101 healing stories for children and teens using metaphors in therapy george w. burns
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101 Healing Stories for Children and Teens
George Burns is a highly experienced clinician with the remarkable ability to create, discover and
tell engaging stories that can teach us all the most important lessons in life. With 101 Healing Stories
for Kids and Teens, he strives especially to help kids and teens learn these life lessons early on,
providing them opportunities for getting help, and even learning to think preventively. Burns has
made an invaluable contribution to helping young people build good skills and good lives.
Michael D.Yapko, Ph.D.
Author of Breaking the Patterns of Depression and Hand-Me-Down Blues
101 Healing Stories for Children and Teens is a must read for everyone working with this age group.
George Burns takes the reader on a wonderful journey, balancing metaphor, good therapeutic
technique, and empirical foundations during the trip. Given that Burns utilizes all three aspects of
the Confucian story referred to in the book—teaching, showing, and involving—any reader using
this resource should increase their understanding of how stories can be used therapeutically.
Richard G.Whiteside, MSW
Author of The Art of Using and Losing Control and Working with Difﬁcult Clients
Burns has done it again, even more thoroughly and usefully than last time! I loved the structure, the
content, and the stories— particularly the child-generated metaphors and collaborative tales. This
book is going to be invaluable to all clinicians who work with children of all ages, and shines with
the clear and genuine love that allowed its writing. Thanks, George.
Robert McNeilly, MBBS
Director, Centre of Effective Therapy, Melbourne, Australia
Author of Healing the Whole Person
101 Healing Stories for Kids and Teens is a fantastic idea, well executed, by a master! Burns
systematically leads readers through every step of constructing and delivering therapeutic stories in
general, and then outlines and provides examples of stories for achieving a wide variety of speciﬁc
goals. This book is a wonderful gift for psychotherapists but it should also be in the hands of every
parent who spends loving time with their children.
Stephen Lankton, MSW, DAHB
Executive Director, Phoenix Institute of Ericksonian Therapy
Author of The Answer Within and Tales of Enchantment.
Information helps youngsters DO different things but stories create experiences that help them to
BE different. George Burns is an international expert, and a voluble and vulpine raconteur. 101
Healing Stories for Kids and Teens is a masterwork—easy to follow, easy to effect. A treasure-trove for
parents and professionals in the child-development ﬁelds.
Jeffrey K. Zeig, Ph.D.
Director, The Milton H. Erickson Foundation
stories for adults.
“George W. Burns is indeed a master in the art of using stories for
—Metapsychology Review, January 2003
“This is George Burn’s best book yet. He leverages years of
professional therapist experience to help individuals uncover
insightful and practical solutions to the everyday life
challenges encountered in the real world. The stories and
metaphors hit the mark again and again.”
—Dr. Brian Alman, Author of Self-Hypnosis, Six Steps to
Freedom and Thin Meditations
101 Healing Stories: Using Metaphors in Therapy
celebrates the rewards of using parables, fables, and
metaphors in therapy as a non-threatening means to help
clients discuss problems and consider possible solutions.
Just as stories have the power to enrich our lives, shape
the way we perceive and interact with the world, and
reveal the wonders of the human spirit, so too can they
play an important and potent role in therapy. They
can help people develop the skills to cope with and
survive a myriad of life situations.
In this enriching guide, George W. Burns, examines
the healing value of using metaphors in therapy and
provides motivating story ideas that you can adapt
immediately and share with your clients.
This inspirational, yet practical, book explains
how to tell stories that engage your client, make
your stories more metaphoric, and where to find
sources for inspirational tales. You learn that
using metaphoric stories and folktales in
therapy can facilitate treatment, especially for
clients unresponsive to other approaches.
This beneficial book includes:
• 101 stories grouped by desired therapeutic outcome
• Talking points such as specific insights, outcomes, or skills
0-471-39589-7 • Paper • 288 pp.• $45.00
• Shaded tabs for easy reference and selection
To order call, toll free, 1-877-762-2974.
Also available online at www.wiley.com, amazon.com, bn.com,
and at other fine booksellers.
This one is dedicated to kids,
kids of all ages, all cultures, all religions, everywhere,
especially to Tom and Ella,
and one who is yet to be.
What This Book Offers, xvii
A Word or Two about Words, xix
Oral versus Written Stories, xix
The Structure of This Book, xx
Story 1 A Story of the Story, xxiii
PART I EFFECTIVE STORYTELLING FOR KIDS AND TEENS, 1
Chapter 1 The Magic of Metaphor, 3
Why Tell Healing and Teaching Stories to Kids and Teens?, 3
A Brief History of Teaching Tales, 4
How Stories Inform, 5
How Stories Educate, 6
How Stories Teach Values, 7
How Stories Discipline, 8
How Stories Build Experience, 9
How Stories Facilitate Problem-Solving, 10
How Stories Change and Heal, 11
When Not to Speak in Stories, 13
Guidelines for Effective Storytelling, 15
Ten Guidelines for Effective Storytelling, 16
Six Guidelines for the Storyteller’s Voice, 25
Tools and Techniques, 30
Books as a Source of Healing Stories: Bibliotherapy, 30
Drama as a Source of Healing Stories, 32
Videos or DVDs as a Source of Healing Stories: Videotherapy, 33
Puppets, Dolls, and Toys as Metaphor, 35
Play as Metaphor, 36
Humor as Metaphor, 38
Experiential Metaphors, 39
Child-Generated Metaphors, 41
Collaborative Tales, 42
To Discuss or Not to Discuss?, 43
PART II HEALING STORIES, TEACHING STORIES, 45
Enriching Learning, 47
Kids Can Make a Difference: A Kid Story, 47
Kids Can Make a Difference: A Teen Story, 49
Feed What You Want to Grow, 50
Look after Yourself, 52
Come up Laughing, 53
It’s in the Way You Do It, 54
Making the Most of What You Are Given, 55
Doing What You Can, 56
Seeking Happiness, 58
Caring for Yourself, 61
Soaring to New Heights: A Kid Story, 62
Soaring to New Heights: A Teen Story, 64
Recognizing Your Abilities, 66
Let Joe Do It, 68
Discovering Your Specialness, 70
The Importance of Accepting Compliments, 72
What You Give Is What You Get, 74
Good, Not Perfect, 75
Be Yourself, 76
Increasing Self-Awareness, 78
Changing Patterns of Behavior, 81
Facing Fears: A Kid Story, 82
Facing Fears: A Teen Story, 84
See for Yourself, 86
Learning to Think for Yourself, 88
Build on What You Are Good At, 90
Learning New Tricks, 92
A Gesture That Changed a Whole Suburb, 95
Making a Difference, 96
Changing Patterns of Behavior, 97
I’m Not Afraid Anymore, 99
Managing Relationships, 102
Caught in the Middle: A Kid Story, 103
Caught in the Middle: A Teen Story, 104
Making and Maintaining Friendships, 106
The Four Faithful Friends, 107
Negotiating a Solution, 108
New Friends, 110
Finding Tenderness, 112
Going Inside, 114
Putting Yourself in Someone Else’s Place, 116
Making and Keeping Friends, 118
Managing Emotions, 121
Heightening Pleasure: A Kid Story, 122
Heightening Pleasure: A Teen Story, 123
Having Fun, 125
Cultivating Contentment, 127
Nailing Down Anger, 129
Helping with Humor, 131
Flying off the Handle, 132
Learning to Laugh, 133
Change Your Posture, Change Your Feelings, 135
Expressing Emotions Congruently, 136
Creating Helpful Thoughts, 139
Managing Grief: A Young Kid Story, 139
Managing Grief: A Kid Story, 141
An Act of Kindness, 142
Things May Not Be What They Seem, 144
Positive Reframing, 145
Thoughts Determine Feelings, 146
Finding Exceptions to Problems, 147
Learning to Use What You Have, 149
Learning to Discriminate, 150
Awakening Conﬁdence, 152
Chapter 10 Developing Life Skills, 155
Facing a Moral Dilemma: A Kid Story, 156
Facing a Moral Dilemma: A Teen Story, 157
Learning about Rules, 159
Sometimes Terrible Things Happen, 160
Accepting What You Have, 162
Taking Responsibility, 163
Making Decisions, 165
Taking a Different View, 167
Overcoming Fear, 168
The Secrets of Success, 170
Building Problem-Solving Skills, 173
Overcoming Adversity: A Kid Story, 174
Overcoming Adversity: A Teen Story, 175
Collaborative Problem-Solving, 177
Thinking through a Problem, 178
Solving a Problem, 180
Learning to Share, 184
Tending to the Neglected, 185
Taking Control, 187
Creating a Wish, 189
Chapter 12 Managing Life’s Challenging Times, 193
Blowing Away Pain: A Kid Story, 194
Managing Pain: A Teen Story, 195
Beating a Bully, 196
I Am Only Nine, 198
Coping with Illness, 199
Finding Solutions, 201
Facing Challenges, 203
Getting Back on Your Feet, 204
Facing Thoughts of Suicide, 206
Learning to Care for Yourself, 208
Kids’ Own Healing Stories, 211
The Ghost Who Learned to Scare, 212
Days to Come, 214
Mary-Jane’s Story, 216
Sally’s Problem, 218
My Life, 220
My Life Story, 221
Rock Your Way out of It, 222
When There Is Nothing I Can Do, 223
Story 100 Lucy Mac’s Story, 225
PART III CREATING YOUR OWN HEALING STORIES FOR KIDS, 227
Chapter 14 How Can I Use Metaphors Effectively?, 229
Potential Pathways for Effective Metaphor Therapy, 229
Potential Pitfalls in Effective Metaphor Therapy, 234
Chapter 15 Where Do I Get the Ideas for Healing Stories?, 240
Metaphors Built on a Basis of Evidence, 240
Metaphors Built on Heroes, 242
Metaphors Built on Imagination, 243
Metaphors Built on Therapeutic Strategies, 244
Metaphors Built on an Idea, 246
Metaphors Built on a Child’s Own Story, 247
Metaphors Built on Humor, 249
Metaphors Built on Cross-Cultural Tales, 250
Metaphors Built on Client Cases, 251
Metaphors Built on Everyday Experiences, 252
Guidelines for Using Personal Life Stories, 253
Chapter 16 How Do I Plan and Present Healing Stories?, 255
The PRO-Approach, 255
Make an Outcome-Oriented Assessment, 256
Plan Your Metaphors, 258
Present Your Metaphors, 262
Stop, Look, and Listen, 264
Ground the Story in Reality, 264
Chapter 17 Teaching Parents to Use Healing Stories, 266
Stories for Parents and Parenting, 266
Some Values of Teaching Parents to Use Metaphors, 268
Steps for Teaching Parents Storytelling, 270
An Example of Effective Parental Storytelling, 271
Helping Parents Build Storytelling Skills, 274
. . . And the Story Continues, 275
Story 101 Will You Be My Teacher?, 277
Resources, References, and Other Sources of Metaphoric
o story is complete without its characters, and the stories behind this book are rich in many
loved and valued characters who have contributed so generously to its evolution. In keeping
with the spirit of this work, let me mention the children ﬁrst. I am particularly appreciative of all the
2003 Year Seven students at Helena College, Western Australia, who wrote some wonderful, creative, expressive stories that had me feeling humble about my own efforts. I was unable to include
them all and want to thank, especially, Emma Barley, Anthea Challis, Corin Eicke, Erin Kelley,
Jonathon Matthews, Oliver Potts, Nathaniel Watts, and Stephanie Wood for so generously allowing
their stories to be included in Chapter 13, and commented on in Chapter 15. For enthusiastically
supporting the project I thank Helena College principal John Allen-Williams, MScEd, school psychologist Susan Boyett, BPsych, and Year Seven teacher Claire Scanlon, BEd.
