Seite 172 [172]
OCR
Part V. Digital Media and Storytelling in University Courses ] 171 Storytelling covers the practice of clinical psychology at many levels. Ihe clients current problems, conditions, and their perceived causes are also told in a narrative structure, revealing their narrative identity by telling their life stories. The therapist uses the context revealed by the fragments of the narrative to move towards a diagnosis, which is a narrative that thematizes both the causes and the therapy. At the third level is the narrative in which the therapist shares with his supervisor or records in his case diary the events of his dialogue and collaboration with the client. Finally, the therapist may intentionally include storytelling exercises in the therapeutic process. In the narrative therapy process, the client and therapist reframe views of nonadaptive behavioral patterns into a narrative that offers a hopeful and rational possibility for change. Like narrative therapy, the point of multi-step group therapies (such as voluntary sessions of Anonymous Alcoholics) is to make life style change part of the individual’s narrative identity while members support each other, learn from each other and become resilient together through sharing everyday stories (Kottler, 2015). The autobiographical narratives play an important role in the process of diagnosis, as the episodes reveal the connections between the self and the characters in the life story, as well as the typical life situations of the narrator. Ecsi (2018) considered the narrative categorical analysis of stories as a more effective classification method than the scaling survey in ADHD diagnosis, as children’s narratives provided deeper insights into behavioral characteristics than the standardized test. In turn, detailed problem identification can contribute to the design of a targeted therapy. Narratives also come up in therapy when the therapist recommends a book to the client whose protagonist is in a similar situation. This helps to reveal to the client more nuanced details of the life situation and the perspectives of others (Kottler, 2015). Kottler (2015) argues that bibliotherapy is essentially a focused group therapy in which the participants critically evaluate the work, and compare and reflect on the events and processes with their own experiences. Especially in crisis situations, bibliotherapy can have an effective therapeutic effect. The individual or group sessions are based on literary work that deals with the clients’ problem. As the analysis of the narrative helps to bring to the surface the experiences that the client has had in a similar situation, it clarifies his or her approach to the issue. The narrative acts as a catalyst, and by articulating what the work means to the client, it also initiates a process of self-reflection, which can help in formulating coping strategies (Rubin, 1979; Gulyas, 2019). Not only written stories, but also stories represented by any medium, such as film, TV shows, video games can be used in a therapy. Stories provide an opportunity to decode patterns of social interaction during therapy. The group analyses the actions and reactions of the characters, which can be put in parallel with the life events of the clients. Sometimes, literary or film narratives allow for the reliving of experiences that would be risky but can
