restor(y)ing life narrative structured journaling in online groups
TRANSCRIPT
RESTOR(Y)ING LIFE: STRUCTURED NARRATIVE JOURNALING IN ONLINE GROUPS
4th European+ Conference of Narrative Practice and Community Work, Barcelona, Spain, 7-9 July 2016
Daria Kutuzova, Valentina Guseva, Ivanna Smolyana, Anna Silnitskaya
and Maria Nesmeeva
This is Emma Watson She lives a very intense and fulfilling life. It is known that she journals daily. Obviously, it supports her in her preferred life. How about you? Do you use journaling or other kinds of personal writing to have more clarity, energy and balance in your life? How about the people you work with? Do they use writing? If so, how?
THERAPEUTIC WRITING
- Exists as a branch of therapeutic work since mid-1970s or mid-1980s, according to different sources
- Many dozens of manuals - Several hundreds of research articles (especially about expressive writing) - Close to a hundred websites with free-access materials and online courses
JOURNALING IN A NARRATIVE WAY
Therapeutic writing can be based on almost any conceptual basis (existential, humanistic, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural etc., narrative included)
Have you tried journaling in a narrative way? What worked for you? What didn’t work?
MAIN PROBLEMS WITH SYSTEMATIC
THERAPEUTIC JOURNALING:
Lack of structure Lack of pacing Lack of containment and support Risk of retraumatization Unbalanced representation of experience
HOW THE MAIN PROBLEMS WITH JOURNALING
ARE SOLVED IN OUR METHODOLOGY?
“TENDING YOUR INNER GARDEN” (ENGLISH VERSION)/”16 TOPICS”
(RUSSIAN VERSION)
Developed by Daria Kutuzova (the story of development can be read at http://writecompass.com)
Trial versions (2009-2013) Basic version (2013-2015) Beta version (2015 - )
Over 700 people have participated in online groups so far Over 1100 people purchased the book to work independently
Exists as a book in Russian, the translations to English and Spanish are underway
STRUCTURE:
The methodology consists of
6 series of guiding questions; reflective writes; consolidation tasks
1st block of
questions
2nd block of
questions
3rd block of
questions
4th block of
questions
5th block of
questions
6th block of
questions
Topic 1Topic 2Topic 3Topic 4Topic 5Topic 6Topic 7Topic 8
Block of questions
Topic 1
Topic 2 … Last topic (max: 14th)
Reflection and consolidation
Remote preferred future-oriented task
Personal write (private)Reflective write (posted on the forum)Facilitator’s responseResponse to the facilitator’s response
PACING:
The participants are encouraged to choose 7-12 themes for 2 weeks of work; They get daily email reminders; Plus daily topics on the forum
CONTAINMENT:
The participants’ responses to the guiding questions are private; reflective writes are posted on the forum (can be done under a pseudonym); each reflective write is read and responded to supportively by a facilitator (using narrative “good questions” and/or outsider witnessing response)
PREVENTION OF RETRAUMATIZATION:
the sequence of series of questions helps to build reliable territory of preferred identity – problems (as “obstacles”) are specifically addressed in the 5th block of questions, after two months of regular writing.
BALANCED REPRESENTATION OF EXPERIENCE:
The guiding questions are such that the writing contains
facts and feelings; self-criticism and pride; confidence and lack of competence; actions and intentional categories of experience; individual and transcendent; past and future; actual and outdated; cultural prescriptions and personal queries
NARRATIVE PRINCIPLES THAT INFORM THIS JOURNALING
METHODOLOGY
1: LIFE AS MULTI-STORIED
Exploring preferred storylines of development simultaneously in different areas of life
(family, work, body, sexuality, spiritual practices, health, beauty, finances, home, hobby, parenthood, etc. etc.)
