘light bulb moments’ people have can be lost or forgotten when stress or anxiety near appear for them. While we do capture these moments and conversations in case notes, which are shared with everyone, case notes are a professional document meant for files, not for use and reference by the person themselves. The use of the person’s own language fed back to them in an accessible way such as a letter would be quite powerful, and practical.
I envisage rites of passage work being quite valuable for supporting families to see the work that a particular person has done as well. I imagine this would encourage other family members to begin to see the person in a new light or with a new appreciation which may serve as a fresh start in a difficult or fractured relationship.
I am writing from the land of the Turrbal people in Queensland, Australia.
jrichmo5
January 6, 2023Hello I am Jessica Richmond writing from Hong Kong.
I truly found outsider witnesses to be fascinating. . I appreciate how collaborative narrative therapy is. Not only is it collaborative between the therapist and the client, but it also invites others into the therapy space. These can be individuals in the client’s life, other professionals, or individuals who have been impacted similarly to the client. In this approach, narrative therapy takes a unique approach to collaboration. After reading about people’s experiences with outsider witnesses, I learned how empowering the experience can be. I also appreciate that by inviting outsiders into the therapeutic process, the client can now directly voice the changes they have made to others in a safe environment while having others affirm the new narrative the client would like to live.
Hello again from Perth, Western Australia.
Thank you for yet another hugely informative and engaging chapter. I absolutely love the quote from the wonderful author, Jeanette Winterson; ‘We get our language back through the language of others.’ The power of sharing stories is felt by both the sharer and the reader. There is healing too in knowing that your story inspires others. I will be applying this thinking to a lived experience document that I will create for my clients because, as you say, when we’re overwhelmed it is hard to find the language to tell our story. Finding other people’s stories that resonate with our clients will help tease out what needs to come out. I look forward to capturing these words for my clients and ‘rescuing the said from the saying of it’.
shilaavissa
January 5, 2023Greetings from Vancouver, BC, on the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.
Ncazelo Ncube-Mlilo’s sharing on the Suitcase Project deeply resonates with me. I mainly work in group/community-based contexts, and often find that activities that involve creativity, fun, and playfulness to be the most engaging and powerful. This is why I find her approach to be incredibly relevant to my work. Not only that it encourages participants to connect with their own alternative stories (and thickening them), it also provides opportunities to ‘bear witness’ to each others’ alternative stories through ways other than the verbal language. Depending on the community I work with, different metaphors can be used, such as “My Recipe”.
I look forward to incorporating this community-oriented narrative practice in the future.
Kevin O’Sullivan
January 4, 2023I realise that I have done this in a fairly ad hoc fashion and that I have not really paid documents the attention they deserve. Since competing the module, I have begun to do it much more systematically. I have been using emails, where I open an email at the beginning of our conversation, or sometimes part way through, and add in points the person I’m talking to wants to remember. As we finish, I press ‘send’. I also print out knowledges that can ton on the fridge, sometimes laminated, sometimes not, or smaller versions that can fit in a wallet or purse. Other documents have included poems, letters, dialogues (between externalised features) and with people who are more visual than verbal, they have created drawings and in one case used this as a screen saver, so that they remember it. This module has encouraged me to be really creative with the modality of the documents.
Bec Acuto
December 22, 2022Hi everyone, I am writing from Melbourne, Australia, on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.
What forms of documentation might be the most relevant or resonant in your context?
I can see that all types of documentation may be relevant in the work i do within a hospital. Letters recording an interaction and documents of knowledge and affirmation, this information and being able to share and spread those preferred stories with family and support networks would be very relevant to our role where the voice of the child can be hard to hear.
Are there particular ideas or practices you found within these materials you might draw on in your future meetings with people?
I really like the idea of talking to the problem such as ‘what we say back to despair’ which can be really useful in getting our families to recognise the steps they are taking to reduce the problem, even if only slightly and help to recognise who knows what is happening. And the focus on thickening stories to focus on hopes and dreams of children would be very useful.
shannahroston
December 15, 2022I form of documentation that resonated with my practice and population is the Narrative letters. I have found it is a meaningful means to communicate with client your understanding of the relationship or a conversation. It is also something that is tangeable, spoken words can often be misunderstood, twisted or misremembered. A Narrative letter can serve as a reference or reminder of skills the client has but may be unable to bring to mind.
In my work with youth who are in the United States foster system, the activity with the suitcases would be powerful. It is a way for them to become grounded in thier story, history and identity while the world around them is unstable. Helping them to identify for themselves characteristics of resilience.
Jasmine
December 12, 2022I’m writing from Butchulla Country (Hervey Bay, QLD) and I am reflecting on how true it is that sometimes the spoken word can be so confronting….and that we may not be able to ‘find’ our words in some instances (especially if experiencing chaos, trauma, shock, loss, grief, etc).
How wonderful to have some extra tools to use in the future, with knowledge of these living documents, and knowing that it is ok to work on getting our own language back through the language of others. I think that may be so useful to take away any pressure from people I am working with in the future.
I also hope to use ‘Outsider Witnessing’ techniques to help people seeking to author new stories about their lives!
jtaylor089
December 1, 2022James, from Victoria, Australia.
What forms of documentation might be most relevant or resonant in your context?
Documents of knowledge and affirmations: utilised as a strategy to remind the individual of steps/ action to take in that moment of distress, or overwhelmed with negative thoughts. These are similar to distress tolerance, crisis survival skills, and breathing practises to self-regulate through parasympathetic activation – but can be added to small cards that use the individuals language in order for them to understand it in their way.
Are there particular ideas or practices you found within these materials you might draw on in your future meetings with people?
Documents of knowledge and affirmations as mentioned above.
