31/01/2024
Hello Friends - The next Narrative & Pizza is scheduled. Please RSVP if you plan to come.
This one we will be covering Michael White’s ideas around the therapists position as Decentered But Influential, and ideas around Way of Being in therapy that lead to better outcomes and stronger therapeutic relationships.
From Michael White:
The notion “decentred” does not refer to the intensity of the therapist’s engagement (emotional or otherwise) with people seeking consultation, but to the therapist’s achievement in according priority to the personal stories and to the knowledges and skills of these people. In regard to the personal stories of people’s lives, in the context of this achievement, these people have a “primary authorship” status, and the knowledges and skills that have been generated in the history of their lives are the principal considerations.
The therapist is influential not in the sense of imposing an agenda or in the sense of delivering interventions, but in the sense of building a scaffold, through questions and reflections, that makes it possible for people to:
a) more richly describe the alternative stories of their lives,
b) step into and to explore some of the neglected territories of their lives, and to
c) become more significantly acquainted with the knowledges and skills of their lives that are relevant to addressing the concerns, predicaments and problems that are at hand.
We hope to see you soon!
