Drawing the threads of story

I first encountered narrative drawing therapy on a short residential course, many years ago. One of my fellow attendees was a narrative drawing therapy (NDT) practitioner, and we had many long hours discussing how this technique worked, when it was useful, and how to decide to use it. 

In career practice, "narrative" career could perhaps be defined as "a career story", which "is a personal moving perspective on our working life, including the objective facts and the subjective emotions, attitudes, and goals of our careers. We create stories retrospectively as a means of remembering day-to-day events, justifying our actions, providing coherence to our lives, projecting ourselves to others [...] and sometimes to plan for the future" (Inkson et al., 2015 p. 265). We tell ourselves - and others - a story.

Our story (the 'narrative') does not necessarily begin, progress, or end perfectly. We know there will be blind alleys, red herrings, turnarounds, repeats, back-tracks and restatements in order for one person - the client - to tell another - the practitioner - the story so well that the practitioner understands it. That they grasp the essence. This is the key: a "meaningful career narrative is not simply a matter of recounting events; rather it is about connecting life events into a meaningful whole" (McIlveen & Patton, 2007, p. 228).

With that 'wholeness' idea in mind, another approach is to have our client draw their narrative. Drawing therapy, or art therapy, "uses the creative process of art making to improve and enhance the physical, mental and emotional well-being" of our clients, creating story by using "visual narratives representations" which "connects 'head to heart'" (Harpaz, 2014, p. 1). This is the process of "externali[sing] internal thoughts and feelings" (p. 2). What is created does not have to be a proficient picture: it merely needs to be representative. The client can then walk us through it. It might be a map. It might be scribbled pieces. It may be textual and visual. It may involve the client moving through and acting out parts. 

As the practitioner, we do not ask "why" questions, but focus on the 'what' and 'how' elements: encouraging our client to create "an inner story replete with all the trappings of narrative form: settings, scenes, character, plot, and themes" (Harpaz, 2014, p. 2). We help the client to establish agency in creating - or recreating - their career narrative.

Why might we choose to experiment with drawing? Perhaps we might have a client for whom words come hard, or who struggles to step back from emotion in their story when 'telling'. Or a client who prefers to be physically active so finds telling difficult. Or a client who is very visual, who does not connect well verbally. We may have a client who has been made redundant, or one who cannot return to their current role through injury, accident or a change of technology. Through drawing therapy, clients may be assisted in putting aside grief and anger arising from a work situation so they can move forward with a clearer sense of self. 

We need to be careful in this work though: most career practitioners are not grief counsellors. We should not be afraid to refer our client on when a situation may cause the client harm, or is outside our area of expertise. Also, where possible, we should reach out for help from a trained NDT practitioner, or take a light and shared-exploratory approach with our client. 

I have worked with an older client who was injured, could not return to the preinjury job, and was stuck. Identity was compromised. The two of us were supervised by an experienced NDT practitioner. It was a very interesting and useful process. It helped my client to become unstuck, and to see where utility could reenter their lives. 

Sam

References:

Harpaz, R. (2014). Narrative Knowing: Narrative and Storytelling Resources in Art Therapy [paper]. Narrative Matters Conference 2014: Narrative Knowing/Récitet Savoir, Jun 2014, Paris, France. https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01081464/document

Inkson, K., Dries, N. & Arnold, J. (2015). Understanding Careers (2nd ed.). Sage Publications Ltd.

McIlveen, P., & Patton, W. (2007). Narrative career counselling: Theory and exemplars of practice. Australian Psychologist, 42(3), 226-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050060701405592

Further reading:

Grennan, S. (2017). A Theory of Narrative Drawing. Springer.

Morgan, A. (2000). What is narrative therapy?. Dulwich Centre Publications.

Sandelowski, M. (1991). Telling stories: Narrative approaches in qualitative research. Image: the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 23(3), 161-166. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.1991.tb00662.x

White, M. K. (2007). Maps of narrative practice. W. W. Norton & Company.