{"id":35872,"date":"2020-12-04T03:32:56","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T11:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=35872"},"modified":"2020-12-02T20:55:46","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T04:55:46","slug":"uncovering-the-story-within","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2020\/12\/04\/uncovering-the-story-within\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncovering the story within"},"content":{"rendered":"

A participant in Yehudit Silverman\u2019s The Story Within<\/em> process shows off their self-made mask.\u00a0<\/strong>(photo from Yehudit Silverman)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This past spring, Prof. Yehudit Silverman\u2019s new book came out. In The Story Within: Myth and Fairy Tale in Therapy<\/em>, the Concordia University professor emerita walks people through a step-by-step process to healing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a person embarks on this journey, they feel called to a story, but they don\u2019t know why,\u201d said Silverman. \u201cAnd it\u2019s the sense of the unknown that\u2019s really important…. Sometimes, in conventional therapy, we just go around in circles and might not necessarily get to the deeper layers that are inaccessible to us. But, through the arts and through the use of a character from a myth or fairy tale, gradually we can access those areas in ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Silverman\u2019s approach, clients start by choosing their own story after going through a couple of exercises. \u201cThat process of choosing the story is therapeutic and healing in itself, because it\u2019s part of the person\u2019s sense of their own sense of knowing their own strengths and their own intuition, which is really important,\u201d she explained. \u201cAlso, it\u2019s important to stay with one character in a story for a long time, allowing the depth work to be done … recognizing what the character\u2019s quest is, which is so important in myth and fairy tale, which is why I think they are still so relevant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe protagonist is on a quest and has to face obstacles and challenges,\u201d she continued. \u201cThat can be so helpful when people are facing their own challenges and obstacles, so they don\u2019t feel so alone. Also, they get to work with fiction, which is very safe, providing a certain amount of distance.\u201d<\/p>\n

People choose their stories for different reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone might be really drawn to a character that is having to do an impossible task, like in Rumpelstiltskin, where the girl has to make straw into gold,\u201d said Silverman. \u201cA lot of people think they are facing an impossible task, so they might then choose that story.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, it\u2019s just the title of the story. I worked with an adolescent who was homeless and, sadly, addicted to drugs. When I worked with her, she chose the story of the handless maiden, which led to, sadly, to the revelation of her having been abused as a child. It was just the title that drew her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once people choose a character, they start to build a mask. Then, they build the environment for the character and go through the steps that are described in Silverman\u2019s book. The process is usually done within the context of a group, so that it is witnessed, which, according to Silverman, aids significantly in healing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey work with other people so that, at some point, they actually direct someone else in their mask and in their costume,\u201d she said. \u201cThey get to look at what their character looks like to an outsider. And then, they have people embodying the obstacle and the helper, so they actually embody going through the quest\u00a0and the challenges of the character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silverman once worked with an anorexic teen who chose the character of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz<\/em>. \u201cFor her, the tornado was her eating disorder that took her to the Wonderful Land of Oz … which was, for her, magical. It was the \u2018Land of Starvation\u2019 and the good witch, Glenda, was actually evil for her, because she was trying to get her to go back to Kansas…. I realized that, for her, everyone in the hospital was evil, was going against what she felt was her sense of reality and her sense of what was magical and important, which was her starvation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, little by little, she worked with it and she embodied the tornado,\u201d said Silverman. \u201cShe was actually swirling around and started crying, and realized how destructive it was. It was the first time she had had that realization \u2013 she didn\u2019t have it when people were just talking to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teen connected and embodied the \u201cchaotic energy of the tornado,\u201d said Silverman. \u201cShe began to realize it was destructive and, then, she very slowly started healing. But, for her, having that story was essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although COVID-19 has made holding in-person group sessions impossible for Silverman, it has opened the door to including people from all over the world in the online groups she leads.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>The Story Within <\/em>outlines Silverman\u2019s process step-by-step, taking readers through each one, and it can be useful for both therapists looking to implement the technique, as well as anyone wanting to understand why they do what they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going through something that is severe or you are in crisis, you should definitely see a therapist,\u201d said Silverman. \u201cAnd, if you\u2019re going to use the book, you should only use it in context of therapy. But, for people looking for personal healing and a way to have creative reflection about what their life and quest is, then it is definitely for those people \u2013 for seekers, for artists and, also, for therapists, as something to integrate into their process with clients. And that\u2019s something I do a lot of right now \u2013 supervising therapists insofar as how to integrate this into their work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silverman said already established groups can use the book, as well, to form a more solid structural foundation perhaps. And, \u201cthere are so many people at home right now, and they are really questioning what their life is about,\u201d she added. With the anxiety, she said, \u201chaving this structure, where they can go through a creative process \u2026 is so life-giving. It really allows us to express what\u2019s going on inside into an outside form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A participant in Yehudit Silverman\u2019s The Story Within process shows off their self-made mask.\u00a0(photo from Yehudit Silverman) This past spring, Prof. Yehudit Silverman\u2019s new book came out. In The Story Within: Myth and Fairy Tale in Therapy, the Concordia University professor emerita walks people through a step-by-step process to healing. \u201cWhen a person embarks on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[7778,1997,9737,4829,4838,20076,4688,9002],"class_list":["post-35872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-arts","tag-mental-health","tag-mythology","tag-self-help","tag-storytelling","tag-the-story-within","tag-therapy","tag-yehudit-silverman"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}