2: AUTHORSHIPParticipants choose the number of themes and the names of the themes they explore; at the end of each 2-weeks block they can alter the names of the themes and their number
Participants are encouraged to name the topics in such a way so questions related to personal agency would make sense
Participants choose what to share on the forum and how much to disclose (they can mention which topic they are working on, or keep it a secret) Many guiding questions imply and therefore construe personal agency
3: BECOMING A SUPPORTIVE WITNESS TO ONE’S OWN STORIES
Reflective write (this block of questions is used daily):
1. How did I feel writing about this today?2. What was easy, what was difficult?3. What was new? Did I surprise myself with something? Did
something that I have known already, become clearer?4. Where does it lead me? To what thoughts, what actions?
Self-compassion instead of self-criticism
Externalizing the voice of self-criticism, creating space for alternative ways of relating to oneself
Facilitators model the voice of compassion in their responses to the participants’ reflective writes:
Acknowledgment of achievements, however smallAcknowledgment of strong feelings and situations that cannot be changed quickly or easilyQuestions that help the persons to align with their best intentions and what they give value to in lifeQuestions that help to formulate small steps in the near future
4: FROM THE ZONE OF ACTUAL DEVELOPMENT TO THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
Always starting from the experience-near description of the known and familiar, and then scaffolding the journey towards what is possible to know
5: CREATING THE “RIVERBANK POSITION” FIRST
Building the firm land of the preferred territory of identity before looking at the problems:-Actions that create the experiences of confidence and pride-Small everyday achievements and their place in the wider picture of intentions, values, dreams and commitments
-Supportive memories of connection, transcendence and re-membering-One’s actual personal belief systems and communities of belonging
6: EXTERNALIZATION
Dis-identifying oneself from the voice of self-criticismBuilding relationships with one’s achievements (creating thicker descriptions of subjugated skills and knowledges)Seeing problems as obstaclesSeeing problems as “expired” coping strategies
7: BOOTSTRAPPING DIFFERENT TEMPORAL ELEMENTS OF STORY
From the present (1st group of questions) to the future (2nd) to the past (3rd) to the past, present and future (4th , 5th and 6th)
EFFECTS AND RESULTS
IMMEDIATE RESULTS: 1ST BLOCK OF QUESTIONS
Experiencing more clarity and awareness, less anxiety Feeling in charge, in control of one’s life Seeing the direction(s) for future development Feeling that the tasks ahead are manageable
Seeing progress in the tasks that have been “hanging” for a long time Building a habit of attending to one’s life daily Discovering the reasons to feel pride Discovering that self-criticism is limited or obviously exaggerated
IMMEDIATE RESULTS: THE WHOLE PROGRAM Different relationship with one’s own self – kinder, gentler, more harmonious Better self-understanding, awareness of the dynamics of one’s inner states Feeling of cohesiveness of life, of “wholeness” and balance Clarity and energy
Feeling of self-reliance, of personal agency and of being able to improve one’s own state of mind Feeling of “momentum”, of ongoing movement in preferred direction, that doesn’t feel like “pushing oneself forward” Experiential knowledge of the effectiveness of small systematic actions Possessing a working instrument for dealing with uncertainty and confusion
FOLLOW-UP (AFTER 6 AND 12 MONTHS) The respondents shared that generally their state of mind is better. There are ups and downs, but the downs are not as low or long as they used to be. The momentum of development in various areas of life has continued and has brought some impressive results. After working with the facilitators, the participants acquired the internal position of supportive witnessing and asking oneself questions, so many of them return to this journaling practice independently, using the book.
RESEARCH TO BE CONTINUED…
We are working on applying the Linguistic Inventory and Word Count program/procedure (LIWC), developed by Prof. James Pennebaker and his team at the Texas University, to the analysis of the change in the texts produced by the participants. We are especially interested in the dynamics of the usage of pronouns, words with positive and negative connotations, words that express reflectivity and agency, words that are used to create a cohesive story. Hopefully, we’ll be able to present the results of this research in foreseeable future.
