Uncovering the hidden story in our life story
Unlike more open-ended approaches, the process has a very clear destination.
Once the family history material is gathered, our job is to ‘get behind’ the internal editing process that inevitably occurs. All families collude mostly in an unconscious way with one another to produce a ‘safe’ version of events. This leads to what we call the ‘hypnotic trance’ narrative. It is from this trance that the process attempts to ‘awaken’ the client.
‘The real story within our story’ is the one that makes sense of trans-generational patterns and how they have affected the client’s life from birth onwards. We call it the ‘core’ or hidden story, the point at which every detail makes sense – the psychology of parents, partner, children, the career path – and forms a coherent, meaningful whole. It is akin to completing a large and complex jigsaw puzzle where every piece fits!
The usual response to it is surprise, mixed with the feeling that it is a story they always ‘knew’ was there. This is always followed by a tremendous sense of release from the demons – or even just the ambivalence – of the past. We know when we’ve reached this point and so does the participant. It is a humbling and moving moment, like watching someone wake from a deep sleep.
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