The mechanism of storymaking: A Grounded Theory study of the 6-Part Story Method

Forty-nine participants (24 community mental health clinicians and 25 users of their services) followed a structured set of instructions to create and tell a fictional story. They were then asked how far the fictional story communicated something about their own life situation, and for their subjective reactions to the storymaking process. Their responses to these questions were analysed using Grounded Theory methods to develop a theory of how such a fictional storymaking process might work in a therapeutic setting. The majority of participants described a process of increasing and often surprising relevance with the release of strong emotions. This was accompanied by an increasingly close identification with an initially distant main character in the story. For a minority of participants this close identification never happened and they experienced much fewer emotions and described their stories as less personally relevant. The Grounded Theory analysis proposes that the theme of the development of the story over time is central, and that the responses of both groups can be understood via this model. The proposed model is discussed in relation to existing literature on storytelling in therapy and possible applications of the method are discussed.