Storytelling therapy

1. Introduction

Version followed: Eric Miller's "Storytelling Therapy" essays (World Storytelling Institute, Chennai, 2015) for the core three-step process, with group storymaking from Alida Gersie (with Nancy King, 1989; Gersie, 1997), story-matching from Ildikó Boldizsár's Metamorphoses method, therapeutic-story and metaphor tools from Stefan Hammel (2018), and Mooli Lahad's six-part story method. Points not confirmed in the sources are marked.

What it is. "Storytelling therapy" is not one manualised therapy. Miller proposes it as a creative arts therapy and as an umbrella term for story- and narrative-based therapies [source: Miller 2015, storytellinginstitute.org/2.pdf]. Under that umbrella there are distinct named practices: Gersie's therapeutic storymaking, used mainly in groups and drawing on myths and tales from many cultures [source: JKP and UBC Press pages for Gersie 1997 and Gersie & King 1989]; Boldizsár's Metamorphoses story therapy, used in hospitals, schools, prisons and psychotherapy [source: IFOTES 2019 programme]; Lahad's six-part story method, from dramatherapy and stress-prevention work [source: Wikipedia, Mooli Lahad; Linds et al. 2021 abstract]; and Hammel's therapeutic stories and metaphors for psychotherapy, family therapy, medicine and coaching [source: Bokus page for Hammel 2018].

How change is thought to happen. Stories shape identity, and telling one's own story asserts a self. A life told as a story, with a beginning, middle and end, becomes something outside the self that feels easier to handle than raw experience. Change comes through projection, identification, empathy, imagination and imitation: the client steps into a character's situation, tries out other ways to act, and carries possible solutions back into real life [source: Miller 2015, 2.pdf and 64.pdf]. In Boldizsár's version, the therapist finds a story whose hero has motives and goals like the client's but gets past obstacles more successfully. The work then asks why the client's own obstacles hold them back [source: IFOTES 2019]. Hammel stresses communicating on two levels at once, with simple images and straightforward solutions [source: Bokus, Hammel 2018].

Professional frame. No regulated profession called "storytelling therapist" exists. Miller presents the term as a proposal, not an established, tested discipline [source: Miller 2015]. Professional storytellers who work in health settings are artists, not therapists. In the UK, story work done as therapy usually falls within dramatherapy, a regulated profession: dramatherapists are "by law, regulated by the HCPC", must hold a Level 7 (Masters) qualification from an approved course, and may not use the title without current registration [source: BADth, HCPC registered]. Gersie was a London dramatherapist and university lecturer [source: UBC Press], and Lahad founded an Institute of Dramatherapy and was a visiting professor of dramatherapy [source: Wikipedia]. A psychotherapist can use the story methods below within their own registered scope. They should not call themselves a dramatherapist, and should get training or supervision before running enactment-heavy or group storymaking work [synthesis]. Miller teaches storytelling within a one-year expressive arts therapy course in Chennai [source: Miller 2015, 64.pdf]; other training routes were not verified [uncertain].

2. Framework

The sources describe a process, not a fixed number of sessions. None of the sources gives session counts or criteria for moving between phases. The phase structure and criteria below are a working synthesis built around Miller's three steps [synthesis].

Core process (Miller) [source: Miller 2015, 2.pdf and 64.pdf]

1. The client tells a brief version of their Life Story.
2. Client and therapist pick out turning points and recurring themes.
3. Together they create, recall and share further stories linked to those turning points and themes. These can come from dreams, fairy tales, legends, epics, myths, books, films or TV, and from any culture.

Phased delivery [synthesis]

Groups (Gersie's main setting) run as a series of themed sessions. Gersie & King group stories under seven themes: Beginnings, Passages, Knots, The Tree, Trickster, Healing and Return. The facilitator chapters cover mythmaking structures and ways of making images [source: UBC Press, Gersie & King 1989]. A plausible group series follows the themes in that order, about 90–120 min a session for 6–12 members [synthesis; group size and length not stated in the sources]. Reviewers describe Gersie's 1997 approach as suitable for brief group therapy [source: JKP page].

