Journal December 2025 Release - Flipbook - Page 49
47
The gift of gifted words
As palavras sabem muito mais longe 6
Bartolomeu Campos Queirós
The therapeutic process unfolds through conversations, interweaving questions
and answers in an ever-weaving loom whose threads are words. I admit my
fascination with them: I relish the careful way people choose each word, the gift
they carry, the horizons they open within the dialogue. Clients’ words are both
precise and precious, and I honor them as such. Yet I also delight in playing with
words, turning them into poetry, joining them so they reveal something new.
With words, I become a playful Duende (or a Fairy), crafting beautifulness.
When Michael White (2008) presents the concept of outsider witnesses, he
outlines four guiding questions for the conversations that unfold after a story is
told. While re-telling what they have heard, these witnesses speak about: 1) the
word or phrase that caught their attention the most, 2) the image that that came
to their mind, 3) the personal resonance of these words and images in their own
history, and 4) the ways in which they have been moved while witnessing these
stories (transport). As an outsider witness to the stories people bring to therapy, I
listen not only with my mind, but, above all, with my heart. I glimpse
beautifulness in their speech, and it is enchanting.
It thrills me when someone says, “I’m feeling more comfortable in my own skin,”
“the road ahead is no longer so foggy,” “everything can be overcome,” “I have
claimed my strength,” “the breeze is blowing in my life”. The poetry is already
there, evoking instant images that give rise to questions, and play-with-words. In
this chain of cha(i)nge, problems can be dis-SOLVED (Anderson & Goolishian,
2018), and preferred identities can be and become in all their beautifulness.
Resonance is like a compass guiding me: wherever my enchantment settles,
wherever words invite me, wherever images cheer me up, there I seek an oasis of
meaning. I share these perceptions by making my ideas public within the session,
by composing letters or poems that highlight such moments (Ingamells, 2018;
Muller, 2024; White & Epston, 1990), or by creating collective documents –
6
Translation: Words know far beyond...
Narractivating Conversations with the Internalised-Other: A Therapy with a Little Bit of Fairy Dust.
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, December 2025 Release, p. 45-65.
www.journalnft.com
