post—conversation/s

in the spirit of transparency — and also to undermine the possible power relationship — it is customary, in the world of narrative therapy, to give the person you've worked with the notes you took during the session at the end.

i was my narrative therapy teacher's worst nightmare (hi ron!) because there were all kinds of things i refused to do and one of them was to take notes during sessions. the wisdom was that taking notes shows the person you're working with that you are paying attention. my argument was and is that if you're taking notes it is impossible to give 100% of your attention to the person. you are not completely being there. and isn't the note taking like a performance then? also, at least for me, because i take words seriously, the fact that the notes are going to be read by the person i am working with (and possibly others) afterwards inevitably means that would be keeping the reader/s in mind whilst you are writing.

after 10 (or 28 depending on how you look at it) years of working with people i have become convinced that it is certainly valuable to share your thoughts/notes arising after a session with the people you're working with and indeed they may also be valuable (or of interest) not only for the particular person but for other people that you're working with (but if it contains personal information, only ever with permission) and i've started doing this slowly, haphazardly, as is my wont.

this morning a new experiment : voice recordings — because of course sometimes one does not have time and energy to write things down properly.

#work