Author: Mahera Kantawalla | Oct 07, 2017
The one thing I have treasured the most at Sethu is the multidisciplinary teamwork approach while treating any child. Every Friday, the team meets in the afternoon to discuss and give updates about projects or training programs they are involved in, along with sharing of their experience and professional expertise while working with children.
During one such weekly team meeting, our psychologist Aileen Desouza shared how the principles of ‘Narrative Therapy’ could be used within sessions to help children identify their difficulties, by externalizing conversations about the problem. This method helps to separate the problem from the child, because of which children are able to take a better stand against their problem and themselves come up with strategies to reduce the effects of their problem.
I decided to use Narrative Therapy with a child whom I had been conducting Occupational Therapy for handwriting difficulties, who had to be really constantly motivated to write. Narrative Therapy helped him realize that the ‘problem’ is the problem and NOT the child himself. He decided to call his handwriting problem – Mr. Nobody. Conversing about Mr. Nobody helped him share how his handwriting problem was affecting him, how it made him feel and how Mr. Nobody made his handwriting bad.
Incorporating Narrative practices in my session, helped me help the child gain better insight into his handwriting problem. Together, we decided to use highlighted paper to help him size and space his alphabets correctly while writing and this helped him overcome his handwriting issues and lack of motivation. Over time, there was a positive change in his compliance towards writing.
Thanks to our weekly team meetings, I now have another great tool to use in my practice!
