Materials:
Paper
Colored Pencils
Comic Books (For reference)
Instructions:
Sketch, illustrate, narrate and create dialogue for the client as a character in his or her own story. Clients can share their own story with an accurate or fantasied ending. Clients can begin at any point in the story which they are comfortable discussing, and move forward or backward in time to complete the story.
Target Population:
Children and teens dealing with topics they either having trouble discussing or over which they have little to no power. This could include victims of bullying, violence, abuse or other traumatic events.
Expected Results:
This will enable a client to discuss stories they are having trouble expressing or recalling in a non-linear fashion. It will help the client organize the story by enabling them to take separate pages and place them in order. This can also allow them to share their story without feeling compelled to communicate in standard therapeutic fashion. Clients can show how they felt or what they thought in the moment with feeling pressured to ‘share’ with the therapist. This type of story telling can also allow the client to share how they would like the story to end, or what they would have liked to change.
Related Works:
Kaduson, H. (1997). The Feeling Word Game. In H. Kaduson & C. Schaefer (Eds.). 101 favorite play therapy techniques (pp. 19-21).Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
Ohlson, E. (1974). The meaningfulness of play for children and parents: An effective counseling strategy. Journal Of Family Counseling, 2(1), 53-54. doi:10.1080/01926187408250940
Swanson, A. J., & Casarjian, B. E. (2001). Using games to improve self-control problems in children. In C. E. Schaefer & S. E. Reid (Eds.), Game play: Therapeutic use of childhood games (pp. 316–327). New York: Wiley
Originally posted on the Geek Therapy Wiki, hosted on the now-defunct Wikispaces platform, as part of Dr. Patrick O’Connor’s course Geek Culture in Therapy.