STORY 21
FACING FEARS: A KID STORYTherapeutic Characteristics
Problems Addressed
■ Fear of what you do not know
■ False beliefs
■ Lack of reality testing
■ Thinking the worst of othersResources Developed
■ Learning to control thoughts
■ Developing positive thinking styles
■ Changing old beliefs
■ Changing through successive approximations
■ Being open to new experiencesOutcomes Offered
■ New skills for managing old fears
■ Positive thought patterns
■ Methods for reality testing
■ Willingness to experiment
There was a story that all the kids at Caroline’s school told. I don’t know if they believed it but
some of them certainly acted as if they did.
On the way from Caroline’s home to school there was a little old cottage, hidden back on a big
block of land. Even the size of the land made the cottage seem different and scary because most of
the land around it had been divided into smaller blocks for bright, modern homes with neat little gar-
dens. You could only just see the little old cottage, as if it were trying to hide itself behind the gnarled
trees and shrubby garden that no one seemed to care about any more. There were tall, tangled,
prickly rose bushes, and weeds as high as a kid’s head.
At times, but not very often, the children had seen a little old woman make her way along the
cracked, leaf-covered path from the front door to the mailbox. Her fingers were twisted in funny,
knotty shapes, her body was bent over and her back hunched. She shuffled along at a slow pace and,
if she lifted her head to look at you, her face was all wrinkly. Wispy gray hair grew out of her chin.
Sunken eyes followed you with a gaze that—as the story went among Caroline’s friends—would put
you in a trance if you looked back at them.
“The witch at Number 97” was how most kids spoke of her. “Don’t look in her eyes,” you could
hear them say. “She’ll capture you in a magic spell, take you into the house and never release you
again.” Many gruesome tales arose about what happened to kids who got captured, but if you asked
anyone to tell you the name of someone who had been captured, of course, they couldn’t.
As a result Caroline’s friends would never pass the house alone. What if the witch at Number 97
looked at them? Would they be strong enough not to look back?
82 Healing Stories, Teaching Stories