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Key Concepts behind Story-Guided Therapy & Mentoring:
We will all experience emotional challenges and stress in our lives – some of us more than others – and some of us will handle those challenges better than others.
The skills and ability to manage loss, grief, illness, physical trauma, abandonment, betrayal, disappointment, emotional abuse, fear, anxiety, and even some types of depression are learned, they are not given to us innately at birth. The ability to address and author the narrative in our own head about who we are and our basic value, which is a common factor in addressing these challenges, is also a learned skill. The grammar, the language, that lies behind these skills is story structure.
Stories are among the most powerful forces exerted on our lives. Stories start and end wars. They cause us to fall in and out of love. Stories gave birth to, and sustain, the great organized religions of the world. But…
… the biggest story in our lives is the one we tell ourselves about ourselves.
Story structure exists in our lives like breathing. We have automatic breathing that occurs without thought, and intentional breathing where we can control, to a considerable extent, our mood, our heart rate, our emotional state.
Like automatic breathing, stories will impinge on every aspect of our thinking and emotional life whether we like it or not. But we can engage with story grammar in an intentional way, and begin to author our own lives.
If you don’t know the real grammar of story (and it is a language unto itself) then it is easy to be manipulated by stories thrust upon you – whether by our prevailing culture, parents, authority figures, “loved ones”.
In order to live an authentic life we need to see the mechanics that lie beneath the surface of our flawed thinking. And, like the chosen one, Neo (Keanu Reeves) in the movie “The Matrix” have our bad spectacles removed once and for all. We can all learn to be the hero of our story. In fact we already are. We just need to see and feel it. Understanding the hidden language of story can be the swiftest and most effective route to author our own lives. The team from the Institute for Story-Guided Therapy & Mentoring – with nearly 40 years of experience in teaching story psychology and structure – will help you gain this insight.
The skill to understand the manipulation in the stories that others push on us, and to author new stories for ourselves is the key to what we might call authentic living.
To live well we need to tell and re-tell stories that carry a balanced and authentic perception of who we are and what we believe in. This ability is not just fundamental to maintaining or regaining a sense of well-being, but it is the key skill that enables us to function in a healthy way in any role of responsibility and intimacy.
A thorough understanding of how story structure manipulates our thinking and emotions, empowers our healthy function as friends, family members, parents, partners, employers, employees, as members of our wider community, and of course in our ability to look after ourselves when under emotional pressure.
Story structure is a healthy, and universal, coping mechanism. But, more than this, it is the shared language of intimacy – transcending gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, age, political and religious beliefs, it connects us all.
We may have very limited control over the physical circumstances of our lives – we cannot prevent an economic recession or a hurricane – but the way in which we narrate the significance of all events in our lives is entirely in our control if … we understand story grammar.
It is by making story structure conscious that we begin to wrestle control over the patterns of our thinking and the way that pervasive thoughts and ideas guide our emotional experience of life. It is in the ability to rapidly build new stories about our existence that we can sustain optimism and meaning in the face of extreme challenge.
As the great Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, wisely observed, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
He could have put this in a slightly different way, and said, “Until you make the unconscious narratives in your thinking conscious, you will live the script someone else wrote for you, and not the one you author for yourself.” – Stephen May (Director, The Institute for Story Guided Therapy & Mentoring)
The Story-Guided Therapy & Mentoring programs build on the oldest of therapeutic structures, classical story, supported by the compelling data from “expressive writing” techniques pioneered by the likes of Professor James Pennebaker at the University of Texas. We now have over 30 years of data to support astonishing benefits in well-being and talent development.
The data-supported benefits of tiny pieces of “expressive writing” (15 minutes of writing) include:
- Improved performance at work and in study (Lumley & Provenzano 2003; Cameron & Nicholls 1998)
- Improved ability to handle anger, depression and PTSD (Snyder et al. 2004; Baddeley & Pennebaker 2011)
- Less visits to doctors (Pennebaker & Beall 1986)
- Enhancement of immune system (Koschwanez et al., 2013, Lumel et al. 2011)
- Improved sense of well-being after trauma (Lepore 1997, Barclay & Skarlicki 2009)
The Institute for Story-Guided Therapy & Mentoring has taken these techniques to a new level by applying expertise in reframing self-narrative, psycho-education, peer support mentoring, and world-leading talent development.
The practical application of the skillsets taught in these programmes give you and your peers:
- Skills to improve collaboration, empathy, respectful communication.
- Skills to address depression and/or a sense of being isolated from peers and people in a position of authority.
- Skills to maximize the opportunity for inspired creative work.
Testimonials:
“I don’t think I’ve learned this much in a long time. That was incredible. Thank you.” Professor Mark D’Inverno (Goldsmiths College, London, & original Chair of Safe Ground, Mental Health support in prisons)
“So much information, so clearly explained and all relevant.” – Kay (BACP Psychotherapist)
“This has been an incredible journey of insight and realization. A truly life-changing experience. Inspirational.” Helen.
“Dedicating time to challenge my own thinking and identifying the benefits of change could turn out to be one of the best things I’ve done. For me, and for the people I love.” – Anonymous