The other kid stories came from the creative pens of Sam Green, son of very dear friends, and
Pia Hill, student at John Curtin College of the Arts, Western Australia. For permission to reproduce
Pia’s story I thank principal Barrie Wells and English teacher Suzanne Covich, MCA. Much appreciated, too, were the story-collecting efforts of Victorian primary school teacher Pamela Wooding,
BEd, even though none of the stories made their way into the text.
Julie Nayda has been with me on every book so far, keying in the words, sorting out my grammar, adding constructive comments, and, on this occasion, tossing in some helpful story ideas of her
own. She is an invaluable asset to my work and my life and, on projects like this, it feels like we are
a real team—workmates and friends.
It is never easy to hand your work over to peer reviewers and ask them to be brutally honest in
their criticisms, yet what Stephanie Bennett, MClinPsych, Susan Boyett, BPsych, Eva Marjanovic,
MAppPsych, and John Thompson BA(hons) have contributed in a supportive yet frank way has been
invaluable. Discussions, contributions, and feedback have also come from Elaine Atkinson, MPsych,
Stephen Lankton, MSW, Rob McNeilly, MBBS, Julie Nayda, Tracey Weatherhilt, BPsych, Rick
Whiteside, MSW, and Michael Yapko, PhD. Thank you, too, to Deborah Clifford for generously
permitting the inclusion of her beautiful birthday story-poem in Chapter 17.
Once again I have really enjoyed working with my editor, Tracey Belmont, and thank her for
the embryonic ideas about this book. Thanks to Diana Plattner, for her copyediting; Kevin Holm,
for his efﬁcient and friendly production editing; Cristina Wojdylo, and the rest of the team at John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., I thank you for all your support, encouragement, efﬁciency, and attention to
Children have and do enrich my life greatly—my own children, my grandchildren, the children
I see as clients—for they are ready to offer an unconditional smile, accept you into their world, and
share tales of their experience. When my children were young I thought it my responsibility as a father to teach them what they needed for life. With my grandchildren I am discovering I have a lot to
learn from what they can teach me. As William Wordsworth said to his own ﬁve-year-old boy in
“An Anecdote for Fathers:”
Could I but teach the hundredth part
Of what from thee I learn.
ell me a story. How many times have you been asked to do this? If you are a parent, teacher, grandparent, uncle, aunt, babysitter, child-care worker, or anyone who has contact with children in
some way, I am sure you have not escaped this frequent childhood request. But have you ever wondered what kids want when they make the request? Are they just seeking entertainment? Are they
wanting to journey into a world of fantasy? Do they want the intimacy of the special relationship that
exists between storyteller and listener? Do they seek to identify with a character that may model what
they would like to be? Are they requesting examples of how they should behave, relate, or cope in
There is a general principle here: Kids love stories—for many reasons. If we need proof, just listen to them asking, “Tell me a story, please.” Look at the rows and rows of books of children’s stories
that ﬁll our bookstores and libraries. Look at the stories that come to life in popular children’s movies,
or the tales of conﬂict, struggle, and victory that tend to be the theme of so many video games. Such
is our hunger for stories that we never stop asking to hear them, even though the nature of the questions may change a little—“Can I get a new book?” or “Can we rent a DVD?” Given this desire to
learn, to be informed, to acquire problem-solving skills through stories, the prime question addressed
by this book is this: If we are constantly sharing stories of learning, health, healing, and wellness with
our young clients, how can we do that in a way that is most effective and helpful?
WHAT THIS BOOK OFFERS
Just as artists need two prime ingredients if their work is to have an impact, so the metaphor practitioner also needs those same ingredients: skill and art. Skill for the painter is knowledge and use of
the laws of perspective, color, and tone. For the teller of metaphors, it is in the principles of constructing a therapeutic tale that will engage the child, facilitate the child’s identiﬁcation with the
problem, and have the child joining in a search for the solution.
Art goes beyond the skilled application of principles. It is what makes a painting stand out from
the crowd, or gives a story its personal, relevant impact for an individual listener. The art is in crafting the tale speciﬁcally for the child and the child’s needs, and communicating it in a way that offers
both involvement and meaning.
In this book, I want to cover as comprehensively as possible both the skills and the art that will
enable and empower you to work conﬁdently and effectively with healing stories for your child and
adolescent students or clients. I want to answer questions I often hear in the workshops I run on
metaphors, like “How do you come up with story ideas?” “How do I engage a child in listening?”
“Where do you ﬁnd the materials or sources to create appropriate stories?” “How do I tell a healing
story effectively?” Fortunately, there are practical, learnable steps for answering these questions, and
my aim is to offer them as clearly as I can in the following chapters which will show you how to tell
stories effectively, how to make them metaphoric, and where to ﬁnd sources for therapeutic tales.
There are guidelines for communicating stories and using the storyteller’s voice so as to most effectively engage the client and commence the journey of healing. The book gently guides the reader
through these pragmatic processes, and on to methods for creating metaphoric stories from your own
experiences and other sources.
If you want to work with stories, I recommend you start collecting them right away. Look for
them in bookshops, videos, or the computer games children play. Keep a note of the meaningful, signiﬁcant, and humorous interactions you have with a child that may beneﬁt another child. I love to
collect stories, for they have long intrigued me with their powerful, yet subtle ability to teach and
heal. Look for cultural and children’s stories when you travel, scan the bookshelves of friends with
children, and look at what children are writing themselves. Listening to the many tragic and triumphant tales children relate to you in your ofﬁce can teach you about children’s strengths, resilience,
and capacity for coping. Humbly, we can learn from these youthful experiences of life if we take the
time to listen to the creative and imaginative tales of our clients or other children. Often they have
known none of the restrictions and structures imposed by adults on what should be told (and what
should not) or how it should be told. If you have the opportunity to sit with storytellers, join a storytellers’ guild, or attend a storytellers’ congress, you will be able to observe their art and absorb their
message. Stories with salient metaphor content can be discovered in anthologies, folktales, children’s
books, and in the jokes or tales that circulate on your e-mail. As with any kind of collecting, there is
an acquired skill and art to learning which to discard and which to adopt and nurture for their intrinsic merit—a process that I encourage you to follow, not only with the stories you read here but
with any you encounter in the future.
For experienced therapists, this volume will hopefully introduce a variety of new story ideas on
which to construct meaningful therapeutic metaphors. It will provide techniques for honing skills,
enhancing communication, and making the effectiveness of what we do more empowering and more
For novice metaphor therapists, who are just discovering the potency of therapeutic metaphors,
this book offers step-by-step procedures, case examples, and a rich source of therapeutic stories that
will enable you to apply them immediately in your work no matter what your theoretical back-
ground. As well as learning about the methods of applying metaphors, you will be able to cultivate
competence in the art of therapeutic communication, processes of change, and the rewards of facilitating outcome.
