Playful Approaches to Serious Problems: Narrative Therapy with Children and their Families (Norton Professional Books

by David Epston, Jennifer Freeman, Dean Lobovits

The "grown-up talk" of therapy is likely to turn off children - especially if it focuses on their problematic behavior. The highly effective techniques of narrative therapy include children by respecting their unique language, stories, and views of the world. This book describes a basic theory of collaborative narrative play, as well as verbal and nonverbal techniques that clear the way for stories of hope, possibility, and change. Compelling case examples, drawn from the authors' work, will appeal to parents and educators as well as therapists.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Social Work, Counselling

342 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1997

About the author

David Epston is a co-director of the Family Therapy Centre in Auckland. Along with Michael White he is a co-originator of Narrative Therapy. He has a world-wide reputation as being one of the most creative and effective psychotherapists currently practising. He currently holds an Adjunct Professorship at John F. Kennedy University, San Francisco, and is a member of the visiting Faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Epidemiology, Albert Einstein School of Medicine, New York. He regularly holds invited workshops and training seminars in Australia, North America and Europe.

Reviews

[Jackie]

I've been reading this book on and off for a year. I'd really like to incorporate its ideas into my work with children and adolescents. Narrative therapy is a very strengths-based approach to mental health problems, using the playfulness and creativity that children usually possess naturally, to create a new 'story' about their problems. The therapists in the book's case studies encourage children to name the problems facing them and to look at them as something they can separate from their true selves. For example, "How is Worry trying to trick you into not having any fun?" I'm going to seek out ways to expand my learning on this approach.

[Kayla Bashe]

Externalizing problems- making them into wild beasts to be tamed, or enemies to be defeated- is a fun and useful idea. The problem with this book authors apply almost magical properties to this strategy. Like, a kid who's on a feeding tube? Well, if he has a mental image of being big and strong, or if he tames the wild beast inside of them, he won't need the feeding tube anymore!
And I wonder what that does to the self-esteem of kids whose health problems don't go away with right thinking. When I was a kid, I couldn't eat properly; as an adult, a simple test diagnosed me with a problem with my intestines that went away with a commonly prescribed medication. I guess people don't want to think that kids, or even adults, could get sick and not be able to think themselves out of it.

I'm going to call this the Ableism Armadillo. The Ableism Armadillo doesn't want to see anyone who's sick or has a disability, and when he does, he gets so scared that he rolls up into a little ball until it goes away! I wonder how we can work together to tame the Ableism Armadillo?

[Karen Cockerill]

This book is probably more interesting to a therapist or anyone interested in narrative therapy however may also be of interest to families facing tough issues and looking for alternative ways of dealing with them. I found it inspiring and had some success and loads of fun trying out some of the techniques in our home.

[Chester]

Extremely insightful and informative in the field.

[Felicity]

An inspiring read that clearly explains the possiblities of narrative therapy in working with young children and their families.
At times I found the dialogue to be drawnout, however the authors enthousiasm is contagious and easily makes up for the surplus of tekst.

[Taryn Renée]

The interventions in this book have really held up through time. I have used them again and again to great effect.