Ekaterina Zhornyak read Michael White’s book Maps of Narrative Practice for us.
“When people ask me what I do, I answer that I work as a psychologist or psychotherapist. Behind these words, the interlocutor usually has an image of a specialist who is able to understand where a person has breakdowns and find a way to fix them. I actually do Narrative Therapy. I don’t make diagnoses, I don’t know what is good for this person, I can’t say what he should strive for and how to get to the goal. I don’t know how to deal with problems. I don’t even know what to consider as a problem. The main thing that I can do as a professional is to ask very good questions. By answering them, people who seek advice come closer to understanding how they can be who they really want to be. This type of therapy, during which the client discovers that he can design his own life and becomes the author of his life story (narrative (English) — history, narration), was developed by Michael White. The role of the therapist in Michael White’s narrative approach is to take the person on an exciting journey that will help him solve his problems and be the way he likes. On this path, a person explores their values and preferences, separates them from previously imposed ones and creates an updated, preferred version of themselves. It is based on the questions the therapist asks. Narrative practice cards (possible combinations of questions) help him build a conversation. The final route, however, is impossible to predict, because it is the client’s answers that determine how the conversation will change direction. Many who have witnessed the therapeutic work of Michael White at different times in different countries agreed that what he does leaves the impression of a miracle — it is not clear where problems disappear with such speed, how such changes are possible. In this book, detailed printouts of White’s actual therapeutic conversations are combined with narrative maps showing and explaining how these conversations were constructed. I can assume that the reader, having become acquainted with these stories, will want to apply them to any of his life situations. And by answering these questions to himself, he will change his situation to one more suitable for him.