I also like rites of passage in a document sense but also in a verbal sense in conversation with a client to commend/ acknowledge achievements and progress that they have made.
kanoyes
November 28, 2022Working with the client to write a letter to make requests and present themselves seems like an idea that I could employ. The email could also be used. I like the idea of the client sending a letter to themselves. Because of the way the postal system works, a client could send a letter out intentionally to a wrong address. The post office would “return to sender” the letter. Because time would have passed the client could compare the narrative of the current self to that of the self that wrote the returned letter. The client then could redo the exercise and in this way might reveal some shift in their perspective.
I like the idea of making marks in clay tablets which could be tactilely manipulated to engage writing, hands, and calming mechanisms. Somehow the fact that words scratched into clay are less permanent than words written on paper or in an email can be a comfort.
Short documents could also be helpful. For instance, the client (writing on a piece of paper that looks like a Mastodon post or a Reddit post) could post about themselves in a third person perspective. Alternatively the client could write a short blurb for a job posting that reads, for example “Seeking a more confident person in the workplace who does not evade confrontation.” Whatever the client would write would be grounds for exploration and perspective shifting.
Prior Lake, Minnesota, United States
Crystal O'Gorman
November 22, 2022I have used documents to record a session, as a reminder of the statement of position mapping (externalization & values), and documents of knowledge during therapeutic progress. Clients have always responded kindly to these letters, saying it helped them feel understood and cared for while offering motivation to continue to improve their well-being. I like the idea of better-incorporating clients into the creation and usage of these documents. By first getting their feedback on how they hope to use them and giving them the opportunity to write a letter or words of encouragement about their journey toward well-being to share with future clients.
When working with a client who experienced sexual trauma, I had her write about the experience and then rewrite the alternate story after understanding how she’d cared for herself even during a traumatic experience. This was life-changing for her, but she preferred this mode of communication and it might not work well for everyone.
As a writer myself, I like sending a final letter at the end of therapy as a gift to clients that discusses the problem, our work together, and their strengths and growth. I believe it ritualizes the significance of our time together and gives them a place to go back and appreciate their accomplishments. I will be adding the option of them writing a note of encouragement to future clients as a way of paying it forward — I think that’s such a wonderful idea!
lisa.jordan2020
November 9, 2022I work as an Art Therapist and find all forms of documentation supportive. At the end of our overall sessions we review art that has text and meaning, we discuss interpretations and share thoughts that are relevant to the client.
I will try to use the letter for recording after my sessions. In a next step I would like to experiment with the writing of poems or other literary texts made by the clients. I have made a very good experience with creative writing by doing a cluster of words first and a short writing for 10 minutes in a clinical setting. But for now I am really inspired by your great ideas to use the documentation in a creative and helpful way. I am pretty sure that this also will influence my work in the sessions with my clients.
Christina, from Germany
Raasha Shaikh
October 21, 2022I love the idea of documentation of sessions for the learnings of therapy to stay eternal. However, I ask my clients to create it so its impact is more sustainable. I’m not going to say that it’s worked every time- I have some clients who write merely write a sentence or two. But I do enjoy the idea of sharing another client’s document (with consent) to help give reference and pave way for clients who feel like the words are stuck inside. Thank you.
The concept of carrying your own narrative suitcase seems powerful. While I don’t work with children on the move, I do work with many clients who have relocated and feel lost, disoriented and disconnected from themselves- I can definitely try to introduce this tool the space.
Thank you for such fresh insight.
Raasha from Mumbai, India
azrielreshelcounselling
October 21, 2022I really like this idea of creative and positive documentation. As a social worker strengths based, supportive and trauma informed documentation tha tis transparent and collaborative, where the client gets to have a voice would be fantastic.
Lizzie
October 20, 2022I work in a children’s hospital context with children affected by life-threatening illnesses. I really liked the concept of the therapeutic document as a an evolving document for a group of people affected by a similar issue or problem (e.g. parents of a child undergoing cancer treatment). By gathering information from parents about how they view their skills, knowledge and learnings during their child’s cancer treatment process and documenting this in a living document for others, I feel it would be a very helpful and comforting document for other parents who are adjusting to their child’s diagnosis and wondering how they will navigate such a stressful life event.
tlcoope
October 5, 2022Dispensing with the usual convention of writing clinic letters to the GP and copying the patient in has formed an important part of my practice as a trainee psychiatrist. I resonated with the idea that in narrative practice, such documents should have a literary (rather than diagnostic) focus. I have found narrative techniques to be useful in amplifying the voices and experiences of service users, who can otherwise get lost navigating the complexities of the healthcare system. It is important to consider and negotiate the language and concepts used when writing to or about our patients, to help develop deeper meaning and understanding. I am curious about the idea of involving outsider witnesses, as this is not routinely done in the NHS, at least in my experience so far.
naifangw1006
September 30, 2022I like the idea of finding something positive about a client, writing a letter to a client, or writing a document with a client for tips. When clients stay at home or in their situations, these documents or letters can support and help them face their predicaments.
Yashodhara Chowdhury
September 13, 2022The range of creative documentation ideas made available here have been very inspiring! we often are prone to thinking like adults and professionals and using strict tools for documentation or doing none at all. But I think using metaphors like this can be very useful in community contexts, and I would love to use in the future.
I particularly resonated with the use of the written were rather than the spoken – because it has a sort of malleability as well as permanency to it and I have always felt more affinity to it rather than the spoken word.
I think in my contexts, local metaphors like a ‘jholi’ (a cloth bag), or a ‘jhapi’ (like a piggy bank but which is associated with our Goddess of Wealth) may be used for making such creative documentation. There is no limit to the kinds of documentation that may be created and I would like to explore this with the young girls or women I will work with.
Again, thank you so much for putting together this wealth of ideas.
Yashodhara, from Kolkata India.