Touching Tales: Storytelling as a Culturally Resonant Counselling Technique

Part of Singapore International Storytelling Festival 2011

Date: 1 Sep 2011
Time:

10.00am – 5.30pm

Location: National Museum of Singapore: Seminar Room 1 & 2 , Level 2
Fee:

S$220/person (inclusive of 2 tea breaks)

Details:Website

For Singapore International Storytelling Festival / Singapore Book Council (formerly National Book Development Council of Singapore)

In Eastern cultures the central function of storytelling is not entertainment. Traditional counsellors (the wise elder, the healer, the shaman, the guru, the soothsayer, the grandparent, the uncle or the aunt), typically use illustrations from parables, stories from the holy books and folk tales that depict the gods, folk heroes and other characters whom the help-seeker is already culturally prepared to revere and respect. The attention of the help-seeker would be drawn to how the characters in the stories deal with life’s vicissitudes and the help-seeker would be exhorted to emulate them. The discipline of counselling could learn from these methods to consider techniques that have a strong cultural grounding.

Presented by a clinical psychologist, DR. GIDEON ARULMANI, Director of The Promise Foundation India, and International Fellow of the National Institute for Career Education & Counselling (Cambridge, UK) and a professional storyteller, KAMINI RAMACHANDRAN, Co-Founder of MoonShadow Stories and President of the Storytelling Association (Singapore), this workshop will bring two disciplines, namely, storytelling and counselling together and explore storytelling as a counselling technique. The speakers will present the cultural preparedness approach as a conceptual framework that could guide the development of counselling interventions that are responsive and relevant to felt needs.

This special Workshop brings two disciplines, namely, storytelling and counselling together and explores a new method for counselling.
Over the last few years, the importance of culturally resonant forms of counselling has begun to be discussed in the literature.

This Workshop presents the notion of cultural preparedness as a conceptual framework that could guide the development of culture-resonant counselling interventions.

Counselling can learn from the traditional storytelling or oral narrative methods and consider techniques that have a strong cultural grounding.
Stories are part and parcel of everyday life in not only Asia but throughout the world and can be used as a powerful and effective counselling tool.

The key objective of this Workshop is to illustrate how the 'story' could be used as a tool for counselling.

Stories are in fact repositories of culture, describing ways of living.

This has prompted psychologists to point out that a fundamental character of The Story is that it is closely connected to our human inner landscapes.

In Eastern cultures the central function of storytelling is not entertainment. Traditional counsellors (the wise elder, the healer, the shaman, the guru, the soothsayer, the grandparent, the uncle or the aunt), typically use illustrations from parables, stories from the holy books and folk tales that depict the gods, folk heroes and other characters whom the help-seeker is already culturally prepared to revere and respect. The attention of the help-seeker would be drawn to how the characters in the stories deal with life’s vicissitudes and the help-seeker would be exhorted to emulate them. The discipline of counselling could learn from these methods to consider techniques that have a strong cultural grounding.

Areas Covered:

  • The Story, Counselling and Culture
  • The Story and Inner Landscapes
  • Learning from stories: Grasping the intangible; illogically sound; the big picture
  • Psychological underpinnings: Themes and motifs; thoughts and cognitions; emotions and feelings
  • Skills for effective communication
  • Applying the story to counselling
  • Skills practice: Theme Extraction
  • Skills practice: Framing, Re-framing, generalisation.
  • Worksheets: Theme Extraction
  • Role Play
  • Group Presentations

Facilitated by clinical psychologist, Dr. Gideon Arulmani, Director of The Promise Foundation India, and International Fellow of the National Institute for Career Education & Counselling (Cambridge, UK) and professional storyteller, Kamini Ramachandran, Co-Founder of MoonShadow Stories and President of the Storytelling Association (Singapore), this workshop brings two disciplines, namely, storytelling and counselling together and explores storytelling as a counselling technique. The facilitators will present the cultural preparedness approach as a conceptual framework that could guide the development of counselling interventions that are responsive and relevant to felt needs.