Unravelling Trauma and Weaving Resilience with Systemic and Narrative Therapy: Playful Collaborations with Children, Families and Networks

Cover
Endorsement Page
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Series editors’ foreword
Foreword to Unravelling trauma and weaving resilience with systemic and narrative therapy
Introduction
	Three stories to set the scene
		More than 25 years ago
		Ten years ago
		A few weeks ago
		Three of my many teachers
Chapter 1 Dis-covering a web of complexities
	Introduction
	The urge to act
	Actions, emotions and the body hijacking the therapy room
	The temptation of unhelpful dances
	Embracing complexity
		Scientific theories
		Expert problem definitions
	A multiverse of worlds
	Wider social and political contexts
	Conclusions
Chapter 2 A collaborative therapeutic journey
	An insider’s perspective
	A systemic and narrative approach
		What creates well-being?
		Resilience and resilience processes
	An invitation to collaborative practices
		Safe grounds
		Re(dis)covering a sense of personal agency
		Social sharing of experiences, emotions and stories
		New relational dances
		Re(dis)covering a sense of relational agency
		Re(dis)covering a sense of coherence
		Re(dis)covering a sense of belonging
		Hope as a door to possible futures
	Serious playfulness and playful seriousness
		Playfulness as an attitude
		Doorways to imagination
		Negotiating playfulness
	Weaving networks of resilience
Chapter 3 First meetings
	Intake as re-connection and re(dis)covery
		Doing safety
		Widening the scope
		A team of support
	‘Talking about our talks’
		Possibilities and disadvantages of keeping silent and speaking
		Utterances of relational involvements
		What do we need to talk about?
	Radical re-positioning and listening: interviewing the child
		Unexplored areas and forgotten stories
		A manageable way of speaking
			The rotten feeling
			‘The pain of missing’
		Ways of responding
			Future professionals as witnesses
			Parents, family members and friends as witnesses
	Planning and documenting our collaborative journey
		‘The harvest’ of our meeting
		Conversational settings
Chapter 4 The tentacles of trauma and adversity
	Creating a context for sharing stories
		The puppet show: re(dis)covering a sense of agency
		Responses to the performance
		The quiz as a context of acknowledgement
	Ordering the messy stuff into a story
		Do horses hurt themselves?
		Brewing stories: imagine the unthinkable
	Trapped in feelings of guilt
	Looking at then and there from alternative perspectives
	Taking a stance: opening doors to new actions
	Documents as consolidation
Chapter 5 Performing new relational narratives
	Entangled relationships
	Looking for common ground
	A collective investigation of relationships and social worlds
	From immobilising verbs towards new actions
	Question marks do not fall out of the sky
	Re-membering the body
	I am the only one on this planet …
	Ever widening circles
	Back to start?
	Russian dolls unveiling unsuspected intentions
Chapter 6 Injured relationships and ‘broken homes’
	Ambivalence and complexity
	Some preliminary thoughts on violence
	Opening conversations about troubled relationships
	Family constellations on the table
	Articulating the unarticulated
	In search for sparkling lights
	Relatives off stage
	Attachment unlimited
	Revisiting shame and revenge
		A timeline of shame
		A sense of belonging as an antidote to shame
		Kicking against the world
		Disadvantages then and there
		What about ‘revenge’?
		Signs of involvement
		Witnessing as small steps to reconnection
Chapter 7 Engaging with parents, carers and professionals
	A special bond and position
	A parent or carer in need
		Noticing parental pain and values
		Noticing moments of mattering
		Turning the spotlight on the child
		Unlocking shared opportunities
		A village of parents and carers
	Parents (or family members) falling short
		Guilt and reconciliation
	Involving parents from the start
Chapter 8 Laying down a path in walking
	A sense of coherence and continuity
	Timelines of the past
	Timelines of the future
	Beads to hold on to
	Involving the audience in life review interviews
	Networks of acknowledgement and care
	A theatre play as compassionate witnessing
	Re-linking lives as social action
	Ongoing conversations of documents and testimonies
	Letting go
References
Index