Journal December 2025 Release - Flipbook - Page 12
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a person’s life? Who might depression favour as teammates? Joanna particularly
enjoyed this metaphor as she said she’d expressed her own process of attempting
to weed mental illness from her brain through art.
I was happy to report to the day staff that Joanna, although awake at 02:00, was
calm, friendly, and slept well for the rest of the night. The next night, when I
reported for duty, Joanna was waiting for me, eager to show me her painting. It
perfectly illustrated externalization to me!
Joanna was discharged a few days later. Before she went home, she asked me for
a narrative therapist’s contact details because she wanted to learn more about
this approach. Not long afterwards Joanna and her husband invited me to help as
her therapist, using narrative therapy. Although I declined their offer at first, they
were not dissuaded by my lack of expertise, in fact, quite the opposite. They
insisted that if I agreed, “We will all learn this narrative approach together”.
Co-research as the creation of alternative knowledge
“Don’t worry,” Joanna assured me. “I’ve had more experience of ‘being in
therapy’ than you’ve had of ‘being a therapist’. I know the ropes.”
All she wanted from me was someone to listen to her, to believe her, and to
accept her as a person with worth. That I could do. I was also actively learning
narrative therapy and becoming more adept at narrative philosophies and
practices. Joanna was more than willing for me to try out the practices I learnt
and read about, and discuss the effects they had on her. We stuck to our
agreement to tackle this journey together for her to heal and for me to learn.
Co-research is a term I came across in my narrative studies. David Epston (1999)
coined this phrase to describe these unusual ways of working:
An Apprenticeship in Extremis
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, December 2025 Release, p. 5-44.
www.journalnft.com
