where they’ll blow out candles and sing the birthday song
and I will stand around amongst them and get to sing along
And now and again in the letterbox, hand delivered there will be
a letter that is addressed especially to me
I always open it up, in great anticipation
and am very excited when I read in big letters
INVITATION!!HELPING PARENTS BUILD STORYTELLING SKILLSSuggest Meeting with Storytellers
For parents who want to continue the processes of therapeutic storytelling initiated in your office, or
those who want to communicate values, life experiences, and skills of management to their children
through stories, there are several opportunities for them to develop the art, content, and processes of
storytelling. First, there are storytellers’ guilds throughout many countries that hold conferences and
meetings in which the art of storytelling in both entertainment and therapy is discussed and practiced.
Second, local libraries at times hold story-reading and storytelling sessions. Third, there are writers’
groups that run workshops and conferences for people interested in creating and developing story
ideas. These may help parents broaden and build their skills for communicating with children.
Recommend Books
There are two categories of books that may be beneficial. First, those that teach how to tell stories,
and second, those that provide ideas or examples of metaphoric tales. In this book I have attempted
to combine the art of storytelling with steps for creating outcome-oriented stories and a collection
of illustrative story ideas. Though primarily directed toward therapists, it may contain helpful infor-
mation for parents, grandparents, teachers, or caregivers who want to learn more about working with
stories. As there are many storybooks for children, you as a therapist may like to check out your lo-
cal bookshops or libraries to keep abreast of current publications to recommend to parents, or, alter-
natively, set parents the task of looking for books that meet their child’s needs, whether they be over-
coming anxiety, dealing with illness, managing anger, adjusting to the physical and emotional changes
of puberty, dealing with peer pressure, building better social relationships, or whatever is personally
relevant for the child. A guide to some of these is provided in the “Resources, References, and Other
Sources of Metaphoric Stories” following Story 101, “Will You Be My Teacher?”
Create a Role Model
It may be useful to provide parents with a role model for communicating in metaphors. This can be
done in several ways. First, you can coach parents in the PRO-Approach for storytelling, as I de-
scribed in this chapter.
274 Creating Your Own Healing Stories for Kids