18 April 2023
Harbour Hospice counsellor Sasha Pilkington is chartering new territory in the teaching of contemporary narrative therapy in palliative care through writing “teaching tales”.
Teaching tales are a form of teaching through storytelling, where instead of the author explaining how to do something, they write a story that illustrates what it looks like – in Sasha’s case, providing the reader with a window into the therapy room, alongside herself and her client.
Recently, Sasha was published as a contributing peer and writer in an internationally acclaimed book, Reimagining Narrative Therapy Through Practice Stories and Autoethnography, edited by Travis Heath, Tom Stone Carlson and David Epston. The book is made up of individual client stories (Sasha’s story is “Blossoming in the Storm”, chapter five) that paint sessions between counsellors and their clients in detail, moving beyond the standard narrative practice of teaching by showing transcripts and teaching narrative therapy through autoethnography.
Peers have welcomed the new approach with open arms. “People are really appreciating being able to see these questioning practices in context, and there's a lot of excitement about the idea of using stories as pedagogy for narrative therapy - using this as a way of learning rather than reading a textbook,” says Sasha.
“Reading this book is not like reading yet another textbook on therapy. It will not teach you but show you the spirit of narrative practice. We can think of no better way to engage with narrative practice."
- Anette and Allan Holmgren, Psychologists and directors of DISPUK, Danish Institute for Training in Narrative Therapy
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