Story Boarding

Introduction

We tell stories to make meaning of our experience, so in a way, storytelling is hardwired into the human condition. We each have a story of who we are, what made us that way and who we might be in the future. Those stories give us a sense of identity and that is an ever-changing, constantly growing story as we move through life.

This exercises, provides clients with an opportunity to see those stories laid out before them, allowing enough space for the unknow stories to surface. It offers a visual forum for them to safely challenge assumptions about themselves in a non-threatening way. The story board provides a framework for the unconscious story to come to light and by doing so presents the client with possible resolutions to be explored.

The story board is useful when a client feels stuck in a life situation, or finds that they keep coming across the same issue in different circumstances. It provides a step-by-step way discover what might be happening at an unconscious level as these situations unfold. Seeing how their story progresses from the know, to the unknown, and then towards resolution, can help a client identify what is needed in the situation. They then have the opportunity to reflect and inquire how they might have their needs met in their life situation.  

As with all the art exercises presented, my suggestion is for you to do this exercise for yourself first. Do it for several different concerns, with different levels of intensity, so you begin to get a real sense of how the exercise works. As you move through the exercise from one stage to the next, you also move from conscious to unconscious mind, which is where the solution or insight will come from. As you will know from your own Creative practice, the reflection afterward is where you begin to explore how you would apply the insight gained through image making, to the issue under review. It is this last part that helps a client to see where the resolution might be applied to the real-life situation or relationship.

You will have discovered from your own Creative Practice, any kind of artwork invites the unconscious mind to come into relationship with the conscious mind. This process is the same for all art exercises, and you will see that the safety in the story board is in its slow progression from one to the other. Image one (the current situation, emotion, relationship) moves slowly through the process, becoming more removed from the known towards it resolution and the reflective practice at the end, brings that resolution to the lived experience.

Helping a client selecting an issue to story board.

As counsellors and therapists, we are always listening, noticing the language our clients use to tell a story, i.e. I was sent to boarding school, versus, I went to boarding school. These tell very different stories, and we listen to see what is trying to make itself known. What we are listening for is the untold story, the one that the client may not yet be aware of, and yet is getting played out in their current life situation. Repeated sentences, words or phrases applied to different scenarios, also give us clues to a story they might have become identified with. e.g. No one ever listens to me, could be an indicator of a deeper untold story that the egoic self seeks to validate or make true.

Ask yourself

·         What story is their tone of voice telling? Does it match the story being told?

·         Does the body language match the story being spoken?

·         Does this story sound familiar for this client?

·         Listening for common threads that are presented in different stories will help choose the subject to story board.

·         Listening for how the client describes their feeling of in a situation, or relationship will give you clues to their story of self.

·         Does anything in the client’s story activate a story in your own life?

·         What is the story you are telling yourself about this client?

Known Story – Conscious mind

To begin with it’s good to be clear about the story that is known, the one the client will bring into the room and in some cases, the one they speak about every week. This is often the story that brings the person to therapy in the first place, and it is agreed between you that this is the story they want to change.

•      The known story is repeated often and usually has a quality of certainty to it when the client brings it into the room. e.g. I have to do everything myself. You will know they have said it before and find it is often repeated in different aspects of their lives, work, home, relationships.

•      These can often be bottom-line stories, ones that point towards core beliefs the client has about themselves. Using the example above, the client may know they have this story about having to do everything themselves yet may not recognize this has become part of their identity story. Letting go of this kind of story will mean a loss of self, so gentle inquiry and great respect for the defences that will become activated around this story is essential. Grief around that loss of self is often experienced as the egoic self pulls the person back into the familiar way of being.

•      The story board exercise may offer an opportunity to discuss with the person what it might mean for them to let go of this story. They could see what the consequences of letting go might look like. i.e. What it might look like to let someone do a task their own way. The client can story board that experience to see if they feel ready to allow change and perhaps what losing the sense of control might feel like. In this way they may gently begin to repair that sense of self as the story transforms.

As therapists, we are the keepers of the client’s story. We witness them both in time, and see the stories change over time. There is great value in validating these changes for a client as they quickly forget that there once was a time when they couldn’t ask for help or let others do things for and with them. The story board is giving them a safe enough way to test it out to see how they feel. Reflect on those feelings and see if they can self-soothe enough to validate the part of them that wants to make the changes in their lives.

Unknown story- Unconscious mind

Unconscious influences impact a person’s story and you, as the therapist, can hold the broader context of that person’s life, while they focus on the content they wish to explore. The story of who they are, their identity is impacted hugely by social and cultural influences they have lived through and that can include attitudes towards mental health.

 As therapist’s we recognise the that the narrative identity is formed and informed by the external environment and may be largely unconscious for the client. Within the story they tell there is a narrative logic that curates events saying, this made me who I am today and will have relevance to who I become tomorrow. Art exercises invite the unconscious mind to make itself know, thereby making it possible for the client to see the wood from the trees.