A WORD OR TWO ABOUT WORDS
By metaphor, I refer to one form of communication (along with stories, tales, and anecdotes) in the
story genre in which an expression is taken from one ﬁeld of experience and used to say something
about another ﬁeld of experience. To describe a bully as being as angry as a bear with a sore paw does
not mean the bully and bear are literally alike but that the description, phrase, or story about the bear
and its demeanor communicates an imaginative image of the bully and his or her behavior. It is this
symbolic association that gives metaphors their literary and therapeutic potency.
Metaphors in therapy and teaching are designed as a form of indirect, imaginative, and implied
communication with clients, about experiences, processes, or outcomes that may help solve the child’s
literal problem and offer new means of coping. The therapist may talk about what a person needs to
do to protect himself from a bear with a sore paw as a means for managing the circumstantial or emotional issues the listening child is encountering with a bully. Such metaphors may include stories, tales,
anecdotes, jokes, proverbs, analogies, or other communications. Some of these different tools and
techniques for communicating in metaphors with children are expanded in Chapter 3. What distinguishes therapeutic metaphors from other tales, stories, or anecdotes is the combination of (a) a purposefully designed, symbolic communication and (b) a speciﬁc healing or therapeutic intention.
It is not my objective in this book to be too pedantic about the differential characteristics of stories, tales, and anecdotes. In fact, most times I will use the terms synonymously. Where I employ the
words metaphor, healing story, or therapeutic tale, it is with the purpose of emphasizing that this is neither just a casual, anecdotal account nor an inconsequential tale such as we may relate at a party. By
metaphor or healing story I refer to a deliberately crafted story that has a clear, rational, and ethical
therapeutic goal. It is, in other words, a tale that is based on our long human history of storytelling,
grounded in the science of effective communication, demonstrating speciﬁc therapeutic relevance to
the needs of the client, and told with the art of a good storyteller.
ORAL VERSUS WRITTEN STORIES
While I have long been told stories by my parents and in turn told them to my children, grandchildren, and clients, both young and old, I have found that storytelling and story writing are two different processes. In fact, it feels strange to be communicating with you about storytelling in a written
format. Once stories are written, in black and white, they tend to take on an immutable quality as
though that is the way they always have been and always should be told. The reality is that stories are
dynamic. They evolve, they change, and they adapt from teller to teller as well as from listener to listener. Hopefully, you will discover that you never tell a similar story idea exactly the same way twice,
for the power of the story is often in its ﬂexibility and adaptability to the needs of the listener and the
Therefore, I cannot guarantee the stories in this book are as I originally heard them or initially
developed them. Nor can I guarantee that the way you read them is the way I told them to my last
client, or will tell them to the next. May I suggest you see in the stories I have written their themes,
ideas or meaning rather than the exact words with which they have been expressed in this format.
Look for the therapeutic message in each story rather than trying to memorize or relate it to a child
verbatim. These stories were not designed to be told and retold as an actor may faithfully memorize
and reiterate the words of a playwright. I hope you will allow the tales to evolve and, along with them,
your own stories and storytelling skills. Stories emerge from within us, they communicate about our
own experiences and, in turn, help deﬁne us as individuals. In stories it is possible for us, and our
young clients, to ﬁnd happiness and well-being, as well as the means for creating and maintaining
positive emotional states.
THE STRUCTURE OF THIS BOOK
The book is divided into four parts to allow ready referencing of the sections you may want to revisit
for story ideas when working with a particular child in therapy. Part One, “Effective Storytelling for
Kids and Teens,” examines the magic of metaphor to inform, educate, teach values, discipline, build
experience, facilitate problem solving, change, and heal. There are guidelines for effectively telling
stories and using the storyteller’s voice. The last chapter of this section discusses useful tools, techniques, and vehicles for communicating therapeutic messages metaphorically. How do you use
books, drama, videos, puppets, toys, play, humor, collaborative tales, and other media in metaphor
Part Two, “Healing Stories, Teaching Stories,” is divided into ten chapters, each containing ten
stories (except for Chap. 4, which contains 9) relevant to the therapeutic-outcome theme of that
chapter. Each chapter is prefaced with a brief description of the nature of the outcome theme and
concludes with an exercise to record and develop your own story ideas for that particular outcome
The topics around which the stories of each chapter are woven represent a common therapeutic goal. These topics are not meant to be all-inclusive or totally deﬁnitive of pediatric therapeutic
goals. They are derived from experience in my own clinical practice, from discussions with other
clinical, educational, pediatric, and developmental psychologists, and from the results of an unpublished study I conducted of congress attendants in which they were asked to list what they saw as the
ten most common therapeutic goals. The outcome goals I have used just happen to be a convenient
framework for me to structure my healing stories. I hope they will provide a guide on which you can
develop metaphor ideas of your own—but I want to offer the caution that they are not the only therapeutic outcomes and may not be relevant for you or your young clients. If they are helpful, please
feel free to use them but, if not, do not limit your stories—or therapy—to what happens to be a convenient structure for someone else.
The stories in Chapter 13 are an exception to the general format of this section, as they are stories by children rather than stories by an adult for children. They mainly come from a project with a
school in which children were asked to write their own healing stories.
Part Three, “Creating Your Own Healing Stories for Kids,” guides you through the processes
for developing your own outcome-oriented stories. It discusses some of the pitfalls to avoid in structuring metaphors, and some of the pathways that may be helpful to follow. You will be introduced
to various sources from which you can build metaphors, and offered simple, how-to-do-it procedures for creating, structuring, and presenting effective therapeutic metaphors. The ﬁnal chapter is
devoted to how to teach parents to use metaphors as a way of enhancing the efﬁcacy of these therapeutic interventions for their children.
The emphasis of this book is on the pragmatics of how to tell stories, how to ﬁnd metaphor ideas,
and how to structure your own therapeutic tales, rather than on the reiteration of the research underlying metaphor therapy. As both the art and science of metaphor therapy are important, I have provided a detailed resources section at the end of the book that will enable interested readers to further
explore the nature of metaphors as a language form, the research into their efﬁcacy, and the variety
of their therapeutic applications. It will also help you to ﬁnd further therapeutic story material in a
variety of sources, from children’s books and traditional folktales to Internet Web sites.
An additional reference feature of the book is that the major sections have shaded tabs on the
pages’ leading edges to enable rapid accessing of the outcome-oriented chapters and other information you may wish to revisit. By structuring the book in this way, I hope it will provide a source of
readily available ideas for working with the child sitting in your ofﬁce with you at any given time.
Writing it and structuring it in this way has also posed me with a dilemma. I have wanted 101 Healing Stories for Kids and Teens to be clear, practical, and accessible without being, or even seeming to
be, too prescriptive. I hope to communicate that for a metaphor to be relevant it needs to be personal, it is best developed collaboratively with the individual child, and it needs to take into account
that child’s character, problem, resources, and desired outcome. I hope you enjoy your journey into
children’s metaphors as much as I have enjoyed writing about them.
A Story of the Story
et me introduce you to a character you will encounter several times in stories and discussions
throughout this book. His name is Fred Mouse, and he lives in a hole in the wall in the corner
of the house as he always has done since he ﬁrst joined our family two generations ago. He came
along one night when my daughter wanted a bedside story but was not interested in the tired old
storybooks she had heard time and time again. He came from nowhere in particular, a necessity of
the situation, and told a simple tale that replicated her activities of the day. The next night, despite a
fresh supply of colorful storybooks from the library, my daughter wanted Fred Mouse . . . and he
stayed, entertaining and informing my daughter, my son, and my grandson, and is just entering the
life of my little granddaughter.
For a tiny—and sometimes timid—mouse, Fred has two special qualities that make him such a
good storyteller. First, he listens with his heart, and second, he spins a story based on his observations.
Once, for example, he told a tale of a special adventure with his very dear friend Thomas (my grandson) that began when Fred found a fragile, dusty old treasure map while exploring the hidden gaps
in the walls of the house. Carefully, he and Thomas unrolled it on the ﬂoor and began to study it.
“Look!” said Thomas, “It is right here near Grandpa George’s house.”
“And it has a dotted trail leading to Mount Thomas,” added Fred.
“I know where that is,” exclaimed Thomas, “because I climbed it and Grandpa George named
it after me.”
So Fred and Thomas followed the map to the summit from where they heard, way below, a
heavy thump, thump, thump, and peered down to see a huge, mean-looking dinosaur stomping
around squishing people under his bigger-than-elephant feet. The people called him Tyrannosaurus
Bad Rex, and as they ran to escape him they were stomping on ants. What a disaster! The dinosaur
A Story of the Story
was squishing people, and the people were squishing ants, and none of them heard each other’s cries
The map pointed Fred Mouse and Thomas to a secret cave just below the summit that was easy
to enter for a mouse of Fred’s size, but a tight, wriggly squeeze for Thomas. Inside, they were in a
different world, walking through swamps and jungles, along beaches and over islands until they found
a big, old wooden treasure chest, right where the cross was marked on the map.
Can you imagine their excitement? And then their disappointment to discover the old wooden
treasure chest was secured with a rusty old padlock for which they had no key. Thomas climbed down
to Grandpa George’s house to borrow a tool box, and with a lot pushing and tugging, pulling and
shoving, banging and twisting, the padlock eventually popped open, allowing them to lift the stiff lid
with a long, slow creeeaking sound.
