Journal May 2026 Release_Full Edition - Flipbook - Page 53
52
Animative Descriptions and Vivifying Discovery: Inviting Clients Into The Marvel
Of Their Understory
Brian Wainwright
“Now Bjorn, you remember yesterday, the 31st day of October… it could be a really important
day in your life, couldn't it?...because on that day, for some reason or other… I don't know yet,
but we'll find out…you /YOU did something really, really important. You won over your habit.
Before you couldn't hold on to your peepee, but yesterday you got some strength, some bearlike strength inside of you to do this. And I asked you because I think it's very interesting how it
was that you were able to be so strong all day yesterday. Your strength, how long did it last?” 1
Listening for unique outcomes in the stories clients tell about the problems they
face lies at the heart of doing narrative therapy. When discovered, they provide
entry into alternative landscapes of meaning-making opportunity. But listening
for unique outcomes as entry points into rich story development, and calling
attention to them in ways that compel persons to take up the invitation to
investigate further, are two very different things. Effective narrative questions
activate a person’s fascination with their own lived experience and invite them to
author - make sense of - the history of their experience in new and empowering
ways.
An unusual story about the discovery of a unique outcome
James Tweed, while camping in the south of Brisbane, Australia, made an
uncanny discovery that would have far-reaching consequences in the world of
entomology. While on his way to the camp restroom, he noticed something out of
the corner of his eye. Initially, he thought it was a bird dropping, but his scientific
curiosity had him take a second glance.
Upon further investigation, James realized he was looking at a beetle. But it was
strange. Its little beetle body was red and black and had large, but not unusual,
1
David Epston interviewing 7-year-old Bjorn about his “bear-like strength” to win over the habit of frequent
ablutions, a leftover symptom after a successful treatment of kidney infection. (Epston, 1991)
Animative Descriptions and Vivifying Discovery: Inviting Clients Into The Marvel Of Their Understory
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, May 2026 Release, p. 52-79.
www.journalnft.com
