Oldal 121 [121]
OCR
120 I Digital Media and Storytelling in Higher Education documents and photos related to the topic. Confronting distressing personal events carries risk factors, as in the process of sorting through memories, the person may be re-traumatized; the trauma may even be more intense due to the distance in time, or the story may traumatize another group member. A workshop on sensitive topics or a workshop with therapeutic purposes should not take place without a psychologist. Ward and Bullivant (2017) point out that the facilitator should make the participants aware that they can stop the process at any time, that they do not have to tell a story just because other group members find it exciting, and that they do not have to fear the judgments of others. The facilitator should also ask the participants to keep the workshop conversations confidential, and to assure the narrators that the finished narrative will not be made public without their consent. The facilitator should also ask whether the group members are willing to bring up images related to the trauma. If it turns out that they are not, communicate to them that they can use drawings or symbols instead of photos. In the framework discussion, the facilitator should also make group members aware that articulating and speaking up about distressing content can help them to accept it and make the memories part of their identity. The unspoken thoughts and fragments of memories are transformed into a logical whole by the creator during the DST process. Ban and Nagy (2016) point out that DST can help traumatized group members to gain control over their memories through self-acceptance. This was the case with 12 HIV-positive patients in Zimbabwe who were treated with DST in group therapy. Their task was to capture their most important life events in their digital stories. During group discussions prior to the creative activities, the patients explored the elements that were common to all of their stories. Traumatic elements such as learning about the diagnosis, uncertainty, loss of hope, loss of family members, stigmatization, social discrimination, and loneliness emerged in the participants’ stories. Patients felt that the disease had a complete impact on all aspects of their lives. They then looked for points of support and a means to improve their situation: some mentioned support organizations, others the acceptance of family and partners. The method helped them to move away from a negative self-identity, improve their self-esteem and control their negative emotions. Through the formulation of goals and perspectives, group members became aware of their own agency, and their agency was extended to individual and later social acts (Willis et al., 2014). A therapeutic impact was also reported by participants in a Tanzanian DST project involving HIV-positive children, in which the Story Circle was followed by the co-creation of hypothetical future-oriented texts that were acted out and recorded by the children. In an attempt to interpret their stigmatized and marginalized situation from a more optimistic perspective, the children began to plan their futures (Duveskoget al., 2012). In addition to highlighting the therapeutic effects of DST, the facilitator can also point out to the group members that sharing their digital stories can