Imagine how much more disappointed they were to ﬁnd the chest held no gold or precious jewels. Just as well, thought Fred, for gold and jewels could not help them save the people or the ants
from Tyrannosaurus Bad Rex. Thomas had hoped for a mighty sword with which, heroically, he
could slay the bad dinosaur, but the chest contained nothing more than a story. They were about to
drop the lid shut when the Story spoke.
“Wait,” it called, “I am a magic story bestowed with all the powers of every story that has ever
been told or written. As you have discovered me, it is my duty to help you. Tell me what I can do?”
“Well,” said Fred Mouse, “we have a very big problem,” thinking of the size of Tyrannosaurus
Bad Rex when viewed from the lowly height of a mouse, and he told how people, who were squishing ants, were being squished by a big bad Tyrannosaurus.
“Let us visit the ants,” said the Story, so they followed a long, busy line of ants to their nest where
ants chaotically scurried in every direction—for someone had stood on the nest, squishing their
homes and many of their friends. As Fred Mouse and Thomas gently handed the Story to the queen
ant, it began a tale in the ants’ own language. Silence fell on the confusion as ants stopped scurrying
and gathered to listen to a tale Fred and Thomas could not understand. Silence remained for a while
after the story ﬁnished, then the ants spoke in hushed voices among themselves and with the Story.
Fred and Thomas saw them nodding as if in agreement.
Eventually the Story said, “Let us go visit the people.”
They, too, were running about in confusion. Tyrannosaurus Bad Rex had just stomped through
their village, ﬂattening cars, knocking down houses, destroying schools, and squishing people. Fred
Mouse and Thomas listened to their distress and, not knowing how else to help, gave them the Story.
Again the Story brought calm to the confusion as people stopped to listen, entranced, comforted, encouraged, guided, and hopeful.
“Now,” said the Story, “It is time for us to ﬁnd one Tyrannosaurus Bad Rex.”
This was a scary suggestion for a tiny, timid mouse like Fred and even a boy as brave as Thomas,
but it wasn’t hard to follow the trail of a careless dinosaur whose huge feet punched imprints into
farmers’ paddocks, ﬂattened bushes, and knocked over trees, ﬁnally leading to a tall tree under which
Tyrannosaurus Bad Rex lay snoring peacefully. Thomas quietly crept past his long greenish tail,
around his big strong legs, past his fat belly, and up his neck, and placed the Story gently by his ear.
The Tyrannosaurus pricked up his ear, slowly opened an eye, and listened to a story in dinosaur language. A tear rolled from his eye and down his cheek, dropping to the ground near Fred Mouse and
A Story of the Story
Thomas, who had to duck quickly, for it was like someone throwing a bucket of water at them from
an upstairs window.
“Come,” beckoned the Story, “Climb up on Rex’s head. We are going back to visit the people
and the ants.”
Wow! How exciting! Fred and Thomas had never dreamed of riding on a dinosaur’s head. How
carefully he placed his feet to avoid ﬂattening farmers’ crops and people’s homes. Back in the village
the Story broke down the barriers and bridged the gaps, translating among dinosaur, people, and ants
in a way that all could understand.
“Let’s celebrate,” someone shouted, and they put on the weirdest party you could imagine. Rex
blew up the balloons, for he had more puff than anyone else. The people supplied the food that they
had cultivated and stored, while the ants offered to clean up the scraps after. And everyone felt happier than they had for a long time.
In a quiet moment, Fred Mouse and Thomas asked the Story, “How did you do it? What was
the story you told?”
“It is easy to become so involved in our own story,” replied the Story, “that we don’t hear the
stories of others. As our stories shape the ways we see things and the ways we respond to events,
I simply told the ants the people’s story: how, like the ants, their homes and lives were being destroyed—so they were not deliberately squishing ants but, in looking up and watching out for the
Tyrannosaurus Bad Rex, they were not looking down to see what they were doing to the ants. Then
I told the people the ants’ story, and the dinosaur the people’s story, for he, wrapped in his own loneliness, had not realized what he was doing to the people.
Hearing the stories, the ants offered to help the people by cleaning up after them if the people
took care where they stepped, and the people offered to befriend lonely Rex if he watched where he
stepped, and Rex offered to tread carefully if the people and ants would be his friends.
“Stories,” continued the Story, “can make and stop wars, destroy and build friendships, confuse
and inform our thinking, burden and enrich our world. Used as carefully as Rex has learned to walk,
they have the power to solve our problems and shape our lives.”
If there was more to hear from the Story, Fred Mouse and Thomas didn’t hear it for in gratitude,
everyone had begun to thump the table, calling, “Speech! speech!” to Fred. Rex was so enthusiastic
that he almost smashed the table before reminding himself it was okay to be enthusiastic carefully.
When Fred spoke he thanked everyone for listening to, and acting on, the stories. He announced that
Rex should henceforth be known as Tyrannosaurus Good Rex, and that the Story should no longer
be hidden in a dusty old chest but be available as a treasure for everyone.
Effective Storytelling for Kids
The Magic of Metaphor
WHY TELL HEALING AND TEACHING STORIES TO KIDS AND TEENS?
Do you remember what it was like as a young child to have a parent or grandparent sit on the side of
your bed at night and read a story that gave you permission to journey into your own fantasies? How
the magic of the story engaged you, entranced you, changed you into a different yet somehow familiar character, and took you into experiences you may not yet have encountered? How, in the process, you discovered something new about yourself, felt the emotion of reaching the tale’s conclusion, and shared a special intimacy with the teller?
From time immemorial, stories, legends, and parables have been effective and preferred methods for communicating information, teaching values, and sharing the important lessons of life. Just
hearing those often-expressed four words “Once upon a time . . .” is like an instant switch from reality to pretense or to an altered level of processing. They are like a hypnotic induction, an invitation
to participate in a unique relationship with both the teller and the story’s characters. They are words
that invite the listener on a journey into a world of imagination where reality may be suspended, and
learning can be potent. They are an invitation into a special realm of experience where listeners are
entranced, attention is focused, and one can share the emotions of the ﬁctional hero. They invite participation in a relationship in which teller and listener share an interactive bond.
Stories have many important characteristics of effective communication:
They are interactive.
They teach by attraction.
They bypass resistance.
They engage and nurture imagination.
Effective Storytelling for Kids and Teens
They develop problem-solving skills.
They create outcome possibilities.
They invite independent decision making.
In these ways they replicate many of the characteristics we seek to create in our therapeutic relationships with children, for as we engage in the process of listening to stories our relationships with
self, others, and the world at large are likely to change. While we may or may not notice it, the sharing of stories can build relationships, challenge ideas, provide models for future behavior, and enhance understanding. In the characters and teller we may see some of ourselves and be inﬂuenced,
little by little, by their attitudes, values and skills. It has been said before that once we have heard a
story we can never unhear it, that something may have changed forever. Thus, stories are a logical
and productive means for therapeutically communicating with kids.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TEACHING TALES
From long before our ancestors began to paint on the walls of caves, chisel symbols into stone, or
print words on paper, elders have passed stories on to younger people. Perhaps some of the oldest living tales can be found in the legends of the Australian Aboriginals. One that provides an explanation
of natural phenomena such as ﬁre, stars, and crows, and has a strong moral message, begins with seven
women who control ﬁre, and Wakala, a man who manipulatively steals the control for himself. Now
powerless, the women ﬂee into the sky, becoming the constellation of the Seven Sisters, while Wakala
selﬁshly refuses to share his ﬁre with anyone, mocking them by calling out, “Wah, wah,” whenever
they ask. In a ﬁt of temper he throws coals at some men who ask, starting a wildﬁre in which he himself is incinerated. As the men watch, his corpse is transformed into the blackened body of a crow,
ﬂies into a tree, and sits there calling “Wah, wah.”
Through such seemingly simple tales, elders communicated to the younger generation messages
about not stealing, being selﬁsh, or losing your temper. Through stories they shaped the ideas, beliefs, morality, and behavior of a whole culture, generation upon generation. Telling children stories
is as ancient and entrenched as the history of communication itself.
San Diego-based psychologist Michael Yapko, in writing about effective methods of communication with hypnosis, claims that “Stories as teaching tools have been the principal means of educating and socializing people throughout human history” (Yapko, 2003, p. 433; italics added). Over
time and across all cultures they have been used as a form of effective communication and education,
passing on from generation to generation the attitudes, values, and behaviors necessary for survival
and success in life. Stories like the biblical account of creation, the Australian Aboriginal dreamtime
legends, or the myths of ancient Greece explain how our world came into being, how human beings
were created, and where animals came from. We, as a species, have used stories to explain our world
and its origins. These stories help us to deﬁne and understand much of what otherwise might be unexplained. In so doing, they also enable us to create our world. If our stories of the world are based on
creationist theology, we may live our lives with fear of damnation to hell and desires of reaching
heaven. If our stories of the world are about the interconnectedness of all livings beings with the
planet, we may tread gently and with respect for both the earth and its creatures. If we are brought
The Magic of Metaphor
HOW STORIES INFORM
Dappled sunlight sparkles and twinkles from a mysterious source partially obscured by fern
fronds and gum leaves. Wide-eyed and excited children rush forward into the bushland reserve,
enveloped by the sights, sounds and smells of the bush—birdsong, water gently cascading over
MAGIC OF METAPHOR
up on stories about animosity and hostility between religions and cultures, we may be more prone
to conﬂict with our neighbors and, thus, destined to a life of hatred. As our stories deﬁne the world
for us, so we are likely to see it . . . and create it.
