Journal Potuguese Release - February 2024 - Flipbook - Page 2
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Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy
Editors: Tom Stone Carlson, Sanni Paljakka, marcela polanco, and David Epston
Editors’ Note
Narrative Therapy in Brazil: Building Preferred Stories From North to South
Marilene A. Grandesso
Contextualizing: An Entry Door
What I present in this article is just one possible story. We know that no story is
unique, much less complete. This one, like all narratives, was constructed by my
selection of events over time, in the contexts in which I had the opportunity to
live and learn. The thread that weaves this storyline is very personal and bears the
marks of the meanings I attributed to lived experiences, since the 90’s. Thus, if
the authors were different, other stories would be possible. Just like life,
Narrative Therapy in Brazil is also multistoried.
When Tom Carlson invited me to write about Narrative Therapy (NT) in Brazil,
with a focus on therapy, honored by his trust, I felt a mix of joy and immense
responsibility. How can we do justice to this practice and to the Brazilian
therapists who has developed and enriched it with our Latin creativity? Born in
the early 2000’s, NT has grown, flourished and has been transformed since the
first presence of Michael White and David Epston in Brazilian territory, firstly
because of their writings, which we only had access to in English and, sometimes,
in Spanish. Then, due to our traveling merchants spirit that led us to take all the
opportunities that arose, even in other countries. This article bears the marks of
my personal involvement with this practice, since, in 1991, when Carlos Sluzki, in
a family therapy course in Massachusetts, presented Michael White as a creative
young man who used therapy as a kind of “psychological exorcism”. Sluzki was
referring to the practice of externalizing conversations, which separates the
person from the problem: the problem is the problem, the person is the person.
For us Brazilians, at the time, this was great news.
Thus, it was not a surprising fact that, one year later, in 1992, for the first time,
we met Michael White in Buenos Aires (Argentina), where the Interfas
Foundation organized a four-day workshop with him. In a small room at the
Editors’ Note
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, February 2024 Release
www.journalnft.com