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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

The therapy journey and narrative structure

13/10/2020

11 Comments

 
Three years ago, I left my therapist’s consulting room for the last time. Stepping out into the street, I felt a rush of panic. What the hell had I done? My regrets at bringing an extensive therapy to a close lasted all of two minutes, or maybe three, and haven’t returned. Nor have I entertained a moment’s regret at the hours I invested in the endeavour, or the numerous cheques I signed to pay for it. A decent outcome, you might agree, but why am I telling you this? Because my reflections on my journey through therapy has a bearing on my thoughts about narrative structure.

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While I’ve drawn upon aspects of the hero’s journey story structure to build narrative tension in my fiction, it’s not been without some disquiet. But, as Charli Mills has pointed out in her comment on my post Narrative structure, psychoanalytic theory and the grief that never goes, there’s nothing stopping me from using it with the flexibility I require. Nothing but my own pigheadedness, she was kind enough not to say.
 
I wonder to what extent we need the shapes of the stories we read to match the pattern of the stories we construct in our minds about ourselves. I know I dislike sugar-coated endings because they imply an unrealistic balance of light and dark. I might have been antagonistic towards the hero’s journey structure because my own life has followed a very different route.
 
Apart from on my therapy journey, that is. I’d even, at a pinch, accept the label of hero, since it took courage – and not just my own, but also that of my therapist – to mine the depths of my psyche. I’ve written elsewhere about therapy supporting my dream of becoming a writer; this is the other side of that story: mapping some of the elements from the journey of the archetypal hero onto my experience of therapy to see if that might move me further towards accepting – or rejecting – that structure for myself. (Note that my understanding of the hero’s journey is largely via Charli Mills. Obviously I apologise in advance and take full responsibility for any misrepresentation.)
 
The journey begins with a call to adventure which the hero inevitably ignores. For how many years did I wonder about therapy? Talk about the possibility with close friends? Even copy some contact numbers from one year’s diary to the next? I didn’t need it, or I didn’t need it enough. I was scared, and not unreasonably, of being hurt. Most therapies entail resistance: manifest in showing up but failing to discuss the issues that matter, missing sessions or arriving late.
 
Other people assist and thwart the hero along the way. Therapy is supposed to be helpful, but it’s not always helpful in the way one might ordinarily expect. My own professional background meant I was more aware of this than many, but that didn’t mean a smooth ride. While some clients experience their therapists as an enemy – and, if the therapist is robust enough, can benefit immensely from the ensuing battle – I needed to believe in the benevolence of mine. Nevertheless she didn’t always get it right. (Such therapist failures are an inevitable part of the process and, when discussed, prove an opportunity for growth.)
 
The hero faces increasingly difficult challenges. You’re telling me! One of the things about therapy – as life itself – is the turbulent terrain. Just when you think you’re sorted, a new issue, or angle, raises its head.
 
The toughest physical and mental challenge is in the cave from which there seems no escape. In the hero’s journey story structure the cave is the climax not long before the end. In therapy, the point from which there seems no way forward is likely to occur earlier. Life is shit and, if anything, therapy is making it worse.
 
In leaving the cave the hero gains her elixir. I began therapy with three goals in mind: two personal and one professional, and it was only the latter that I achieved in anything like the way I expected. For the other two, I didn’t get what I thought I wanted, but that was fine. More than fine, because I faced the depth of my childhood damage and became more true to myself. I also found a solution to one of my presenting problems in a way that took both me and my therapist by surprise. But once the idea came to me, I felt compelled to follow it.
 
The hero returns home with her elixir. My exit from “the cave”, even with this new perspective, needed a lot of work before I was ready to leave. When therapy feels helpful, as mine did, it can be tempting to linger, so part of the therapist’s job is to help the client “leave home”. While there have been difficult moments since finishing (that’s life), or things have arisen that I might have discussed with my therapist, as I said at the outset, I’ve no regrets. I discovered my elixir in a way I never imagined. If this were a story, it would be a satisfying resolution in both its bittersweet optimism and its unpredictability.
 
Looks like I’m talking myself into a novel with a fictional therapist, or even worse, a memoir, but I don’t fancy that. But after writing this I remembered I have had in mind a short story about a therapy but only got as far as the title and character. Perhaps I’m ready to take it forward.
 
 
Have I convinced you about the match between my therapy journey and the story structure? Please share your thoughts.
 
For another take on life as the hero’s journey see here. Thanks to Charli Mills for directing me to this post.

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I actually drafted this two years ago when I was more hung up about story structure and the hero’s journey framework, but it never seemed the right time to share it. But when I saw the latest flash fiction challenge, I thought of “kid gloves” as a metaphor for therapy, which then snowballed, gathering another six varieties along the way:


The seven essential types of glove
 
A chair, a couch, the tools of her trade, plus a motley choice of gloves. One pair, snipped at the knuckles, to touch hurt with her fingertips; soft kid gloves to soothe pain. Archaeologist gloves for delving through history; hospital-grade latex to shield her skin and prevent her cuts contaminating theirs. Mismatched heirlooms from her mentors, she traces the left to Rogers, the right to Freud. She reserves the harlequins for those who’ve never learnt laughter, the boxing gloves for those who avoid through jokes. Seven pairs packed, she’s ready to follow her client on a journey into truth.

