[Ailist] "Staying Positive"

[Julie Gircys]

I have been following this thread with great interest and thought I would
share some of my learning from a workshop hosted by the Narrative Therapy
Centre in Toronto last month.  In late 2007, David Denborough, Jill Freedman
and Cheryl White from the Dulwich Centre Foundation (Australia) and the
Evanston Family Therapy Center (USA) headed to Kigali, Rwanda, to provide
support and narrative skills training to 34 trauma counsellors and assistant
lawyers, all of whom are themselves survivors of the Rwandan genocide.

Their work centred on facilitating the creation of "Double-Storied
Testimony".  First the counselors/survivors documented their experience of
the effects of the genocide on them, their experiences of injustices and the
obstacles in the present to healing.  Then they generated a collective
document on the theme of sustaining themselves in answer to the question
"What gets you through hard times?".  Participants shared stories about
getting through hard times, traced the history of their strengths in coping
throughout their life, and then linked to their collective experience (ie
family, cultural, religious, community traditions and strengths).  The end
result was a powerful DVD that documents the skills and knowledge of
genocide survivors in dealing with the effects of trauma in their lives that
is rich in images and metaphors.

So perhaps the question is not "negative" vs. "positive", but an
acknowledgement of struggles accompanied by identification of strengths and
"communitas".  It seems to me that the common outcome from the stories of
cancer we have shared in this thread is the strengthening of togetherness
and connection.

Julie Gircys
Consulting Matrix
Toronto
www.consultingmatrix.com
juliegircys at sympatico.ca
416 598 2662