Description
Book SynopsisThe book is intended to assist people in the healing professions to utilise storytelling, pictures and metaphor as interventions to help their patients. By communicating in parallel worlds and using simple images and solutions, not only can positive attitudes be implanted but also nurtured and enhanced to literally work wonders. Trainers, psychotherapists or professionals in the field of management are given information to inspire people to make subtle behavioural changes that positively improve lives and plant seeds in the subconscious that can effectively help people heal themselves. The book has several sections to help the reader find what he or she needs. An introduction about stories and their usage, using the world of dreams and trance states and indicating different ways of communicating, understanding and meaning. The first main section includes stories with specific therapeutic applications linked to symptoms and situations. The second main section explains and investigates methods and gives a myriad of tools including trance inductions, adaptation hints, reframing, use of metaphor and intervention techniques, how stories can be structured and how to invent your own. Finally a elaborate reference section with key words cross-referenced will help you find the story or tool you need.
Trade Review"Clients present the limitations of their stories. Effective change agents offer stories that speak to the heart and elicit adaptive realizations. Stefan Hammel provides a blueprint for bringing therapeutic stories to life." --Jeffrey K. Zeig, Ph.D., The Milton H. Erickson Foundation
"These days, it's possible to learn all kinds of skills to communicate better with other people, but it's rare to find a book that teaches us how to become better at communicating with ourselves. This book is a treasure for learning to speak to yourself in a language that your mind and body can understand." --Ben Furman, psychiatrist, author and solution-focused psychotherapist, based in Helsinki, Finland. www.benfurman.com
"Hammel’s Handbook is a gardener’s guide for seeding and cultivating stories that encourage beneficial change towards well-being. He carefully scrutinizes the essential nutrients for stories that heal. He extensively samples their varieties and potential fruits. Then he carefully encourages us to explore own storytelling resources. This is a trove of inspiration for the minds of all who strive to be effective agents of health and care." -- Prof. Laurence Irwin Sugarman, MD, FAAP, Director, Center for Applied Psychophysiology and Self-regulation, Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, USA
"The book is like a string of universal pearls of wisdom; the string which unites them is a spiritual dimension of care. Among the pearls there are metaphors, parables, clinical cases, anecdotes, each of which awakens the readers' emotional and cognitive resources. The book is a source of suggestions that therapists, counsellors, and coaches can integrate into their practice." --Consuelo Casula, psychologist, psychotherapist and author, former President of the European Society of Hypnosis
"An old friend, a pueblo Indian named Steven Gallegos, refers to human beings as "the animal that tells stories." Thank you Stefan, for giving us this horn of plenty; a great collection of stories, metaphors and similes. This is a true treasure chest, filled with sparkling gems with ability to light up the path for those who wander from desert to desert, and for those who find their way from oasis to oasis. Old wisdom about being alive together, body and soul, here provides an irrigation system of storytelling. The well-structured design of this book helps me as a therapist to find momentary inspiration; dwelling in the book replenishes my own soul…" --Inger Lundmark, Drama teacher, psychotherapist, family therapist and certified hypnotherapist, based in Stockholm, Sweden
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION
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- The potential of stories
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PART ONE: THE STORIES
- Promoting understanding
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- Promoting health
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- Promoting wellbeing
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- Promoting successful relationships
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- Promoting development
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PART TWO: THE METHODS
- Identifying therapeutic stories
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- Developing therapeutic stories through dialogue
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- Inventing therapeutic stories
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- Telling therapeutic stories
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- Experiencing therapeutic stories without words
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- Appendix
Literature
Index
