Mutual storytelling technique

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Richard A. Gardner · 1968

What it is

MST is a technique, not a complete therapy. It sits inside child psychotherapy or play therapy, usually psychodynamically informed. The child makes up and tells a story. The therapist privately works out what the story says about the child's conflicts. Then the therapist tells a story of their own…

Format

• Structure. MST has no phases across a course of therapy. It is one structured activity, repeated across sessions where useful. No source gives a typical session count or frequency: Woolley (2019) does not specify one, and Gardner's own texts, where he would give it, are not drawn on. Decide…
• Title, lesson or moral. Ask for a title, lesson or theme. Goal: the child's own summary, which is often the most revealing element.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Professional frame. No regulated profession or credential exists specifically for MST, and no certifying body for it was found. It is a technique for clinicians who already hold child-psychotherapy or play-therapy training and registration, e.g. a play therapist registered through APT (US; RPT), BAPT or PTUK (UK), or a child psychotherapist, psychologist, counsellor or social worker with supervised child training.…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Children and young people. Get informed consent from parents or carers with legal authority and age-appropriate assent from the child, and get both again specifically for audio recording. Explain limits of confidentiality to both in plain language. Tell parents that stories are worked with as…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• the child shortening stories to win chips fast. Reward completeness, not speed. Prizes should be small and offered equally.
• morals that contradict the plot, punitive or hopeless morals ("you should never trust anyone"), and refusals. Each tells you something for 4.4.
• carers asking what the stories "prove" about the other parent or about events at home. Restate that the stories are fantasy material and not evidence.
• child-supplied photos that show identifying details or other people. Agree privacy rules first with the parent. Check that the child is in a private space for the session.
• over-reading. Hold hypotheses lightly and test them over several stories. This is a clinical formulation aid, not an assessment instrument, and it has no validated scoring.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.