Journal May 2026 Release_Full Edition - Flipbook - Page 59
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Lee-Marie: I definitely think having really strong parents and not putting me in
the hospital. Their will to keep me going was a big one, and also the
help from your therapy. It all actually happened when we met. It
came about from that.
David:
Can you trace the ‘will’ you speak of in your mother and father to
your grandparents in any way?
Lee-Marie: I can because it was actually my grandfather who noticed and pushed
it. And he kept telling my family that something wasn't right. And so
it was he who was very strong about not giving up. That was huge!
And he phoned you.
David:
By any chance, were you the apple of your grandfather's eye?
Lee-Marie: I think so...YES! (nodding her head in agreement and smiling
generously)
David:
Can you tell us a story that might convey that to us?
David demonstrates how his questions are powerfully influential in guiding LeeMarie’s and our imagination. It’s like he’s taken her by the hand and walked her
into the museum of her own life, marched her into the exhibit called “Anorexia’s
Defeat by Lee-Marie,” and began to ask story-enriching questions while seated
with her square in the middle of the exhibit floor. His questions gently pry. They
invite Lee-Marie to slip between the cracks of what is taken-for-granted and usher
her into the understory of her own experience; peeking past the canopy of what
is “known”, spilling her reflective mind onto the forest floor below. His questions
paint her right into the scene of her own life and ask her to share the news of
what has been sparked into life by such intriguing inquiry.
Narrative therapy is interested in what’s newsworthy in a person’s experience.
This idea, inspired by Gregory Bateson’s “news of difference that makes the
difference” (1979), is a principal idea that doesn’t get the attention it deserves
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