3. Guiding principles

• Client as active as possible [source: Miller 2015]: the client chooses and supplies the healing stories and leads the discussion. You suggest stories only when they have none.
• Work through metaphor and projection [source: Miller 2015]: talk about the character, not the client, until the client builds the bridge to their own life.
• The story is an object [source: Miller 2015]: refer to "the story" and "chapters" so the client can stand back from their life.
• Play gives relief [source: Miller 2015]: stories from TV, film or folklore can be enjoyed for relaxation, which takes direct pressure off the self. Light sessions are part of the work, not wasted time.
• Find the parallel hero [source: IFOTES 2019, Boldizsár]: choose stories whose hero shares the client's motives but handles obstacles better, and use the gap to explore what holds the client back.
• Two-level communication [source: Bokus, Hammel 2018]: a story speaks to the conscious problem and to a simpler image of a solution. Keep images simple and solutions plain.
• Make room for every emotion [source: JKP page, Gersie 1997]: the group must allow grief, anger and laughter, not only uplifting responses.
• Know your own position [source: JKP page, Gersie 1997]: race, class and other factors shape the group and its leader. Notice how your background shapes which stories you offer and how they are received.
• Imagination is a faculty to exercise [source: UBC Press, Gersie & King 1989]: myths and stories build an original voice that ready-made media images do not.
• Respect story ownership [source: Canada's History, Rusk lesson]: traditional stories belong to their lands and Peoples, "theirs to tell and only for others to tell with permission". Name the Nation or source, and keep the main teaching intact.
• Go only as deep as is useful [source: Miller 2015, paraphrased]: Miller notes the work may reach into the unconscious and formative experiences to some degree. Set the depth to the client's capacity [synthesis].
• Pacing and consent to disclose [synthesis]: a client never has to tell a real event. A fictional route is always an acceptable alternative.
• Close every session [synthesis]: always step out of the story world (de-role, ground, return to the present) before the client leaves.

4. Intervention inventory

The sources name the interventions in 4.1–4.10. The step-by-step detail is mostly a synthesis, because the sources describe what each technique does but not how to deliver it session by session. All example language is illustrative.

4.1 Story warm-up: a favourite story for relaxation and fun

• Purpose / when: Opens the work and builds safety. Miller describes working with TV, film, book, folklore or mythology stories for relaxation and fun, which takes direct pressure off one's own situation [source: Miller 2015, 64.pdf]. Use it early, after hard sessions, or when a client is guarded.
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask for a story the client loved at any age. (2) Ask them to retell it briefly in their own words; gaps and changes are welcome. (3) Ask which moment or character stays with them, and why. (4) Note the themes privately, without interpreting them aloud yet. (5) Close by asking what it was like to tell it.
• Example language (illustrative): "Before we get to anything heavy, tell me a story you've always liked: a fairy tale, a film, anything. Just the bits you remember."
• Watch for: The client relaxing and getting animated is the goal. If they can't name a story, offer a short menu of genres rather than a single title. A client who goes straight to traumatic personal material needs slowing down (see 5.3).

4.2 The brief Life Story

• Purpose / when: The first of Miller's three core steps [source: Miller 2015]. It produces a told version of the life that can then be treated as an object with a beginning, middle and end. Use it after warm-up, once the client is stable.
• Steps [synthesis on delivery]: (1) Set a time limit (about 5–15 minutes) and say that a short version is fine. (2) Offer a structure if needed: chapters, a title, or "once upon a time" in the third person. (3) Listen without interrupting, writing down chapter breaks and key words in the client's own phrasing. (4) Read back the chapter list and ask what's missing or wrong. (5) Agree that this is a draft, not the final version.
• Example language (illustrative): "If your life so far were a book, what would the chapters be called? Keep it short; we can come back to any chapter later."
• Watch for: Very flat or very fragmented tellings may point to dissociation or unprocessed trauma. Slow down and use more fictional distance (4.7). Offering a third-person telling ("there was once a girl who...") often increases safety [synthesis].

