The narrative motto: “The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_therapy

Narrative counsellors encourage their clients to develop characters in order to view an issue as external to themselves, rather than who they are.

Common elements in narrative therapy are:

• The belief that stories shape a person’s identity
• An appreciation for the creation and use of documents,when a client and counsellor co-author a story together
• The need to create the client’s issue into a character in the script

I have personally used the narrative perspective while working with students who are anxious. We have created our “Super Heroes” and “Super Villains” to understand how our thoughts impact our feelings which impact our actions.  I developed the following Haiku Deck “story” to help my students visualize this process.

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/kRtLv8AATg/who-will-you-listen-to

In addition to working directly with students. I may also be able to use this format in order to receive feedback around how the Student Services Program at my school works.

I may model my ideas aroundThe Patient Voices programme (UK). This site was founded by social entrepreneurs Pip Hardy and Tony Sumner in 2003. They hoped that allowing ordinary people an arena for sharing their stories would influence strategy in health and social care, as well as the professionals and clinicians directly involved in care, and work respectfully  for the benefit of all.

“View the digital stories from Pilgrim Projects at: www.patientvoices.org.uk/pilgrim.htm

As we move forward with #etmooc 2013 I am very excited to expand my skills with digital storytelling as I feel that this will be something that will engage the students in my office in a practical and useful manner.

My goal is to participate in The Ultimate Challenge:

Write a story, and then tell that same story digitally using any number of digital tools and freely available media! For inspiration and story creation guidance, see Alan Levine’s 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story.

I will spend the next few days working on my story line and then “PLAYING” around (one of my favorite ideas from topic 1) to demo this story in a variety of ways.

But to get the ball rolling I would love to share my 6 Word Story of the night with you:

School counsellor, joined #etmooc, ignited passion