THE FACILITATORS’ KNOW-HOW
MORE AND LESS USUAL REFLECTIVE WRITES: AT THE FIRST GLANCE
Length: average about 1/3 – 1/2 page.
Use of positively and negatively connotated words Use of pronouns: “I”, “Me”, “Myself” – and others
Coherence and clarity of expression
Reflexivity
WHAT THE FACILITATORS RESPOND TO?
Is this reflective write “open” or “closed” – is the process of reflection still going and might benefit from some scaffolding etc., or did the person achieve a sense of stability at the end of the reflection process, no further nudges needed?
Where is the “centre of gravity” in this reflective write? What is the most essential thing in it, the focus point?
How can we support the persons’ agency, their primary authorship of their lives? How can we support self-compassion?
WHAT DOES THIS KIND OF WORK DEMAND FROM A FACILITATOR?
Mindful awareness of one’s state of mind and body Mindful awareness of the resonance that is created by the participants’ responses De-centred stance and ability to take a witnessing position Creative (sometimes playful) approach, imagination
A “map” of orienting oneself in the text of the response – and training in using this map (we have our own “in-house” training for asking narrative good questions in writing, and also we have the tradition of apprenticeships for aspiring facilitators, when each of their “draft responses” receives feedback from two experienced facilitators) Ability to express in writing one’s resonant response in such a way that creates a feeling of immediate presence and support
WHAT DOES THIS WORK GIVE TO A FACILITATOR? Increased awareness of one’s own resonant responses to the person’s words, and increased ability to express this resonance in a de-centred way, to perform witnessing Clear feedback from the participants on the helpfulness of certain questions, responses and ways of communicating them Feedback from the co-facilitators, intervision and sense of belonging
Inspiration from witnessing how much work the person is able to do and does independently – the participants evaluate the facilitators’ contribution as 5-10%, and their own as 90-95%
Much improvement in the ability to read a person’s text therapeutically – and to hear important things in oral communication
Amazing realization that it is not actually necessary to know the details of the context and the plotline of the person’s story to be able to respond therapeutically – working with reflective writes is possible and effective. That means that it is possible to help people who value their privacy too much to go to a therapist.
It is not very easy to learn the style of facilitating that we perform here, and some people have more aptitude towards it than others, but it is possible and we see that it has long-term positive consequences for our development as therapists.
AND This structure of questions, reflective writes and consolidation tasks works not only with many topics considered in turn, one after another. It can be used as a basic framework for a more in-depth exploration of one particular topic, for example “Time-management, self-organizing and productivity” or “Parenting”, or any other. Other tasks can be added to thicken the preferred description of development in this area of life and to limit the negative consequences of existing problems.
FINAL THOUGHTS
WHAT CAN THE CLIENTS DO SO THERAPEUTIC WRITING WOULD WORK FOR THEM?
DON’T ENGAGE IN THERAPEUTIC WRITING ON YOUR OWN IF You know that you have a mental illness, and it is in an acute phase now. You are not sure if whatever you are suffering from qualifies as mental illness or not, but the things that are happening in or to your mind are weird and quite scary. You experienced severe adversity, and you are still very much influenced by it. You have flashbacks or nightmares, you cannot think about things related to that event, you feel anxious and cannot relax.
In these cases therapeutic writing might help, but you must get support and supervision from your physician, psychiatrist or psychotherapist.
TO MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU
Find/create some time and place when/where you won’t be disturbed. Ensure you’ve got the type of social support you would prefer, in case you need it after writing. Protect your privacy – ensure that the things you write for yourself are not going to be read by anyone else.
Don’t force yourself to write if it makes you feel worse. Allow yourself to stop if you feel overwhelmed. If you are stressed, give yourself a lot of structure for/in your writing. If you are feeling vulnerable, write about something that makes you happy.
FINAL DISCUSSION: WHERE DOES THIS LEAD YOU? What do you take away with you from this presentation? What is unclear – what would you like to know more about?