4.3 Mapping turning points and themes

• Purpose / when: Miller's second step: identifying turning points and recurring themes together [source: Miller 2015].
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Draw a lifeline or set of chapter boxes on paper. (2) Mark the turning points the client names, then any you noticed, offered tentatively. (3) For each turning point, ask what came before, what changed and what it left behind. (4) Look for repeats across turning points (abandonment, rescue, starting over). (5) Ask the client to name 1–3 themes in a few words of their own.
• Example language (illustrative): "Where does the story change direction? ... I notice 'starting again' comes up in three chapters. Does that fit, or would you put it differently?"
• Watch for: Themes the client recognises and names spontaneously show the step is working. Themes you impose show up as polite agreement with no energy behind it.

4.4 Guided story questions

• Purpose / when: Miller lists guiding questions for exploring the story: what happened, how it felt, what it reminds one of; whether anything has "prevented, delayed, blocked" happiness and whether that was internal or external; whether there have been villain characters; and what the solutions were and could be [source: Miller 2015, 64.pdf]. Use them during 4.2–4.3 and again in 4.10.
• Steps [synthesis]: Ask one question at a time, in this order: event, feeling, association, block (inside or outside), villains and helpers, past and possible solutions. Stay in story language ("in this chapter", "the character").
• Example language (illustrative): "In this chapter, what got in the way: something inside the hero, or something in their world? Who were the villains, and was anyone helping?"
• Watch for: "Villain" framing can harden blame or, with a client in an abusive situation, raise safety issues. Explore it carefully and follow safeguarding procedures where they apply (5.6).

4.5 Healing stories: linked stories chosen by the client

• Purpose / when: Miller's third step: create, recall and share stories linked to the themes and turning points, drawn from dreams, fairy tales, legends, epics, myths, books, films or TV. The client should supply them where possible [source: Miller 2015].
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask: "What story does this theme remind you of?" (2) Have the client tell or summarise it. (3) Explore the parallels, the differences, and what the characters do that the client doesn't, or the reverse. (4) Only if the client has nothing, offer two or three options and let them choose. (5) Record the chosen story so later sessions can return to it.
• Example language (illustrative): "When you think about always having to start again, does any story come to mind: a film, a myth, even a dream?"
• Watch for: Ownership is the sign it's working: the client brings stories between sessions. For traditional and Indigenous stories, see 4.11.

4.6 Story-matching: the parallel hero

• Purpose / when: From Boldizsár's Metamorphoses method: every life situation corresponds to a story. Find one whose hero has motives and goals like the client's but gets past obstacles more successfully, then explore why the client's own obstacles hold them back [source: IFOTES 2019]. Use it when the client is stuck at a recognisable kind of obstacle. Her full procedure (in a 2010 book for practitioners) is not drawn on here [uncertain].
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) State the client's situation as a story structure: who wants what, and what stands in the way. (2) Choose a tale or story with a matching hero and a successful resolution. (3) Tell it, or read it aloud. (4) Ask the client to compare: where the hero acted differently, and what the hero had (helpers, tools, courage, cunning) that the client lacks or doesn't use. (5) Turn the comparison into one real step.
• Example language (illustrative): "This hero wanted the same thing you want, and the path was blocked too. What did she do at the gate that you haven't tried yet?"
• Watch for: A hero the client experiences as a reproach ("she managed and I didn't") deepens shame. Normalise the gap and focus on resources, not failure.

4.7 Projective entry: imagining oneself into the story

• Purpose / when: The client imagines themselves inside a story's situations and considers whether to act like the characters or differently [source: Miller 2015]. It works through projection, identification and empathy, and suits rehearsing choices at safe distance.
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Pick a scene from a story already in use. (2) Invite the client to step into a character (guided imagery, or simply "if you were her..."). (3) Ask what they see, feel and want. (4) Ask what they would do here, and whether it matches what the character did. (5) Step out explicitly ("come back to this room") and name one link to real life, if the client wants to.
• Example language (illustrative): "Imagine you're standing where the youngest brother stands at the crossroads. What do you notice? Which road do you want, as yourself rather than as him?"
• Watch for: Over-identification (the client talks as if the events are real and happening now) means flooding. Return to the present at once (5.3). Always step out of role before the session ends.

