Storymaking in Education and Therapy - Hardcover

Myths and related stories express essential human experience which, requiring use of the imagination, reconcile and express fantasy and reality. Speaking through images which embrace the paradox of possible and impossible, the likely and the desired, they stimulate our personal expressive abilities in a way quite distinct from the absorption of prescribed images which television and radio present. This book is concerned with rekindling that expressive power of the human imagination which in the West has atrophied through neglect. It is concerned with increasing an understanding of the need to exercise our imagination as one of our psychic functions, as well as the need to exercise our bodies. This book contains myths and tales from all over the world which are grouped around seven themes, all reflective of forms of human experience. The authors suggest ways in which these myths and tales can be used to develop our imagination's original and unique voice through therapeutic encounter, and how this expression can be communicated to others who are engaged in the same task. The first section of the book discusses the nature of myths and tales. The second explores the seven themes in seven chapters, each of which comprises an introduction, six tales and twenty mythmaking structures. The authors describe the theoretical background to their work in the third section, and specific uses of the material in the book and the development of necessary boundaries are discussed. The fourth section contains notes on resources, a bibliography and the sources for the myths and tales. Alida Gersie is courseleader of the Postgraduate Diploma (CNAA) in Dramatherapy course at the Hertfordshire College of Art and Design. Her work in therapeutic storymaking is internationally renowned. She is a frequent guest lecturer and trainer in USA, Greece and Holland. She developed the story-making method, following a period of lecturing in comparative mythology, and she is author of several articles in this field. Dr Nancy King is professor at the University of Delaware, teaching myth and expression in the Honors Program. She is author of three published books and many articles on theatre education, drama, movement, arts education and creativity. She teaches in Scandinavia, UK and Canada.

Alida Gersie is a London-based dramatherapist and organizational consultant. Her work with deprived individuals and communities inspired her to develop a story-based method that facilitates productive change in seemingly hopeless situations. For several decades she was Principal Lecturer in the Postgraduate Arts Therapies Department of the University of Hertfordshire. She has taught the story-based approach to planned change in many countries, and has authored and edited several books.