NARRATIVE MEDICINE

Pádraig Ó Tuama is part of the ‘On Being Project.’ He wrote,

“I worked in group dialogue for years: often in dialogue to do with conflict and peace, but other times dialogue about identities, or religious differences, political differences, or contested beginning points for history. 

That field of work — often called Narrative Medicine these days — has a lot of models for how to hold group discussions. I tried plenty of models, learnt from them all, liked some more than others, and found that often a new model is a certain packaging of an old wisdom. 

Group processes are always a certain exercise in curiosity, in digging deeper, in looking at a singular thing — a single story, a single reason, a single purpose — and making them plural, even exploring some of the inner contradictions. Nothing is so simple as to be solely simple is an underlying premise when working with groups of people who have found themselves in need of facilitated discussion. 
One technique that I learnt was one that was attributed to a Japanese methodology. The way of discussing is simple. When someone says something of importance, ask the question why? Five times; not as a cornering or an accusation, but as an exploration of some of the layers supporting what is important to them.
 
Friends, in all the endeavors to go deeper into the layers underneath your values, your opinions, your dearly held beliefs, your stories about yourself and your stories about others, we wish you the spark of electricity that is curiosity to guide you. And along with that, the wisdom of wisdom.”

“I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, for that is what I was sent to do.” Jesus