4.8 Alternative endings

• Purpose / when: Writing alternative endings to episodes or stories in which the difficulties are overcome, then weighing those solutions for real life [source: Miller 2015]. Use it when the client feels the outcome is fixed.
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Choose a story or life episode with a painful ending. (2) Ask for two or three different endings, telling or writing each one, including at least one that seems unrealistic. (3) For each ending, identify what had to change: a character, a resource, a choice. (4) Ask which of those changes exist, even partly, in real life. (5) Choose one to try.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's give this chapter three other endings: one sensible, one magical, one where the hero gets help. What made each one possible?"
• Watch for: With events that can't be changed (bereavement, abuse), make it clear that a new ending does not deny what happened. Work on meaning and what comes next instead (5.7).

4.9 Re-imagining formative episodes

• Purpose / when: Revisiting past formative experiences in imagination, adding characters or episodes to the Life Story or changing them, so the client can come to terms with them [source: Miller 2015]. Use it only once the client is stable and has resources, since it touches formative and possibly traumatic material.
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Agree beforehand which episode, and a stop signal. (2) Retell it briefly, in the third person if that helps. (3) Ask who was missing who could have helped, such as a protector, a witness or a wise figure. (4) Retell the episode with that figure added; the facts stay as they were, but the meaning or support changes. (5) Ground, and ask what the added figure stands for now.
• Example language (illustrative): "We won't change what happened. But if someone could have walked into that kitchen and stood beside the child, who would it be?"
• Watch for: This is the riskiest technique here. Don't use it with clients who are dissociating, in active crisis or in unsafe situations. With trauma, keep exposure gradual and consider a trauma-specific therapy (5.3, 5.9) [synthesis].

4.10 Life-Story Repair

• Purpose / when: For a life "not going according to plan": the client reframes the difficulties, makes the best of them and charts a new course [source: Miller 2015]. Miller links this to Narrative Therapy's focus on coping, survival and resilience [source: Miller 2015, 64.pdf]. Use it in the late phase.
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Retell the brief Life Story from 4.2, this time including the themes and new endings found along the way. (2) Rename the chapters to show coping and survival. (3) Add a chapter called "next" with one concrete intention. (4) Optionally share the retelling with a chosen witness (see 4.14).
• Example language (illustrative): "Tell me the story again, but this time as the story of someone who kept going. What's the title of the next chapter?"
• Watch for: Forced positivity. The repaired story should still hold the losses.

4.11 Choosing and using traditional and Indigenous stories respectfully

• Purpose / when: Every time you or a client bring a traditional tale. Gersie & King draw on myths and tales from many cultures [source: UBC Press], and Miller allows stories from any culture [source: Miller 2015]. Traditional stories belong to their lands and Peoples, and others may tell them only with permission. Some Nations tell ancestral stories only at certain times (for example, only in winter). Retellers should name the Nation and the source and keep the main teaching intact [source: Canada's History, Rusk lesson].
• Who holds authority: The Nation or community, and the knowledge-keepers and storytellers it recognises, decide which stories may be told, by whom and when. A therapist does not hold that authority [source: Canada's History; synthesis on application].
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Use only stories the community has published, or has given you or the client permission to tell. (2) Say aloud where the story comes from (Nation or culture, teller, book). (3) Don't change the core teaching to fit a therapeutic point. Adapt your questions instead. (4) Don't use sacred or ceremonial narratives, and never stage ceremony. (5) With Indigenous clients, ask whether they want to bring their own community's stories, and offer to support links with their own Elders, knowledge-keepers or cultural services rather than standing in for them. (6) When unsure, choose a published story you are entitled to tell, or invent one.
• Example language (illustrative): "This is a Lakota story as published by [named teller/book]; I tell it with that acknowledgement." / "Are there stories from your own family or community you'd want here, and who would be the right person to tell them?"
• Watch for: Unattributed "Native American legends" from the internet, retellings that change the teaching, and seasonal or restricted stories.

