sents the problem, engages the listener, and creates some mystery about what the character might do
to find a resolution.
Describe and Develop the Resources
In this part of the story the child is guided through ways to access the abilities he or she already has,
reactivate past skills, build on the exceptions to the problem, or develop new means to overcome the
challenge—the resources you have decided on in the planning stage. The character, like the listener,
may try ways of managing an old problem and fail, discover exceptions to what he or she had come
to think of as the rules, or try new approaches and strategies. It is a stage in which the character comes
to acknowledge, be aware of, and utilize the tools that he or she has available. It is also a process of
discovery, finding how to make use of the available resources, learning not just what the tools are but
how to employ them in a practical and helpful way. Here the child is assisted to develop useful
processes of adaptation, change, learning, and discovery that will guide them toward a satisfactory
outcome.
Offer an Outcome
The final step in telling the tale is the attainment of the specific therapeutic goals that have been ne-
gotiated in the Outcome-Oriented Assessment. This may not be the complete goal or the total ac-
quisition of everything the client desires, but may be one of those specific steps leading in the desired
direction.
When it comes to how you end the story, there are several possibilities:
■ It may end in a clear, direct, and even poignant outcome, as in the message about looking
after yourself (Story 5) or not flying off the handle (Story 47).
■ The outcome may be ambiguous, allowing the child to search for his or her own mean-
ing—such as in Story 25, “Build on What You Are Good At,” which might leave the child
to ponder, “What am I good at, and how can I build on that?”
■ The story may not reach a conclusion at all but invite the child to find his or her own, as in
Story 73, “Collaborative Problem Solving.”
At the end, the character discovers what it feels like to reach his or her objective. He may feel
confident in just making one small step toward what had previously seemed an unobtainable objec-
tive. She may discover what differences it makes to the ways that she is thinking, feeling, and doing
things. He might look forward to replicating those experiences again in the future so that the out-
come is not just a one-time achievement. Or she may simply enjoy the process of learning and dis-
covering.
We need to be mindful that our young listeners may not necessarily interpret the story in the way
in which we had intended it to be heard. They may project a meaning into the story that we, the
therapist, had not necessarily intended to communicate. If this is the case, it is important to work with
the interpretation the child derives from the story, for that may have greater impact and meaning than
the message we had planned. In our storytelling we need to be flexible enough to build on the child’s
meanings in a way that constructively helps that child move toward the desired therapeutic goal.
PRO-APPROACHHow Do I Plan and Present Healing Stories? 263