Just as stories explain, so they can teach about values, standards, and acceptable patterns of behavior. They educate us in how to cope with the situations we are likely to experience in life and how
we can best manage the challenges that lie ahead. Imagine, if you wish, ancient hunters coming home
from a day chasing and capturing a wild beast. As they sit around the ﬁre at night, roasting their freshly
caught meat, they communicate the tales of their activities, describing the successful strategies they
used, detailing the events that caused one of their members to be gored or injured. In this way they
are sharing their experiences with the young people of the tribe who sit there listening to the tales,
learning the things to avoid and the things to ensure a successful hunt. These stories short-circuit our
learning processes. The wide-eyed children listening to the hunter’s tales do not need to have trapped
wild animals themselves to learn about those processes that work and those that do not.
The power of stories to communicate effectively has meant that they are, and have been, the preferred medium of some of the world’s most renowned teachers. Jesus and Buddha did not lecture; instead, they used parables. Suﬁs and Zen Buddhists are renowned for their profound teaching tales.
Although the Bible provides us with some very direct and prescriptive instructions, such as the Ten
Commandments, its main form of communication is in the relating of stories. Indeed, storytelling
has been the universally preferred style of teaching through which to pass on life’s important lessons
from generation to generation.
Whether for learning or entertainment (and perhaps there is no clear distinction), we crave stories. We buy books, visit libraries, and read tales of ﬁction or fact. We go to plays, the ballet, and the
opera to relive familiar classics that have survived the centuries. How many times have we heard the
story of Romeo and Juliet, yet still ﬁnd the ending tragic each time we experience it? As much as we
are entranced by the old, so we seem to crave the new story line as well. Teenagers watch the stories
of pop songs acted out in video clips. Children, adolescents, and adults are entranced by movies that
visually and audibly spin a story of suspense, romance, or humor, turning actors—our modern-day
storytellers—into folk heroes and role models.
Stories are an integral part of life. Through the ages, they have been an inseparable part of human culture, learning, and values. Regardless of our language, religion, race, sex, or age, stories have
been, and will remain, a crucial element in our lives. It is because of stories that our language, religion, science, and culture exist. Stories may fulﬁll our dreams; and, indeed, our dreams themselves
are stories. They accompany us throughout our existence, from cradle to cremation. As one of
Salman Rushdie’s characters said in The Moor’s Last Sigh, “When we die all that remains are the stories.” If life and stories are so mutually embracing, then their adaptation into counseling and therapy
is both a logical and practical extension of an established and effective medium of communication.
Effective Storytelling for Kids and Teens
rocks, silver-gray gum leaves rustling overhead and then they see her—a vision of glitter and
rainbow hues, a beautiful bush fairy with jeweled wand hovering on a ledge of mossy sandstone
by the creek. The children are mesmerized by the tantalizing spectacle. The fairy smiles and invites them to join her for a bush walk. How could they resist?
But ﬁrst, fairy uses her wand to scatter magical fairy dust over the participants to focus on
each sensory modality (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch). The magic is to enhance the sensory experience, to encourage and challenge them to see and hear more, to search beyond the
obvious and to engender wonderment. The children respond immediately with “sightings”—is
that a possum tail dangling from the tree? What bird is that? Why is that leaf speckled and
twisted? Where has the spider gone from the web? What was that rustling in the long grass? Is
that more fairy dust sprinkled near the fungi? So much excitement, anticipation, questions. The
children are engaged through their senses into heightened awareness and valuable interaction
has begun. (Lalak, 2003, p. 72)
For the past six years Nadia Lalak (2003; Eva & Lalak, 2003), a psychologist, landscape consultant, and environmental educator, has enchanted schoolchildren with environment-oriented fairy stories. Her project aims to raise environmental awareness, inspire ecological consciousness, facilitate
an enhanced experience of landscape, and develop a child’s sense of place in the world. Local resources,
such as bushland reserves, are used to provide children with a direct experience of an easily accessible, natural world. Through tales of the bush fairy, the children develop an understanding of the
landscape, nature’s interrelationships, and the impacts of urbanization.
Lalak bases her approach to informing environmental awareness on the Confucian proverb that
Teach me and I will forget.
Show me and I remember.
But involve me and I will understand.
For her, stories are an integral part of that process of involvement of children in understanding information. She says, “Away from a classroom and whiteboard, children respond enthusiastically to
creative interpretations of landscape and ecological issues and the opportunity to be involved in
magic, mystery, storytelling, role-playing, environmental games and fun” (Lalak, 2003, p. 73).
HOW STORIES EDUCATE
Imagine for a moment that you are attending your ﬁrst week of school and your teacher tells you,
“One plus one equals two,” while writing some strange symbols on a board. Now imagine a different teacher who says, “Jill got home from her ﬁrst week at school. She was feeling tired and hungry,
but no sooner had she stepped in the door than she could smell the cakes Mom had been freshly baking. Before she had a chance to ask, her mother said, ‘Would you like a cake?’ Excitedly, Jill munched
her way into the still slightly warm cake. When she ﬁnished she was still hungry, so she asked, ‘Can
I have another, please?’ ‘What?’ replied her mother. ‘You have eaten one cake. If you have another
The Magic of Metaphor
HOW STORIES TEACH VALUES
Recently I led a group of colleagues on a workshop/study tour of Bhutan, a high and tiny Himalayan
kingdom north of Bangladesh and south of Tibet. While there, I was interested to discover that this
is a country with an unofﬁcial national story. The Four Faithful Friends is the country’s most loved
story, told to the young and repeated among the mature. It hangs as a painting in many homes and is
depicted on the walls of temples, public buildings, medical clinics, and even banks. It was a mural
above the headboard of the very ﬁrst hotel bed in which I slept.
The story as I have told it in “The Four Faithful Friends” (Story 34) may not be the same as one
you’d read in a book of Bhutanese folktales or hear told by a local. That is part of the fascination
with the oral tradition of storytelling, in which the details of tales may vary depending on the teller,
listener, context, and intent with which it is told—while still maintaining the essence and integrity
MAGIC OF METAPHOR
that will mean you have eaten two cakes.’ One cake plus another cake equals two cakes. And that is
exactly what Jill ate.”
Which lesson has most meaning for you? Which involves you—and your senses, experiences—
more in the learning process? With which do you have greater association, or ﬁnd your attention
Learning skills in therapy follows similar processes as learning facts in school. Let’s say you have
a young enuretic client and you choose to take a behavioral approach to managing the case. You can
instruct the child and his parents in strategies such as “Do not drink for a certain period before going to bed, empty your bladder before going to bed, retain your urine as long as possible during the
day,” and so on. You could recommend an enuresis alarm with prescribed instructions for its use. You
could give your suggestions very clearly and directly.
Compare this to telling the child a story: “Andy was a boy I saw not very long ago. He felt embarrassed to talk about his problem and I guessed he felt a little different or odd. He didn’t know anyone else who wet the bed—or not any who had told him so, anyway. It felt uncomfortable to wake
up in a cold, wet bed every morning. He hated having plastic liners on his bed when his sister didn’t.
At times she teased him. He couldn’t sleep over at his friends’ houses when other kids did and he
feared they would tease him, too, if they knew. His parents had told him it was time he grew out of
it. They said they would put sticky stars on the calendar in his bedroom for each night he was dry,
but he never got any. They offered him extra pocket money for dry nights but still it didn’t work. He
felt bad, like it was his fault. He wanted to please them but nothing seemed to work and he didn’t
know what else he could do.”
Having thus set the problem and, hopefully, gained the listener’s involvement, you can start to
describe the choices that Andy had available (i.e., the behavioral steps that you could have given in a
more direct but perhaps less readily accepted form). Maybe describe the choices Andy made, offer
suggestions, perhaps with some humor (“Would it have helped for him to stand on his head all
night?”) or ask the listener for suggestions (“If standing on his head wouldn’t work, what else could
he have done?”). An example of how this can be done is provided in Story 26, “Learning New
Effective Storytelling for Kids and Teens
of the message. Knowing this, and using this, will help contribute to your skills as a teller of healing
“The Four Faithful Friends” tells of a pheasant, a rabbit, a monkey, and an elephant—four unlikely associates—who ﬁnd a seed and combine their abilities to plant it, cultivate it, and, eventually,
harvest the fruit. It is a tale that teaches the values of cooperation, using your abilities, helping others, and harvesting the fruits of your mutual efforts.
There are similar tales for communicating social values across many cultures. The aboriginal tale
mentioned earlier of Wakala’s stealing, expressing anger, and being selﬁsh is one such value story.
From your own cultural background it may be possible to recall the stories with which you were
brought up. One for me that has a somewhat parallel message to the Bhutanese Four Faithful Friends
was The Little Red Hen—but the means the two stories provide for getting there are almost polar
opposites. The tale of the Little Red Hen tells you what will happen if you do not cooperate. Failure
to lend a helping hand when the hen requested assistance meant her barnyard peers were punished
by being denied the freshly baked bread. Conversely, the Bhutanese story of the Four Faithful Friends
talks of the beneﬁts that you will gain through the positive action of cooperation. It emphasizes the
values that can be derived from mutually caring relationships, instead of the negative aspects of not
caring for others.