4.12 Group storymaking with a traditional tale (Gersie)

• Purpose / when: Gersie's storymaking is centred on groups, using traditional stories from many cultures and attending to how the process unfolds and to the experiences and attitudes it stirs [source: JKP, Gersie 1997]. Reviewers note that clients' own memory and fantasy stories and vignettes from storymaking groups appear in the book [source: JKP page]. Gersie & King organise material by theme, with a facilitator chapter on "mythmaking structures" [source: UBC Press]. The exact structures in those chapters are not drawn on here; the steps below are a generic sequence [uncertain; synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Warm-up and check-in. (2) Facilitator tells a tale chosen for the series theme (e.g. Passages, Knots, Return), naming its origin. (3) Brief silence, then each member says which image or moment stayed with them. (4) A response task: draw, write or tell a short story of one's own, fantasy or memory, sparked by that moment. (5) Share in pairs, then optionally with the whole group. No interpreting each other's stories. (6) Facilitator links the threads to the theme without interpreting individuals. (7) Step out of the story world and close (4.17).
• Example language (illustrative): "You don't have to tell anything true about yourself. A made-up story is just as welcome here."
• Watch for: Make room for the full range of emotion. Notice how race, class and the leader's own position shape who speaks and which stories feel welcome [source: JKP, Gersie 1997]. Screen members and agree group rules on confidentiality (5.8).

4.13 Image-making as a response to story

• Purpose / when: Gersie & King give a chapter to "ways of making images" alongside story [source: UBC Press]. Images let a client respond without words, or before finding them. The specific methods weren't opened [uncertain].
• Steps [synthesis]: After a story, offer paper, pastels, clay or collage. Ask for an image of one moment, a character, or "what is left behind". Then invite the client to tell the image as a short story.
• Materials safety [synthesis]: Use non-toxic, labelled materials. Avoid sharp tools with at-risk clients, and use damp clay (not dry sanding) to keep dust down.
• Watch for: Don't read drawings or stories as diagnostic evidence (5.10).

4.14 Telling to sympathetic witnesses

• Purpose / when: Miller includes telling, listening to and discussing stories with sympathetic others, which can lead to plans for personal or community change [source: Miller 2015, 64.pdf]. Use it in groups, families or the late phase.
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) The client chooses what to tell and to whom. (2) Brief the listeners: listen, then reflect back only what moved them; no advice, no questions about facts. (3) The client tells. (4) Listeners respond. (5) The client says what they heard that matters, and any plan that follows.
• Watch for: Privacy. The client decides what leaves the room, and recordings need separate consent (5.8).

4.15 Therapist-told therapeutic stories and metaphors (Hammel)

• Purpose / when: Hammel's handbook offers stories tied to specific symptoms and situations, and tools for adapting stories, reframing, metaphor, story structure, writing one's own stories and trance inductions [source: Bokus, Hammel 2018]. Use it when an indirect message may be heard better than direct advice. The handbook's step-by-step methods weren't opened [uncertain].
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Name the client's stuck point and a direction that might help. (2) Build or choose a short story with a parallel problem, kept at a distance (different setting, species or era). (3) Give the main character resources like the client's real ones, and a plain solution. (4) Tell it simply. Don't explain the moral; ask what the client noticed. (5) Leave the meaning to the client.
• Example language (illustrative): "Can I tell you a short story that came to mind? You can take from it whatever you like."
• Watch for: Trance or hypnotic induction needs separate training in hypnosis. Don't use it without that training [synthesis]. Stories that feel like manipulation or a veiled lecture damage trust (5.5).

4.16 Six-part story (six-box story map)

• Purpose / when: Lahad's six-part story method comes from dramatherapy and stress-prevention work. Lahad's Integrative Model of Coping and Resiliency centres on six types of natural coping mechanisms (BASIC Ph) [source: Wikipedia, Mooli Lahad]. Linds et al. describe 6PSM as a structured storytelling process that uses abstract images (cards) for reflexive learning [source: Linds et al. 2021 abstract]. Lahad's original prompts and scoring guidance weren't opened, so the six prompts below follow a published educational six-box story map, not Lahad's own wording [source: Literature Wales; uncertain]. Use it as a contained, one-session story-making task, and as a gentle look at how a client tends to cope.
• Steps: Draw six numbered boxes and fill them with images, then words: (1) a main character and what they want most; (2) the setting; (3) a character who helps or hinders; (4) a first obstacle; (5) a second obstacle, involving the helper or an opponent; (6) the ending, where the character gets what they want or is thwarted [source: Literature Wales]. Then the client tells the story aloud [source: Literature Wales]. Afterwards, explore with the client which ways of coping the character used (thinking, feeling, doing, imagining, other people, beliefs), as a conversation and not a score [synthesis; Lahad's BASIC Ph labels not confirmed in the sources].
• Example language (illustrative): "Don't plan it; let the first box start you off. Stick figures are fine."
• Watch for: Treat it as an exploration, not a validated test, and don't draw diagnostic conclusions from it (5.10).

