The corner : clients that inspire us

Following a comment of Peggy Sax that some clients “bring out the best in us,” I proposed in 2011 that, furthermore, some clients do more than that, they in fact inspire us. I am sure I am not the only one to think so and decided to write up with Sam, then aged 20, and his mother, Jess, from the letters that summarized our meetings and several other meetings to confirm and review the conclusions we all reached at that time. This follows “Unsuffering,” co- authored by Julie King and David Epston, which appeared in Vol. 30, no. 1, 2011, pp. 84–96. Surely I am not the only one who has had this experience. I would certainly welcome stories with or about those who have inspired you

Moral character, moral agency and the genres of the representation of others

This article is an Address given in San Antonio, Texas where some ways of approaching conversations that highlight people’s moral character in relation to the Problem that harasses them are discussed. Several stories are offered to help reflect on people’s ability to see themselves as worthy of their own respect and the respect of others. Such moral respect not only allows what we might call “moral agency” but also allows us to exercise it more freely. Conversations about people’s “wonderfulness” and conversations that begin with virtues, not problems, are ways to subvert the dominant representations that the problem offers. It is about recovering people’s lives from everything that stripped them of what I will call “their moral character”. Possibly, in tune with what has been called the preferred identity, people prefer to be represented in terms of their moral character, their moral virtues. This also has to be made manifest in what we call counter-documents and a set of therapeutic letters is offered to exemplify this. Perhaps the present article can be seen as a counter document, where the need to rescue the moral virtues of people is made manifest, even before speaking of problems.El presente artículo es una conferencia ofrecida en San Antonio, Texas donde se plantean algunas formas de acercarse a conversaciones que destaquen el carácter moral de las personas en relación con el Problema que las acosa. Se ofrecen varias historias que ayudan a reflexionar acerca de la capacidad de las personas de verse a sí mismas como dignas de su propio respeto y del respeto de los demás. Tal respeto moral no sólo permite lo que podemos llamar “agencia moral” sino también poder ejercerla más libremente. Las conversaciones acerca de las “maravillosidades” y las conversaciones que comienzan con las virtudes y no con los problemas, son modos de subvertir las representaciones dominantes que el problema ofrece. Se trata de recuperar las vidas de las personas de todo aquello que las despoja de lo que voy a denominar “su carácter moral”. Posiblemente, en sintonía con lo que se ha venido denominando la identidad preferida, las personas prefieren ser representadas en términos de su carácter moral, sus virtudes morales. Esto también tiene que quedar de manifiesto en lo que llamamos contradocumentos y se ofrecen un conjunto de cartas terapéuticas para ejemplificar esto. Quizás el presente artículo pueda ser visto como un contradocumento, donde se pone de manifiesto la necesidad de rescatar las virtudes morales de las personas, incluso antes de hablar de los problemas

An emergency response to ‘going off your face’ at school

Glen, aged nine, has been threatened to be expelled from an exemplary school on account of his uncontrollable and dangerous rages. David Epston contrives with Glen and his family to ‘team up’ against the reputation this had earned him as ‘mad’ on behalf of his desire to be known as an ‘ordinary kid’. The school’s call for action leads to everyone taking emergency measures to prevent his expulsion from his school, something everyone agreed would have very unfortunate consequences

The corner: Innovative Services

This paper outlines the history and processes of combining Monty Roberts Join Up method of nonviolent horse education and training (Roberts, 2002, 2008), and Narrative Practice to create Equine Assisted Narrative Practice. We began a collaboration with David Epston earlier this year to enhance the therapeutic components of our program ..

More travels with Herodotus : tripping over borders lightly or 'psychiatric imperialism'

... The questions we were asked to address were as follows: (i) What are the most important issues in mental health in your country? (ii) What kind of public policies are used to resolve these mental heath issues? (iii) Which of these programs have been successful? (iv) What do you consider the basic services that any community should have to solve mental health issues? (vi) What would your recommendations be to our three local branches of government on mental health and family violence issues

Narrative means to therapeutic ends

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A family and community approach to stealing

Stealing, a common problem of childhood and adolescence, is often regarded as an expression of distress and is associated with parental “distance” and family breakups, especially in older children (Patterson 1982, p. 263). This article tells the story of family therapy work with a New Zealand Indian family whose son’s stealing habit followed the family from India to their new life in New Zealand. It illustrates a family and community approach to stealing developed by David Epston and Fred Seymour (Epston & Seymour, 2008; Seymour & Epston, 1992). Detailed accounts of therapy are relatively rare in the literature on conduct problems (Hawes, 2011, p. 410)