Poetry and Story Therapy looks at the therapeutic uses of poetry and story and gives many examples of how both modalities can be used. Chavis speaks of how she has witnessed how poetry and prose can bring relief to people and develop self-awareness. This primer is divided into three sections, the first dedicated to poetry, the second to stories and the third focuses on the art of creative writing.
In part one, the author outlines the therapeutic features of poetry, the first one being that of engagement and how it is important to choose poetry that in ways can engage the reader and points out that ‘when we use poems for growth and healing, that the ‘real’ poem is the one ‘experienced within the reader’ She continues focusing on ensuring that the form of the poem be concise and careful in its choice of words, the images used should be evocative and the language figurative.
Finally, Chavis looks at the repetition, rhythm and use of silence within the poem. In all of these cases she gives examples of poems which illustrate her points. Part two focuses on stories and how they can be a stimulus for personal development and in building relationships. She discusses the therapeutic nature of stories, how to choose a particular story for your files and also for particular groups or settings. Finally, she outlines the process of facilitating the story therapy experience. In relation to the story therapy process, she identifies this as being the same as for the poetry therapy process.
Part three looks at how creative writing can enhance our lives and I found this section very interesting with many examples of how to work with creative writing, either as a response to a poem, a story/myth, from objects or visual stimuli and film. I particularly liked the example of how we can ask the client to retell a childhood story in three different ways: first person as a child; first person as an adult; third person as an observer. This could be very fruitful to broaden the perspective of the client. Chavis also gives some examples of word play and how to create new structures looking at acrostics, sentence stems and list poems.
I found this book very useful as a primer and as a workbook with useful suggestions as to how to work with poems and stories. I will use it again. I found this book very useful as a primer and as a workbook with useful suggestions as to how to work with poems and stories. I will use it again.
[Originally published in Poetry Therapy, The Irish Poetry Therapy Network Journal, Vol. 5: Issue 2: Autumn 2020]
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