Table 3.1 in Chapter 3 lists some examples of classic value stories, their authors, and the values
HOW STORIES DISCIPLINE
Stories have long been used not only to shape behaviors but also to present listeners with the disciplinary consequences of compliance and noncompliance. Live a good life, say the traditional stories
of Christianity, and you will be rewarded with a heavenly eternity; but fail to follow the teachings of
the faith and you will be punished with damnation in hell. Be good, we teach children in tales of
Christmas, and Santa Claus will bring you presents—but misbehave and you face the prospect of a
season devoid of presents. Do not steal or be selﬁsh, says the Aboriginal tale of Wakala, or you could
be turned into a crow. Help out a friend in need, or miss out on the rewards, says the story of the
Little Red Hen. Many such tales teach not just the socially or personally appropriate behaviors in
which to engage but also the consequences of failing to do so.
Effective skills in discipline are seen as one of the key parental ingredients in determining that a
child does not experience conduct problems (Brinkmeyer & Eyberg, 2003; Dadds, Maujean, &
Fraser, 2003; Sells, 2003). Yet, in an age when governments talk of banning spanking, threats can be
seen as emotionally abusive, nagging is ignored, and harsh disciplinary action can see a child-carer
facing litigation, what is a parent to do? Mothers in Nepal have resolved this problem by customarily avoiding the use of corporal punishment such as smacking (Sakya & Grifﬁth, 1980). Yelling or
screaming at errant children is frowned on. So how do they discipline their children?
The control of childhood behavior comes in the form of stories. To keep a child quiet, or to dispense discipline, children are told fearful stories of terrifying characters who may be humans, animals,
ghosts, or evil deities. Given our cultural perspective, we may or may not agree with this practice.
From a background of current Western attitudes to child rearing, it may sound cruel or even emo-
The Magic of Metaphor
tionally abusive to tell children tales of terror; but for Nepalese parents it may seem equally cruel for
children to watch violent TV cartoons without any clear moral message or disciplinary function.
The practice of using tales as a primary method of discipline is described here, not as a question
of what is right or wrong (depending on our cultural view), but to illustrate two points. The ﬁrst is
to portray the way that stories are used traditionally in cultures other than our own. The second is to
highlight the power they may have in the control of behavior—a factor relevant to their therapeutic
HOW STORIES BUILD EXPERIENCE
MAGIC OF METAPHOR
One of the things that differentiate children from adults is their level of experience. For a young child,
life’s experiences are still few. The older we get, usually the more experiences of life we encounter;
consequently, one of the major roles of parents, teachers, and therapists is to provide the sort of experiences that are going to equip the child for what lies ahead. This is one of the basic processes of
learning for our species: We learn through experience; experience is one of the best teachers; the
more we experience, the greater our potential to learn; and the greater our ability to handle life’s various, challenging situations.
Some of the experiences of childhood are positive: the intimacy of suckling on a breast, the smiling face of a parent looking at a young child in a crib, times of play, or the discovery of a new ability
like standing on your feet for the ﬁrst time. There are also experiences that may be negative or unpleasant: death or separation from a parent, an environment of conﬂict or hostility, the pain of illness,
or rejection by peers. The way a young child learns to respond to these life experiences will be determined by how prepared they are for such an experience; and that, in turn, will determine to a large
degree how they handle their adulthood, for our quality of life is largely a product of how we manage experience. The more experiences we can create for a child, and the better equipped they are for
handling experience, the more we help ensure their well-being for the future.
It has been said—perhaps cynically, but also with some veracity—that experience is what you
get after you needed it. Metaphors are one way of providing children with experiences that they may
not yet have encountered and of equipping them with skills for such real-life situations when they
arise. Therapeutic tales can anticipate challenges or problems a child may yet have to encounter, and
model problem-solving skills or potential methods for managing such challenges, thus helping to prepare the child for when the need is present.
Throughout Part Two, you will ﬁnd a variety of healing stories that are designed not just to deal
with a situation when it occurs but also to prepare the listener for a potential occurrence. A child may
be helped to prepare for the death of an aging grandparent or much loved pet through stories about
managing grief (see Stories 51 and 52) that communicate it is appropriate to grieve, that describe the
rituals of burial, and that ﬁnd strategies for saying good-bye—experiences a child may not have encountered or be prepared for. Other as-yet-to-be-experienced situations may include dealing with
an issue of morality (Stories 61 and 62, “Facing a Moral Dilemma”), being confronted by a trauma
(Stories 71 and 72, “Overcoming Adversity”), starting at a new school (Story 87, “Facing Changes”),
being involved in a motor vehicle accident (Story 88, “Getting Back on Your Feet”), encountering
drugs (Story 86, “Finding Solutions,” and Story 90, “Learning to Care for Yourself”), or experienc-
Effective Storytelling for Kids and Teens
ing suicidal thoughts (Story 89, “Facing Thoughts of Suicide”). The more your stories can anticipate
such experiences, the feelings they might engender, and the types of things the child might do to
handle them effectively, the more you are giving your child to better manage such experiences when
they do come along—and the more you are helping prepare him or her for a future as an effective,
HOW STORIES FACILITATE PROBLEM-SOLVING
In planning and writing this book, I have consulted with many colleagues, and a universal theme
came through many of those conversations that was most clearly expressed by fellow clinical psychologist Elaine Atkinson, who said, “Children who can work symbolically or metaphorically are
the best problem solvers. Those who have difﬁculty thinking metaphorically also struggle with problem-solving tasks.” Thus, by helping develop a child’s ability to think and work metaphorically, we
may facilitate the development of problem-solving skills—one of life’s most essential skills. No one’s
life, whether we are born with the proverbial silver spoon in our mouths or not, is without problems.
In fact, you may have heard it said that life’s problems can be so complex even teenagers do not have
In workshop training, Jay Haley has stated that therapy ought to help a person overcome this
current set of problems in a way that better equips her or him to overcome the next set. This perspective does not deny the fact that life for children, as well as for adults, has its problems. It does not
offer the false promise that when you get over this current situation of bullying, abuse, parental separation, attention problems, or whatever, life will be a bed of roses . . . though that is probably an appropriate metaphor: Life has its beauty and its thorns. For a child to be properly equipped for life, this
is essential information for him or her to have. Haley’s perspective on therapy makes it clear that this
current set of circumstances, no matter how distressing, can be an important learning experience
from which a child is capable of developing enhanced skills for problem resolution. If therapy does
this, it has served a valuable function, for people who are content know that life has its beauty and its
thorns. How you handle it is what matters. . . . And this is where building problem-solving skills is
so essential for kids and teens.
Fortunately, we have nature on our side. We are born problem-solvers. From infancy we solve
our problems of hunger, soiled diapers, or discomfort by crying and thus gaining parental attention.
We grow to become better problem solvers by developing different cries for different problems, thus
getting quicker and more speciﬁc attention to our needs. We learn to solve the problem of early immobility by discovering how to stand on our own two feet and walk. By the time adolescence comes
around we have gone from crying when faced with a problem of hunger to a whole new set of resolution skills: standing in front of the fridge, door open, complaining there is no food in the house
until someone comes with something to put in our hands.
Some of the problem-solving skills that kids have learned may be very helpful and adaptive,
whereas some may not be so useful. At times kids may encounter problems for which they have not
yet developed the appropriate competencies—something that can happen right through our lives,
but especially in childhood and adolescence. This is where outcome-focused stories may be helpful.
Tales of role models or effective problem-solving heroes like Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter, a sci-
The Magic of Metaphor
entist, or an explorer may help provide the listener with the possible means for getting from the problem to the outcome. What would they do in a similar situation to your young client? How do they
handle the difﬁculties your listener is encountering? How can they prepare themselves for similar experiences in the future? What are the things they do that might be useful for you to use?
HOW STORIES CHANGE AND HEAL
MAGIC OF METAPHOR
In 101 Healing Stories (Burns, 2001), I told the case of Jessica, a six-year-old who reminded me of
something about the power of stories to change. Because the power of stories to connect with people
who may have chosen not to connect in other ways continues to fascinate me, I will repeat Jessica’s
story in a summarized version, ﬁrst, because you may not be familiar with it and, second, because
(even if you are) I now have a follow-up to the story that was not available when I last wrote about
At her tender young age, Jessica was considered different, abnormal. She had been labeled an
elective mute: a child who chose to speak only to whom she wished—and, for Jessica, that meant
only her immediate family, who considered her vocabulary, sentence structure, and ﬂuency of speech
to be comparable to that of her peers. However, her teachers were bound by an educational system
that demanded measurement and accountability. There, Jessica was not playing by the rules. She
could not be assessed on verbally based measures of academic progress or intellectual functioning.
She had attended a school psychologist and private clinical psychologist who tried to assess and
treat her with most of the current, standard approaches. I was told they attempted to measure her IQ,
tried to get her to talk through puppets, and set up a behavioral reinforcement schedule for her classroom . . . but because she provided no speech whatsoever at school, there was nothing to reinforce.
Jessica remained an elective mute, and as I listened to all that had been tried and failed, I was not sure
I had any additional strings to my therapeutic bow.
As I spoke with her mother, Jessica sat on the ﬂoor drawing, thus giving me the opportunity to
address her indirectly while apparently conversing with her mother. My therapeutic intent was, ﬁrst,
to normalize selectivity of speech, and second, to set an expectation of change, so I talked with Jessica’s mother about how we all choose with whom we want to speak and with whom we do not.
Some people we like and, thus, communicate with openly and easily, while others we may not want
to talk to at all. My aim was to conﬁrm Jessica’s power to be selective, and reassure her about the normality of choice.