4.17 Closing and stepping out of the story

• Purpose / when: At the end of every session [synthesis; not described in the sources].
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ten minutes before the end, stop new material. (2) Have the client put the story away out loud or symbolically (close the book, put the cards back). (3) If the client played a character, they shake it off, say their own name and say one way they differ from the character. (4) Ground in the room: feet on the floor, name five things they can see. (5) Ask what they are taking with them, and what they are leaving here. (6) Check distress on a simple 0–10 scale and make a plan if it's high.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's close the story for today; it will be here next week. Tell me your name and one thing you'll do this evening."

5. Handling problems

The sources say little about difficulties. Miller notes only that the work may reach into the unconscious and formative past [source: Miller 2015], and Gersie stresses making room for every emotion and the effect of race and class on the group [source: JKP, Gersie 1997]. Everything below is synthesis from general psychotherapy and arts-therapy practice unless tagged otherwise [synthesis].

5.1 Stuck: "I don't know any stories" / nothing comes

• Offer a closed choice of 2–3 short tales or genres. Or use the six-box map (4.16) with picture cards, so the client chooses images rather than inventing.
• Move from personal to fictional (third person, an animal, another century). Distance often unlocks the story.
• Change the channel: draw first (4.13), or let the client describe a film scene.

5.2 Resistance: "This is childish" / "just stories"

• Name the rationale briefly: talking about a character lets you look at a problem from the side. Then invite a small trial, not a commitment.
• Use adult material (films, novels, the client's working life, news stories) rather than fairy tales.
• Respect a clear no. Miller's principle that the client should be as active as possible [source: Miller 2015] includes choosing not to use story. Fall back on ordinary talk therapy and come back to story only if the client invites it.

5.3 Overwhelm, flooding and pacing of disclosure

• Signs: speaking as if the story events are happening now, a fixed stare, rapid breathing, going blank or numb, or suddenly disclosing trauma in detail early on.
• Respond: stop the story, name the present ("you're here with me, it's Tuesday"), ground (feet, breath, naming objects in the room), and step out of the character (4.17). Next time, add more fictional distance and shorter tellings.
• Pacing rules: no detailed trauma narrative in the first sessions. The client can always choose a fictional version over a real one. Agree a stop signal before deeper work (4.7, 4.9).
• Consider whether a trauma-focused treatment (e.g. trauma-focused CBT or EMDR) is needed instead of, or alongside, story work. Refer or seek supervision.

5.4 Non-adherence: no story brought, no between-session task done

• Make between-session work optional and small: noticing one story that caught the client's attention during the week.
• Treat the missing task as information. Ask what got in the way, using the block questions (4.4).

5.5 Ruptures: a story you chose misfires

• Common causes: the story felt like a lecture or a veiled criticism; the hero shamed the client (4.6); the story was culturally wrong or appropriated (4.11); or a story about a loss or death touched an unrecognised grief.
• Respond: name it and own it ("I picked that story, and I think it landed badly"). Ask what it was like, and invite the client to change the story or pick a different one. Go back to client-chosen stories [source for client choice: Miller 2015].

5.6 Disclosures and safeguarding

• A story can carry a disclosure ("the girl in my story has a stepfather who..."). Don't interpret fiction as fact, but don't ignore it either. Ask gently, in open terms, whether anything in the story is happening to the client or to someone they know.
• Follow your local safeguarding and mandatory-reporting procedure for children and adults at risk. Explain the limits of confidentiality at the outset, including in groups.
• If a client talks about suicide or self-harm, inside or outside a story, step out of the story and carry out a standard risk assessment and safety plan as for any client. Include lethal-means counselling on safe storage and removal of means where relevant.

5.7 Events that cannot be changed (bereavement, abuse, disability)

• Alternative endings (4.8) must never suggest a death or abuse could have been prevented, or that the client should have prevented it. Work with meaning, legacy and the next chapter instead (4.10).

