Landscapes

Michael White wrote Maps of Narrative Practice in 2007. This book is an important guide and map in the practice of narrative therapy. It offers practitioners maps that, as well as showing us the way to go, also recognises the sidetracks and distractions that may become visible as we take the journey with our clients.  

When talking about why he used maps in his title he told the story of growing up in a working class family in Australia and how maps of the world made it possible for him to dream about “those other worlds” that it was never going to be possible to visit and “imaginatively transport myself to other places.” Then when he was 10 he was given a bicycle and suddenly his local world opened up to new possibilities. Soon he,  along with his brother and their dog called Prince, went adventuring into unknown territories, using the maps they had that were available to guide them. Magazines, billboards, newspapers, radio. 

Then when he was 13 the family holiday that took them far away to distant places, in South Australia, opened up for him the idea of the hugeness and wonders of the world.  Every night he would pour over the maps they carried tracing where they’d been and where they would be going and exploring the surrounding landscapes, looking at towns and roads between, mountain ranges, rivers, the bush, becoming familiar with where he was, where they were travelling and where they might go. The awakening that occurred for him, the wondering and fascination for the journeys and the way maps could be a guide, led him to see maps as a metaphor for his work, as he embarked on journeys with the people he worked with. 

He explains about his work “I know we will probably take some extraordinarily scenic routes to these unknown destinations. I know that as we approach these destinations we will be stepping into other worlds of experience. And I know that the adventures to be had on these journeys are not about the confirmation of what is already known, but about expeditions into what is possible for people to know about their lives.” 

I can only hope to stay true to the intent in these words. For me my counselling practice  has these maps of narrative practice, that are there to guide me into the new territories and the landscapes I will encounter with the people I work with as we journey along together.