The sense of self for all of us emerges through a family culture, that sits within a broader society, that sits within the wider world culture of the time. All of that influences the way a person perceives themselves and their experiences of the world. You may offer a different perspective from which they can explore possible changes for themselves. Things like race, gender, relationship to authority, age, sex, religion, socio-economic status, education, respect, eye contact, weight, communication styles, concepts of beauty, family interactions, courtship patterns, attitudes to relationship status and many more, are integrated into the story of self and yet may go largely unnoticed by the client.

This kind of narrative identity is how a person authors the self, giving a sense of wholeness and unity to their existence. When that becomes destabilised for one reason or another, psychological disturbance is the result. Building resilience and allowing a new story to emerge opens up possibilities for the person to create a new story that has an inner anchor for the self. Holding that context around the function of story, allows you facilitate change for the client as a new story emerges. This is the process of therapy and when you introduce art into the mix, you invite the deeper Self of the client into the room as the ego is the vehicle of expression for the Self.

Over-Identification with story can overwhelm the whole sense of self

As we saw in the section above there are many unconscious influences impacting our story of self and over-identification with any of these can bring a person into crisis. If the whole sense of self is anchored externally, then they are constantly at risk of losing that stability. Providing your client with exercises that build ground for an internal ‘observing self,’ offers respite from the storms of constant change outside. We experience this with presentations like, empty nest syndrome, retirement or job loss when the person has identified fully with their occupation. Below are other aspects that can and do become the whole self, to name but a few.

•      Social Status and acquiring wealth

•      Beauty as the indicator of social worth

•      Education and Neuro Diversity

•      Relationship Status

•      Having or not having children

•      Sexual orientation and Gender fluidity

•      Trauma and Anxiety

•      Aging and getting older

Art Making gives us access to the untold story as the image becomes the vehicle of expression for the
 unconscious mind. It is an objective expression of a subjective experience and by having it there on the page is safe enough to deal directly with.

The Story Board Exercise

Agree with your client what issue they want to explore with the exercise first. It needs to come from them even though you might help naming it for them

They prepare the page by dividing it into four, with numbers flowing one, to four in a circular fashion. Number four will be directly under number one. This matters.

Ground the client through the body as you would for your Creative Practice, inviting them to close their eyes, to feel the chair support their back and legs. To feel their feet on the floor and begin to pay attention to the breath, allowing it to deepen naturally.
 

Invite the person to think about the issue they have chosen to story board by encouraging them to notice where in their body this experience is felt. Invite them to silently explore the sensation allowing their awareness to settle in that part of their body. From that space, allow an image to emerge.
Accept the first thing that comes. Suspend any trying to figure out what it means for now. Allow the image to become clearer, colours more vivid, edges more defined. When the image is clear and in their own time; the invitation is to draw the image in box number one.

Allow three to five minutes to finish the drawing.

When the drawing is complete, ask your client to give this image a title.

2

Once they have a title and written it in box number one, invite them to sit back and look at the image they have made. Give them time to reflect on it, then ask them to expand this image in some way. To make it say more, make it bigger, take the picture further in some way.

This might be that they add something or take something away do a completely different image. This second image goes into box number two and is allowing the story of the first image grow.

Three to five minutes, don’t rush and when they sit back, ask is there anything else they would like to add.

3

The reflection for the second image to ask, what does this image need. It may seem a little abstract at first, but encourage them to focus solely on the second picture they have drawn, asking what would make it better? how can I help?

The image that goes into box number three, is whatever they think that might help.
Patience is needed as this part can sometime take a while. There are no wrong answers, and your assurances of this might help.

Give them three to five minutes on the image in box number three.

4

The reflection for image number three, is what would be the result of the help offered, what will be the result of making this better. That is the question image number four is about. Invite them to make an image that shows the resolution from image number three getting it’s needs met.

Give three to five minutes for the image making.

Title this image.

Reflection

Ask your client to reflect on the story board. Avoid interpreting what you see. Remember only the client can hear the true message and meaning of the images they have made. You are holding the context of the problem they were hoping to resolve; you can help with that.

Questions for your client to consider:

• What story are the drawings telling?

• Consider the two titles and ask how does the story transform?

• What did the image in box number three need?

• Were they able to give the image what it needed and what difficulties did they feel about doing that?

• What did it feel like to have a resolution.

• How does this story apply to the issue they were considering?

• Are They willing to give the situation what it needs to make that transformation happen in their lives.

Just because a person finds a resolution does not necessarily mean that they are able to give the situation in their lives the thing that is needed. There may be many story boards around a single issue but the step by step process is giving your client a resource for addressing issues they feel stuck in and shows them that it’s not always as simple as knowing what to do, its often the case that finding how to do it is the reason to continue story boarding the issue. This handing over the issue to the creative process builds resilience and confidence in that inner knowing.