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What’s going on, Anne? You’ve already shared a 99-word story with this post! And I know therapy can be a form of conversational time-travel but aren’t you overloading an already lengthy post? But, Anne, therapy can be a lifesaver. Yeah, but the prompt says on a body of water, and it’s stretching the metaphor to say the feeling of drowning makes clients take the chair.

Let’s forget about therapy and go with the image: the photo at the start of this post showing footprints in the sand. Taken, if my memory serves me correctly, somewhere between Bamburgh and Seahouses in Northumberland, the coast where my historical flash fiction, a tribute to Victorian heroine, Grace Darling, is set.
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Grace Darling to the rescue

Father lowered the telescope. “Ship’s hit the rock a’reet. No survivors but.”
Grace pulled the shawl around her shoulders. “There’s movement!”
“We can’t risk it. Storm’ll make matchsticks of the boat.”
“We can’t let them die.”
Grace bailed while her father rowed. Gusts slapped hair across their faces and buffeted the boat. A symphony of huffing, splashing and a wailing, carried on the wind. Biceps straining, Grace took the oars as her father leapt onto the rock.
He chose the weakest and the strongest, returning later for the rest. He chose the mother, left the bodies of her bairns.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
11 Comments
D. Avery link
13/10/2020 03:46:20 pm

Dang, good thing I'm on vacation from K & P and have a lovely rainy morning with time. I followed a couple of links along the way to your flash, had an enjoyable and educational breakfast with you and Charli- delightful conversation regarding the HJ and shape of stories. Time well spent. It all was a perfect lead up to your brilliant flash. What a summary and reminder that flash is for any therapist. That there were seven pairs of gloves put me in mind of fairy tale, which maybe are a special form of HJ of light and dark where (pre-Disney) endings are not always happy ones. Anyway, thank you for all that.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
13/10/2020 06:42:38 pm

Thanks, I think you'd need a full week of rain to get through all those hyperactive links, but I've learnt a lot from those discussions with Charli. I'm glad you liked the flash, seven is a good number but I didn't think of that fairytale. I started with three and then they just kept coming. You know what it's like.

Reply
Charli Mills
14/10/2020 01:44:21 am

What a treat, Anne, to see you map the therapist's journey alongside the hero! I've learned much from our discussions, too, having to go deeper into why it has resonance. Joseph Campbell's work often comes under fire in my genre of women's fiction, but really, what he picked up on in stories is the human journey. Therapy is an extension of that journey. I'm so glad you got the chance to post this profound flash.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
14/10/2020 06:57:19 am

So glad you could catch this, Charli. I still don't agree that this pathway fits the human journey in general, but I've come to value it as a structure for stories.

In my WIP I have one POV character on a clear hero's journey, the others less so, but still helpful in planning where they're going.

I'm intrigued it's unpopular in women's fiction. Too macho?

Reply
Norah Colvin
18/10/2020 12:16:58 pm

Love this post, Anne. Not having the gloves for bravery in my collection, I haven't yet embarked on the therapy journey, though I dare say I could probably do with it. Being a fairly introspective, soul-searching person, I've often wondered how useful it would be. I enjoyed your comparison of it to the hero's journey. I'd like to be the hero in my story, but so far I've only had the complications (unless I can count my children as success stories, but surely those are their stories). I'm looking forward to coming out of the cave before I enter the final one. :)
I love your flash and understand all those different kinds of gloves. I think teachers probably need a kit of gloves too. Possibly other professions also. It could make an interesting exercise to list them. But you have more than listed yours, and I especially admire your final phrase 'journey into truth'. That's the hero's journey and the life journey too - I hope.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
22/10/2020 12:46:26 pm

Thanks, Norah, I'm sure you have those bravery gloves, and have used them, though perhaps masquerading as something else. And of course you can take credit in your children's successes – you gave them a secure launchpad.
And yes, I imagine most helping professions draw on a range of gloves.

Reply
Norah Colvin
25/10/2020 11:18:23 am

:)

Reply
Charli Mills
1/11/2020 02:40:01 am

Clever, weaving in a second 99-word story, melding the photos, Anne. Besides, this is one of my favorite posts and I didn't mind revisiting it.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
1/11/2020 04:24:24 pm

Thanks, Charli.

Reply
Roberta EAton Cheadle
4/11/2020 06:06:13 pm

These are both good pieces, Anne. Thought provoking. Your post about therapy is also interesting. My son has been in therapy for years and it hasn't helped him much. He definitely views the therapist as the enemy. Robbie

Reply
Anne Goodwin
8/11/2020 09:55:26 am

Thanks for that, Robbie, and sorry about your son. I don’t know much about therapy for children. It can be helpful to have an enemy outside home and school so that those places work better for the child but a shame for him to have to keep going with something that doesn’t seem helpful. Hope you and he find his hero’s journey.

Reply



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