To set an expectancy of change, I told her mother a true story about a childhood classmate of
mine, called Billy. Nobody at school had ever heard him speak, but there was a rumor he spoke at
home. Billy was teased by other kids. They poked fun at his silence. But nothing changed . . . until
At this point of the story Jessica stopped her drawing and looked up at me. I continued to keep
her mother’s gaze and proceeded with the tale.
That day the door of the cupboard at the back of the classroom was ajar and a feather duster protruded through the gap. As we ﬁled into class, Billy’s eye fell on the protruding feathers and, without thinking, he exclaimed, “Sir, there’s a hen in the cupboard!” Everyone laughed and after that Billy
Effective Storytelling for Kids and Teens
Jessica, who had stopped drawing to listen to the story, picked up a fresh sheet of paper and, in
a few moments, passed me a drawing of a bird.
“What’s this?” I ventured to ask.
“Tweetie,” came the reply.
“Who’s Tweetie?” I pressed gently.
“My canary,” she answered.
Jessica’s mother looked as incredulous as me. I was the ﬁrst adult Jessica had spoken to outside of
the family in her whole six years. At the next session, she bounced into my ofﬁce so chatty that my
secretary asked, “Can you reverse this process?”
Jessica’s story of resolving her elective mutism did not end there. In some ways that was just the
beginning. Though she had extended the range of people with whom she spoke by two (myself and
my secretary), she still needed to expand that ability into other situations in her life. While it was great
that she would chat garrulously to my secretary and was eager to relate to me the events since our last
appointment, she had still not generalized this into the classroom or playground environment, and
so I spoke with the school principal, who was very cooperative and keen to assist. She gave Jessica’s
teacher permission to come to an appointment. With just the three of us present, Jessica was happy
to talk with her teacher. They had been studying the solar system and when the teacher began to ask
her questions, Jessica readily and casually listed off the names of the planets—much to her teacher’s
The challenge then became how to generalize her speech into the classroom, a process I began
with successive approximations through further stories, role-play with my teddy bear, and therapeutic exercises. There were many questions I asked her. When she began to speak at school, to whom
would she speak ﬁrst? And after that person, who next? Would she talk softly, loudly, or normally?
Would she say just one word or a whole sentence? We agreed on softly to one or two close friends.
Each step was reinforced and the next encouraged as she began to extend her abilities to more people
and more situations.
Since I ﬁrst wrote about this case, Jessica’s grandmother, who initiated Jessica’s consultations with
me, reported she now speaks with neighbors, has friends visit for sleep-overs (at which her mother
has to tell them to stop talking and go to sleep!), and has even stood up in front of the class to give
news. Her grandmother’s words were, “Since she has started, she hasn’t stopped.”
Three years after she attended sessions with me, I was surprised to open my mail one day and
ﬁnd a letter from Jessica herself. It read as follows:
Dear George. Remember me Jessica. I saw you when I was six. I hope you are going well. You
helped me a lot in talking a bit louder at school. I’ve got a lot more friends now because I’ve
been talking louder. I spoke on the Broadcast on the Microphone.
Thank you for helping me.
A year later I phoned her mother to seek permission to publish Jessica’s letter, and also spoke to
Jessica. She was bright, cheerful, and animated in her conversation. According to both Jessica and her
mother, she has continued to maintain her progress.
In the case of this six-year-old, I was powerfully reminded how metaphors can hold a unique
The Magic of Metaphor
ability to facilitate connections where other language forms may not. The empowerment for Jessica
to change an established pattern of behavior had come not just through a story, but through one told
so indirectly that it was apparently being communicated to someone else.
WHEN NOT TO SPEAK IN STORIES
MAGIC OF METAPHOR
I think it also needs to be said that metaphor therapy may not be relevant for every child. Some children, depending on chronological age, mental age, and cognitive development, may be more concrete and less abstract in their thinking. If you can give a child a clear directive and he or she follows
it, why bother messing around creating and telling stories (except for the fun of it)? Similarly, I do
not want to give the impression that metaphors are the only way to do therapy. Though stories have
a universal appeal and their effectiveness as a teaching tool has long been demonstrated, there are children (particularly teenagers) who may not appreciate or beneﬁt from such indirect approaches to
treatment, perhaps seeing them as evasive, condescending, or irrelevant. There may be parents who
do not understand the process and even become angry that they are paying their hard-earned cash
for you to “do nothing” but tell stories to their child. It is important to watch carefully for such signs
and—in the art of all good therapy—adapt your interventions to the needs and responses of your
clients. Often the problem may not be in the process of storytelling, which has a universal appeal, but
in the relevance of the content for that particular child. In general, the more strings you have to your
therapeutic bow, the easier it is to make those adaptations, and the more effective your interventions.
Metaphor therapy is just one of those strings—and may not be the best or only one necessary to reach
the child’s therapeutic goal. Further discussion of the pitfalls in metaphor therapy and pathways that
may be followed to enhance therapeutic effectiveness can be found in Chapter 14.
Let me summarize this chapter on the magic of stories with a favorite tale that has its origins back
in 1794, when a small boy underwent surgery for the removal of a tumor. Can you imagine what
thoughts would have been going through the mind of a nine-year-old child facing the prospect of a
surgeon’s knife more than 200 years ago? Of course, he did not know that antibiotics were yet to be
discovered or that Louis Pasteur had not yet enlightened the medical world about the need for sterilization. Chemical anesthetics for the control of pain were to remain unknown for another century
and a half.
In the absence of anything else to offer the child, he was told a story to help distract his attention from the procedure. So intriguing was the tale that he later avowed he had felt no discomfort
Could a story be that powerful, and could its power linger? For that child, it certainly did. Eighteen years later the very same boy handed one of his own stories to a publisher. What was his story?
Snow White. Yes, the boy was Jacob Grimm, who went on to become one of the world’s most famous tellers of fairy stories—stories that continue to be retold in words, in print, in plays, and on
movie screens two centuries later.
In this chapter I have attempted to illustrate just some of the ways stories can inform, educate,
teach values, discipline, build experience, facilitate problem solving, change, and heal. These are just
some samples, like a plate of food randomly selected from an extensive smorgasbord, and not meant
to be a comprehensive list of the values of stories. Other examples of the power of stories to invoke
Effective Storytelling for Kids and Teens
emotions, to inspire, or to create mind-body feats are given in Burns (2001). The question to occupy
the next chapter is, how do we communicate such healing stories effectively?
Reﬂect on the stories that you heard as a child. Recall which particular stories had a signiﬁcant
impact on your life. How did they
teach you values,
build experiences for you,
facilitate problem solving,
facilitate change, or
offer some aspect of healing?
Understanding the impact of childhood stories on you will help you understand and appreciate their inﬂuence on your young clients.
Guidelines for Effective Storytelling
enjoy the story of the new prisoner spending his ﬁrst night in jail. The evening meal was a somber
affair until one prisoner arose and called out “Thirty-seven.” The dining room erupted in hysterical laughter. Another rose and won instant hilarity by saying “One hundred and fourteen.”
“What’s going on?” the new prisoner asked his cellmate.
“Well,” he replied, “the prison library has only one book of jokes and, as everyone has memorized them, all we have to do is call out the page number of the joke.”
Keen to win favor with his compulsory companions, the new prisoner borrowed the book and
started to memorize the jokes. Within a couple of weeks he felt conﬁdent to join in. At the end of a
somber meal he rose and called out “Ninety-seven.”
The silence was palpable.
“What’s wrong?” the new prisoner whispered to his cellmate.
“Well,” came the reply, “you picked a good joke, but it was the way you told it.”
Delivering your story—the art of effective storytelling—is analogous to learning any new skill,
such as driving a car. You begin by driving up and down a driveway before tackling rush-hour trafﬁc on a wild, wet, winter’s night. At ﬁrst you need to concentrate, deliberately, on how to slowly release the brake with one foot, while depressing the accelerator at just the right speed with the other.
At the same time you need to keep your eyes on the road, shift gears with one hand, switch on the
blinkers with the other—and also keep your hands on the wheel. At ﬁrst the complexity of the task
may seem daunting, but as you acquire the behaviors they become second nature and you drive
through heavy trafﬁc without consciously having to think about when you depress pedals or put on
blinkers. You may have heard people say, “Oh, he or she is a good storyteller,” as though that ability
is something that is innate and unattainable by most others. I ﬁnd it more helpful to think that
Effective Storytelling for Kids and Teens
storytelling, like driving and many other skills in life, is learned or acquired. If some can do it, it is
possible for others.
There are three prime variables in effective storytelling. The ﬁrst is the teller, the second is the
listener or listeners, and the third is the process of communication that goes on between the two. In
this chapter we will be examining and seeking to develop the skills of the ﬁrst (i.e., the storyteller). I
have provided some guidelines and tools that will help you develop or reﬁne your skills of communication in this area. If you take the time to listen to a masterful storyteller, these are the skills you are
likely to observe him or her using. What that storyteller has done to develop mastery is what any actor, athlete, or other competent professional has done. He or she has studied role models, worked at
building the appropriate skills, and then practiced, practiced, and practiced. Maybe he or she started
right where you are at this moment. Good practitioners of any art are worth observing, for in them
we can see the things they do to make their art so effective.
