Journal May 2026 Release_Full Edition - Flipbook - Page 76
75
Brian:
I’m glad you’re open to meeting, and I think we could cover a lot of
ground together. But I have to ask one thing, and I cannot meet with
you unless you agree to my terms.
Will:
(With skepticism in his voice). Oh yeah! What’s that?
Brian:
I need to let you know I’ve never worked with someone with your
history. Sure, I’ve worked with trauma before, but I have no
reference for what it’s like to be working in a hostile work
environment with people who seem to overlook a powerfully lifeshaping experience, such as paralysis that led to medical neglect. I’m
going to need your guarantee that you’re going to let me in on how it
is that you’re making it through such incredible circumstances, even
if it feels at times that you’re simply unable to keep your head above
water.
Will:
Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. I’ll teach you all you need to
know what it’s been like to live a day in my life
Peeking into the understory
The stage was set for the two of us to get into Will’s untold understory. Will and I
have been working together weekly. He never misses a session. He had been
teaching me about what it’s like to be a teacher at the school where he works,
how his “trauma triggers” send him into a “spiral”, and about his exhaustive
efforts to respond to the circumstances of his hostile work environment. There
was lots of ground to cover. Will also made sure to teach me about his medical
condition. He wrote a book about what his experience was like to lose his ability
to feel his legs. He brought it into session early on when we first started meeting.
But what I was mostly interested in was how he was finding ways to hold his own
against what we called “the Bad Mood” that he would find himself in while at
school. I was interested in getting into the understory of how he has been finding
ways to build more trusting relationships with his colleagues and overcome “the
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
