ABSTRACT
The child had been questioned and tested by many court-appointed therapists over the last few months. However, the process of decision-making was still in abeyance. Daniele was a delightful eight-year-old girl who came to therapy with her mother for numerous complaints, including nervousness and chronic sleeping problems. There are many theories regarding the dynamics involved in the creative process of play and fantasy. Not surprisingly, some of these theories view fantasy negatively, while others support its value and utility as a developmental and therapeutic tool. In a framework as natural to the child as Saturday morning cartoons, the therapeutic metaphor safeguards its true purpose within the matrices of the story. Recognizing the enjoyment children experience in both telling and listening to stories, Gardner developed the Mutual Storytelling Technique as a means of utilizing storytelling therapeutically. Erickson pioneered the basic premises of this fourth position with his multifaceted utilization approaches to hypnotherapy.
