Story 3, “Kids Can Make a Difference: A Teen Story.” This is a story worthy of retelling because of
the outcome. Trevor, an ordinary teenager, made a difference to the lives of many destitute people.
One night he was watching a television story about homeless people in his own city, as were thou-
sands, maybe millions of others; but their stories are not told for the simple reason that although they
had the same beginning as Trevor, they did not have the same ending. Trevor’s story would not be a
story, either, if he had continued to watch TV and not put his concerns into action. We have a help-
ful, repeatable, healing story because of the end or outcome.
Dr. Beck Weathers’ story of survival on Mt. Everest (Story 72, “Overcoming Adversity: A Teen
Story”) would probably not have been told by several authors, including myself, if it were not for the
outcome. If Dr. Weathers had been among the fifteen who died on the mountain that year it is un-
likely that many of us would have heard of him. Amazingly, if he had reached the summit and de-
scended safely we may have been less likely to know about him, as he would have been just one of
the 1,200 people to do so in the last fifty years. His story is told because of the outcome. He survived
against unbelievable odds after having been written off for dead several times. It is at the end that his
story begins, and where it is easiest for us to start planning ours.
This then becomes the first question in planning a metaphor: What is the outcome? Where is
the story going? What is it designed to achieve? What is the ending? If you have undertaken an
Outcome-Oriented Assessment with the child or the parents, hopefully, you will already have a spe-
cific, positive, and achievable goal or goals toward which therapy will be directed. This is where your
therapeutic interventions—metaphors or not—are headed.
The outcome is analogous to the destination on a road map where you want to journey. Once
you know where you intend to go, then you can ask how do you get there.
What Are the Resources Necessary to Reach the Outcome?
Having defined the therapeutic destination, it is now a matter of planning the resources, skills, or
means the child needs to reach the outcome. These are—in the analogy of the road map—the road,
the vehicle, the fuel, the driving skills, and the knowledge of the road rules that are necessary to make
the journey possible. Here are some steps that may be helpful for tapping into the child’s resources.
Assess the Child’s Existing Abilities
What skills does the child already possess that would help him or her move toward the therapeutic goal?
What are the child’s capabilities, and how might these be employed to reach his or her desired out-
come? My reason for putting these questions first is that it seems useful, pragmatic, and efficient to use
the skills and abilities a child already possesses than to start the arduous task of creating new ones from
the beginning. This is a process that Milton Erickson described as utilization, and has been expounded
upon by Duncan, Miller, and Coleman (2001); Revenstork (2001); and Yapko (2003)—but it is still
well summarized in Erickson’s own words as, “[e]xploring a patient’s individuality to ascertain what life
learnings, experiences, and mental skills are available to deal with the problem... [and] then utilizing
these uniquely personal internal responses to achieve therapeutic goals” (Erickson & Rossi, 1979, p. 1).
Marty was a 10-year-old boy whose mother expressed concern he wasn’t eating a sufficient va-
riety of food—takeaways, bread, potatoes, and sweets were his whole diet. When I talked with Marty
he said he was scared to try new foods. When I asked what things he liked doing and thought he was
PRO-APPROACHHow Do I Plan and Present Healing Stories? 259