ABSTRACT
I use ‘therapeutic storytelling’ as a term to describe telling a range of stories that are used to help listeners explore metaphors that enable them to experience a change in perception about themselves and their situation. These metaphors are a way of describing something as if it is something else. So for example if someone were very shy, a metaphor for shyness could be a hedgehog that has lost its mirror and is looking for it. The story of looking for it, finding help along the way, and eventually finding it would be the metaphor of dealing with and overcoming shyness. The telling is purposeful, targeted and intended to support and develop the listener regardless of their level of cognitive functioning. The content is important, but so too are the ways in which the story is told and the multisensory elements that are brought into the storytelling. All have an impact on the listener at a conscious and unconscious level. A narrative is a retelling of a sequence of events as a statement and history of those events. A story explores the emotional and sensory components and relationships of those events.