5.8 Groups: screening, confidentiality, privacy

• Screen individually before a group: current crisis, active psychosis, severe dissociation and recent trauma are reasons to delay or offer individual work.
• Agree ground rules: stories stay in the room; nobody interprets another member's story; anyone may pass; fiction is always allowed.
• Records and recordings: get separate written consent before any audio or video recording or any sharing of stories, and store them under your normal clinical records rules. The client's story is personal data.
• Group dynamics: notice who gets airtime and whose stories are treated as "normal" [source: JKP, Gersie 1997].

5.9 Children and young people

• Get consent from the person with parental responsibility, plus the child's own assent, in age-appropriate language. Re-check assent each session, and let a "no" or "stop" be honoured at once.
• Explain confidentiality and its limits at the child's level, including what you would have to tell other people to keep them safe.
• Involve carers as appropriate: share themes and progress, not the child's stories word for word, unless the child agrees or safety requires it.
• Age adaptations: under-7s do better with puppets, picture cards and short tellings by the therapist; 7–12s with the six-box map (4.16) and drawing; adolescents with films, games, music lyrics and their own Life Story.
• A child's story or drawing is not evidence of abuse. Report concerns based on what was said or observed, following safeguarding procedures. Don't conduct investigative questioning; that is a job for trained investigators.
• Story work with children is also used in hospitals and schools [source: IFOTES 2019, Boldizsár]. In schools, agree roles and information-sharing with the designated safeguarding lead.

5.10 Over-reading projective material

• None of the techniques here is a validated diagnostic instrument in the sources. Six-part story and image work are presented as reflective or exploratory tools [source: Linds et al. 2021 abstract]. Use them to open conversation, not to diagnose disorder or abuse, and don't put interpretations in reports as findings.

5.11 Access and inclusion

• Literacy or language barriers: work orally or visually, and let the client tell in their first language. Use an interpreter briefed on the story work.
• Neurodivergent clients: give clear structure (six boxes, a set number of chapters), make literal versions acceptable, and give advance notice before any imaginative entry.
• Sensory or physical disability: large print, audio, tactile materials, and seated or still telling.
• Cultural fit: ask which stories belong to the client's own tradition and how they are told there. Follow the ownership guidance in 4.11.

5.12 Ending the therapy

• Plan the final telling (4.10) well before the last session. Mark the ending (giving the client the chapter map or their written story, if they want it), and agree what the client will do if old patterns return.

Sources

Sources:

• Storytelling Therapy (Miller, 2015)
• Storytelling Therapy (Miller, October 2015)
• Reflections on Therapeutic Storymaking: The Use of Stories in Groups (Jessica Kingsley Publishers page)
• Storymaking in Education and Therapy (UBC Press page)
• Handbook of Therapeutic Storytelling (Bokus page)
• IFOTES 2019 Udine programme: Ildikó Boldizsár
• Unlocking Creativity: 6-Part Story Method as an Imaginative Pedagogical Tool (LEARNing Landscapes abstract)
• Willing to Learn More: Storytelling-Responsive Consulting through the Six-Part-Story Method (Aston repository record)
• Mooli Lahad (Wikipedia)
• Week Four: Big Rhita (Literature Wales)
• Lesson: Sharing Knowledge Through Stories (Rusk, Canada's History)
• HCPC registered (British Association of Dramatherapists)

Books cited (publisher pages only; contents not read):

• Gersie, A., & King, N. (1989). Storymaking in Education and Therapy. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
• Gersie, A. (1997). Reflections on Therapeutic Storymaking: The Use of Stories in Groups. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
• Hammel, S. (2018). Handbook of Therapeutic Storytelling. Routledge / Taylor & Francis.
• Linds, W., Jhunjhunwala, T., Nadarajah, L., Starnino, A., & Vettraino, E. (2021). Unlocking Creativity: 6-Part Story Method as an Imaginative Pedagogical Tool. LEARNing Landscapes, 14(1), 203–218.
• Boldizsár, I. (2010). Practitioner book on the Metamorphoses method [uncertain: title].

Further reading (not drawn on): the ACAT article "Six-part storymaking: a tool for CAT practitioners" and the full text of Linds et al. (2021). Lahad's own six-part story prompts and BASIC Ph labels are therefore unverified here.