What are Therapeutic Stories?

"Therapeutic stories are a healing medium that allow children, teenagers and adults to embark on an imaginative journey, rather than being lectured or directly addressed about the issue. By identifying with the main character or characters, the listener is empowered as obstacles are overcome and a resolution achieved. This is a gentle, easy, yet often effective means of addressing challenging behaviours and difficult situations.

As medicine is used to help restore wholeness or balance to out-of-balance physical conditions, story medicine (therapeutic or healing stories) can be an imaginative and effective pedagogical strategy. Story medicine uses metaphor and story as an indirect tool for regulation of behaviour and helping with trauma through individual and group work.

Working with a creative journey and a specific selection of metaphors, a therapeutic story approach has the potential to shift an out-of-balance behaviour or situation back towards wholeness or balance. The story may help considerably, help a little, soothe, motivate, strengthen resolve and/or sow invaluable seeds for future change."

Susan Perrow