Listen to and observe your friends or colleagues as well. Who relates an experience—say, of a
recently seen movie—in a way that has you yawning in the ﬁrst thirty seconds, and who does it in a
manner that has you rushing out to purchase a ticket to the next session? What are the differences in
their styles? Who do you rate as a good storyteller of either a joke or a day-to-day event? How do
they capture your attention in the ﬁrst place? What do they do that holds your attention? What use
do they make of their voice and how do they deliver the punch line? From your observations, what
behaviors can you model and what should you avoid? Observing and experimenting with these things
may contribute to your own skills in the art of storytelling.
TEN GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE STORYTELLING
1. We Are All Storytellers
We are all telling stories all of the time. Not only do we constantly tell stories, but we also constantly
ask for stories . . . thus inviting others to be storytellers, too. We ask our partners when they arrive
home, “How was your day?” We ask a colleague at work, “What did you do on the weekend?” We
ask a child arriving home from school, “What did you learn today?” In these ways we are seeking stories and expecting the other person to tell us a tale from their experience. Through such stories we
share our emotions and experiences. We tell of our frustrations and achievements, our joy and our sadness, our pain and our pleasure. The events that have meaning to us, challenge us, or enrich our journey through life are the things that we want to, and do, share with others. For them, hearing our tales,
and for us, hearing their stories, is a sharing of experiences that enhances everyday living for each of us.
As well as hearing and learning from others’ stories, we also hear our own stories, and the more
we tell them, the more they are likely to become a reality—both desirably and undesirably. Take, for
example, the child who has a morning dental appointment. When he arrives late to school, it is in
the middle of a spelling lesson. Almost as soon as he enters, his teacher asks him to spell a certain word
from a list that he was supposed to have memorized overnight. He is a reasonable scholar and to spell
a word is not normally a problem, but the distractions of an uncomfortable dental visit, the late arrival in class, and the sudden shock of being put on the spot sees him stumbling over a relatively easy
word. “What,” exclaims his teacher, “has the dentist pulled out—your wisdom tooth?” The whole
Guidelines for Effective Storytelling
class laughs and the young boy shrinks in embarrassment. He later relives the late arrival, the teacher’s
words, and the laughter of his peers. Over and over he tells himself the same story, becoming more
withdrawn and less inclined to put his hand up to answer questions in class. He tries to make himself
look small and insigniﬁcant when the teacher is looking for volunteers. The story that he tells himself about making mistakes in public, about being put down, and about feeling embarrassed continues to be relived again and again in his mind. It is a story that told not only what had happened but began to determine what would happen in the future.
Conversely, let us take the example of a child with a particular skill in athletics. She wins most of
her races at school and has received accolades from parents, teachers, and peers. The story that she tells
herself of a particular win determines how she will approach the next school competition. Her story
of past success is likely to enhance her feeling of conﬁdence, and thus contribute to her future success.
As we are constantly telling stories to others and ourselves, as we are constantly hearing stories
from others, so we are deﬁning not only what the past has been but what the future will be. Our expectations when asking for a story from someone are not unrealistic, for we are requesting something
the other person is capable of providing: We are all storytellers, and have been all our lives. We do
not have to start from scratch when it comes to the art of storytelling because we are already in a position to enhance and reﬁne this skill, and to use it effectively in therapy. It is not a question of whether
we can tell a story so much as how well we do so. The guidelines in this section are designed to help
hone some of those skills.
Practice telling a story of something that occurred during your day, whether it was an
experience from which you learned something, an incident that was humorous, or
something you want to share with a special person.
Listen to the stories that other people tell about their day-to-day experiences.
Observe particularly how children use stories. If you have children in your life, ask
them about their day, and listen to the stories that they tell and how they communicate the things that are important.
2. Use Your Own Enthusiasm Rather Than Techniques
If you are going to tell stories, make it fun. Kids love stories, they are a great audience, and it is easy
with such enthusiastic and relatively uncritical listeners to make it an enjoyable process, both for you
and for them. Start by telling stories that you get pleasure in telling. Do not concern yourself so much
with the techniques or steps for storytelling but simply use the most important ingredient: your own
enthusiasm—the sort of story that begins “Wow, you wouldn’t believe what happened to me today.”
It is this enthusiasm that adds the mood or feeling to the story. It is what gives it its spontaneity and
life. It is what captures and holds the listener’s attention.
Let your stories express what you want to say with enthusiasm, enjoyment, and reality, rather
than focusing on the techniques of how they are told at this stage. The techniques you can learn and
Effective Storytelling for Kids and Teens
polish as you continue to build your storytelling abilities. Right now it might be helpful to select a
story that you enjoy—whether one from your own experience, something you have read in a book,
or a tale you have heard from another person. Tell it to some children of different ages, different genders, and different interests. How is the story received? What do your listeners respond to? Are they
responding to your techniques or simply your enthusiasm?
Find a story that you like or enjoy and practice telling it to other people, enthusiastically. Let yourself express your feelings, your involvement, and your enjoyment.
Do the same with a child. Practice telling a story you can relate enthusiastically.
Tell another story that you do not ﬁnd stimulating, enjoyable, or exciting to tell.
Watch for the verbal and nonverbal feedback from your listener.
3. Use Your Intelligence, Integrity, and Ethics
Stories do not need to be factual. The sky can be green, trees can talk, elephants can ﬂy, and fairies
can exist; but, despite the fantasy, stories contain a reality that communicates a truth, a value, or a way
of being. This is part of a story’s beauty and the joy of working with stories. They offer the listener
the paradox of suspending reality testing at one level while presenting a very real message at another.
Take, for example, the traditional story of the Three Little Pigs. Both storyteller and children
who are listening accept, at least for the length of the tale, things they otherwise would hold to be
untrue: that pigs can talk among themselves and even with wolves; that pigs can build houses as well
as any qualiﬁed builder; that they can walk around on two legs and use their front feet for dexterous
skills such as laying bricks or putting big pots of water on a ﬁre. But amidst this fantasy, the tale communicates some very real values: If you do something, do it well; hard work has its rewards; solid is
better than ﬂimsy; goodness and intelligence can triumph over cunning and evil.
Therapeutic storytelling needs to assume a responsibility and accountability to our clients—especially our youngest ones. It needs to offer messages that responsibly help children achieve what
they want or need. Having the child’s therapeutic outcome in mind helps to communicate a story
with intelligence, integrity, and a sound base in ethics. Setting outcome goals for metaphors will be
discussed further in Chapter 16.
Experiment with being both responsible and bold in your storytelling.
If you have a relationship with a child, whether personal or therapeutic, in which
storytelling has not been a common part of your communication, test it out: Tell a
story and see what difference it makes for both you and your listener.
Guidelines for Effective Storytelling
4. Make the Story Fit
Practice adapting a story to ﬁt your young listener. One way of doing this is to take
an ordinary storybook tale and read it to a child. Observe the verbal and nonverbal
cues of how well the story matches the listener.
Retell the story to the child, this time adapting the main character to match the listener’s age, gender, or interests. For example, if telling the Three Little Pigs story to
a child who enjoys riding a bike, the pigs could bicycle from house to house rather
than run. Observe what differences this may make to your listener.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, there are three basic elements to storytelling: the
storyteller, the listener or listeners, and the processes of communication. The story is going to be most
effective if it ﬁts or matches all three of these variables.
First, it facilitates identiﬁcation with the story if there is a match between the character of the story
and the character of the client. A colleague, clinical psychologist Elaine Atkinson, who helped contribute with several conversations during the planning of this book, works with different metaphor material at different age levels for the children she sees. She commented that preschool children tend to
communicate metaphorically in play with toys. In early primary-school years, animal stories tend to be
more popular, whereas after that age group, children get into hero stories whose protagonists may vary
from cartoon characters to movie characters like Harry Potter or Frodo Baggins. Based on your knowledge of these characters and their signiﬁcance in the life of your child or teenage client, it is possible to
construct a hero story that quickly and effectively facilitates identiﬁcation with the story. Further discussion of this can be found in the section entitled “Metaphors Built on Heroes” in Chapter 15.
To give some ideas of how to adapt a story to ﬁt children of different developmental stages, genders, and interests, I have based the ﬁrst two stories in each chapter from 4 through 12 on a similar
theme, with the ﬁrst of each pair directed toward kids and the second to teens. Stories 2 and 3 both
speak about how children can make a difference, with the ﬁrst being a fantasy that has similarities to
the familiar story of Goldilocks and the second being the true tale of a teenage boy. Stories 11 and 12
have the common problem of being in an unfamiliar, fearful situation, with the character of the kid
story being a young octopus out of its depth and the character of the teen story an adolescent who’s
gone too far from shore on his new surfboard. While the therapeutic characteristics of the stories remain much the same, the characters and context change to match the listener.
Second, in addition to the story’s ﬁtting the client, it helps if the story ﬁts for the teller. Only by
telling a story that you enjoy, one that presents you with a challenge or that involves your enthusiasm, can you tell it effectively for your listener. I invite you to see the stories I have provided in Part
Two as “story ideas” rather than immutable tales. They just happen to be stories that I have used with
one child at one point in time. They are stories I like telling, and are comfortable or enjoyable for me
to tell. If you ﬁnd an idea that you consider worth adopting please feel free to develop it into your
own story. The child listener is more likely to enjoy and be absorbed in the story if the storyteller is
also absorbed and interested in the tale.
A particular slide catching your eye?
Clipping is a handy way to collect important slides you want to go back to later.