Journal Potuguese Release - February 2024 - Flipbook - Page 3
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Foundation, enchantment took hold of us Brazilians, around 15 people. For me,
particularly, what touched me the most was a presentation that Michael gave
about a man who had lived in a psychiatric hospital for many years and had just
attempted suicide. His story of hopelessness attested that his life didn't matter to
anyone and that, if he died, no one would need to be notified. In his
conversations with this man, Michael managed to recover, among the stories he
lived, the memories of his childhood. His first teacher was considered by this man
as someone to whom his life mattered. We had the opportunity to watch the
video in which this elderly teacher remembered moments in which that boy stood
out and the appreciation she had for him. We returned to Brazil with the
pulsating seeds of a great desire to learn more and transform our practice.
Michael helped us understand that all people have valuable stories and that we
should acknowledge the power of legitimizing lives and relationships through
external witnesses’ testimonies. At the time we had access to a fantastic article
that exposed power practices aiming to subjugate selves and relationships. Even
today, I share the article Deconstruction and Therapy (White, 1991) with my
students. In this article, Michael presents four brief accounts involving some kind
of oppression, helping us understand that there are always gateways to
alternative stories that, once historicized, can help to deconstruct dominant
stories saturated with problems, enabling the construction of preferred stories of
legitimized lives.
We continued studying and, at the same time, sharing what we were learning
with our students. A reference for us to build our path was the first book
published by Michael White and David Epston - Narrative Means to Therapeutic
Ends (1990). Objectify problems and not people; develop sensitivity to hear traces
in narratives that invite us to stories of hope. Many new reflections have emerged
with the narrative metaphor. Our therapy practice gradually changed its focus
from problems to possibilities, externalizing the influence of cultural discourses
on dominant narratives saturated with problems, which, subliminally, would lead
to power relationships. Michael and David expanded our horizons and therapeutic
practices, helping us look at problems as cries of nonconformity, in the face of
disregarded, or even outraged, values. Later we were able to expand our
understanding through the precious concept of “absent, but implicit” (White,
2007), a result of the influence of Derrida's ideas in narrative therapy.
Narrative therapy contributed to expanding our understanding of lives and
relationships, by inviting other partners, outside the world of therapy: Foucault,
Editors’ Note
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, February 2024 Release
www.journalnft.com