Journal Potuguese Release - February 2024 - Flipbook - Page 36
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holes: “Hey tía, he doesn't have a jackhammer”. Aurora was touched by the
understanding that her son is “just a child” and that, due to so many turbulences
in the family, her impatience could be harming him, in addition to expecting him
to know how to renounce his place in the family in favor of his younger brother. It
was surprising to her to be perceived as an artist and she reported other craft
skills, inherited from her mother. Daniel praised his maternal grandmother's skills,
attentive and creative, and discovered that his mother resembles her. The
externalized problem, re-narrated, allowed the emergence of a narrative not
subdued by the history of conflicts in the period between the meetings. Aurora
says:
A: The giant isn't showing up much there... he's only showing up with strength
when he's with his brother. They fight, Leo gets in the way, and Daniel loses
his temper (the words giant and ghost will alternate during the course of
therapy, as meanings of an entity/problem separate from the child).
T: I think it's the Giant of Fury’s tricks to keep taking advantage of the fights in
your family.
A: He (Daniel) is better than me, calmer than me, he obeys when I speak.
Despite the influence of the problem having diminished in the family, this meeting
addressed many conflicting moments between siblings and between mother and
children. Daniel suggests painting the Giant/Ghost again. Very excited, he
announces:
D: Now I'm going to do it! It will have two colors. Half angry and half calm.”
The new image of the problem in metamorphosis was made with four hands, and
the child tried to reproduce with his own lines the first form almost entirely
created by Aurora (the giant of fury). This was explored in its finest details within
a loving and respectful dialogue, mostly coming from the child. Everyone looked
proud at the end.
The Bad and the Good Ghosts: A Story of Reauthoring in Narrative Therapy with Children
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, February 2024 Release, www.journalnft.com, p. 2446.