The Fateful Story: How Narratives Shape Health, Growth and Resilience

As counseling professionals, supervisors, and program directors we are called upon to witness suffering, pain, loss and upheaval and enable our clients and patients to make sense of that suffering such that it can, one day, become integrated into a more healthful living. Much of what is disturbing is captured in story: the narratives our clients have developed that represent their understanding of themselves and their place in the world. Yet narratives often, over time, become rigid and stuck in limited understandings both of what had occurred and what was still yet possible; of who one was, and who one might yet become. When this occurs, the client or supervisee may lose sight of their capacity, resilience, and worth. In this course we explore the power of narrative to shape our understandings of self and self-in-relation. We examine the value of asking questions that stem from an appreciative or benefit-finding perspective and determine how we might encourage clients and/or those we lead to construct more productive perspectives using practices that establish a growth, learning-oriented mindset.

This approach complements current models of treatment with supportive tools and strategies, articulated in a range of fields including Narrative Psychology, Positive Psychology, Appreciative Inquiry, and Narrative Medicine. Participants will be invited to consider how to best influence positive change in their current practice or management role through examination of clinical vignettes, small group discussion, and in vivo practice of tools/perspectives.

Further, this work has an additional benefit of reducing limiting beliefs, i.e. narratives, that contribute to internal distress, compromised esteem and/or doubt about one’s future potential as a provider of care.