Journal December 2025 Release - Flipbook - Page 96
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Quentin: Yeah…?
Mauricio: Yeah. It might invite emotions, different emotions or ways of expressing
these emotions… what do you think?
Quentin: Oh, about what?
Mauricio: Having this sort of different conversation with me?
Quentin: Oh yeah, for sure, yeah…
As I tried to initiate an Internalized Other conversation, I found myself feeling
awkward and anxious about engaging Quentin in this way. Aware of how deeply
the ideals of toughness shaped both his experience and my own, I began to worry
that the entire exchange might fall flat. In hindsight, choosing not to retreat and
continuing with this line of inquiry marked the moment I stopped resisting the
awkwardness and began letting it guide me.
Mauricio: Ok. Let’s see… maybe let’s go back to the time right before he got
diagnosed. Do you remember what you were up to or what you guys were
doing at that time in your lives?
Quentin: Yeah… it was homecoming week, my parents were gone, pretty much
just ran all over… all over town. It was the best time of my life.
Mauricio: Can you help me understand how this was the best time of your life?
Quentin: It was really fun. There were like a lot of activities, you know, with
homecoming week, you know, a lot of stuff to do. It was junior year so… and
yeah, we were on the football team and there’s always this tradition at our
school where the junior girls would play the senior girls in a flag football
game… we called it the puff football game, and then the boys from the real
football teams were the coaches. I remember that game was coming up and
like the three of us were coaching, like these girls our age. I don’t know, it’s
silly, but it was really fun.
In the Company of Awkwardness: Counterstorying Toughness in Therapy
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, December 2025 Release, p. 88 -106.
www.journalnft.com
