Recent References in Healing Stories., List for Ohio Psychologists, 2009

IN an invited workshop on the Healing Power of Stories in February for Ohio Psychologists, I listed these references.


101 Healing Stories for kids and Teens.(Using Metaphors in Therapy) George W. Burns, Wiley, 2005
Healing With Stories. (Your Casebook Collection for Using Therapeutic Metaphors) George W. Burns. 2007
I Never Met a Metaphor I Didn’t Like. Dr. Marty Grothe, Collins, 2008
Metaphors We Live By, third Edition, George Lakoff, and Mark Johnson, , U. Lf Chicago, 2005.
Once Upon a Time, Storytelling to Teach Character and Prevent Bullying. Lessons from 99 Mult9i-cultural folk Tales for Grade k-8. Elisa Davy Pearmain, Character Development Group, Inc. NC
The Secret Language of Leadership, Steven Denning,
The Seven Basic Plots. Christopher Booke, Continuum, 2007
Therapeutic Metaphors. David Gordon, Meta Publications, 1976.
The Story Factor. Annette Simmons.
Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins. Annette

WHY WE TELL STORIES, BY Lisel Mueller

Why We Tell Stories

For Linda Foster


I
Because we used to have leaves
and on damp days
our muscles feel a tug,
painful now, from when roots
pulled us into the ground

and because our children believe
they can fly, an instinct retained
from when the bones in our arms
were shaped like zithers and broke
neatly under their feathers

and because before we had lungs
we knew how far it was to the bottom
as we floated open-eyed
like painted scarves through the scenery
of dreams, and because we awakened

and learned to speak

2
We sat by the fire in our caves,
and because we were poor, we made up a tale
about a treasure mountain
that would open only for us

and because we were always defeated,
we invented impossible riddles
only we could solve,
monsters only we could kill,
women who could love no one else
and because we had survived
sisters and brothers, daughters and sons,
we discovered bones that rose
from the dark earth and sang
as white birds in the trees

3
Because the story of our life
becomes our life

Because each of us tells
the same story
but tells it differently

and none of us tells it
the same way twice

Because grandmothers looking like spiders
want to enchant the children
and grandfathers need to convince us
what happened happened because of them

and though we listen only
haphazardly, with one ear,
we will begin our story
with the word and

Lisel Mueller