STORYKNOWING WITH ADOLESCENTS
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Maple House

The Setting

Maple House* is a residential unit for up to 16 adolescents experiencing acute mental health problems.  Young people, suffering from conditions such as anorexia, self-harm, depression or schizophrenia, can stay for periods ranging from a few weeks to several months.  The unit includes a school so they can continue their education, and a wide variety of therapeutic groups.

​* pseudonym

Starting Point

Given my university’s links with mental health service providers and users, it was natural that I should include a mental health setting in my practice research.  I was intrigued also by the potential for ‘non-therapeutic’ storytelling in a therapeutic setting, and by the different perspectives on storytelling and life that young people with mental health difficulties might offer. 

I was invited to lead a trial workshop at Maple House in early 2014.  A diverse group of teenagers, some reticent but others lively and wielding their knitting, assembled around a table.  I laid out a big sheet of paper and some pastels for doodling purposes.  After some introductions and name games, I made several attempts to begin the story I had prepared, but its theme (of seals) triggered off both fond and hilarious memories of pets and other animals in some of the young people.  When silence fell, I shyly offered again to share my story, and was given permission.  After I’d told it the paper was full of big-eyed seals, intricate wave designs, and other animals.  I suggested we use these as the subjects of a chain story, which took several surreal turns after some surprisingly lewd contributions from the apparently most withdrawn member of the group.  Mercifully unabashed, the staff invited me to return a few weeks later.

Developments

After some months, I was invited to contribute a regular weekly session, which I continued until spring 2016.  Rather than being located as ‘therapeutic groups’, they were conducted during school time, and often supported by the setting’s two teachers (both as co-facilitators and as critical friends).  With a constantly shifting population of young people, each of whom was subject to changing moods and states of health, these sessions never became predictable.  Each needed to function as a stand-alone workshop, and yet it was vital to respond to the interests, talents or challenges expressed by the young people in previous weeks.  Attendance fluctuated wildly, as did enthusiasm. 

​It is difficult to chart a trajectory through this work, but I can trace certain phases, crises and forward movements:
  • Spring-Summer 2014: Intermittent workshops with a mostly subdued group of young people, often simple storytelling and games with a handcraft activity.
  • Oct-Dec 2014: Beginning of weekly sessions and close collaboration with setting’s teachers. A group of fiercely intelligent young women, who challenged my practice (see ‘Pushing it too far at Maple House’).
  • Jan-June 2015: Cautious evolution of ‘projects’: shadow puppetry, working with visiting artists, digital storytelling (‘The Story of Robi/yn’, below) in response to a consultation on mental health services, and intense work with two young people on a collaborative performance (‘Wormwood in the Garden’) emerging from group storytelling and creative writing.  Difficulties retaining participation from young people not involved in these projects.
​
  • July-Sept 2015: Series of summer holiday sessions starting from crafts (quiltmaking) and moving slowly towards devised storytelling and songwriting based on these, resulting in almost full participation of young people.
  • Oct 2015-Apr 2016: Ongoing search for balance between inclusivity and intensity of engagement: short story-inspired projects with interested small groups (e.g. songwriting, scriptwriting, art and informal performances), and workshops aiming to include all the young people in storytelling and games.

Endings and Learnings

By April 2016 when my work at Maple House concluded, for the time being, the teachers and I had begun to feel confidence in the shape of the ‘residency’, a shape dictated not by us as much as by the young people and the setting’s characteristics.  We came to accept the impossibility of finding a ‘method’ which worked for all or even most of the young people; rather it was important to remain alert to the interests and needs of the young people present at any one time, and the different ways they felt able or willing to engage in sessions.  Through experimentation with, and reflection on, many different approaches, we gained a better understanding of how ‘non-therapeutic’ storytelling could benefit young people in a setting dedicated to therapy.

Pathways for Discussion

Stories of practice:
  • 'Pushing it too far at Maple House' - a challenging period with a group of perceptive young women
  • 'It's not about the story at Maple House' - grappling with inclusion and building dynamic engagement
Blog posts: 
  • 'Storytelling at an adolescent mental health unit'
  • 'Casting stories in plaster - and just hanging around'
  • 'The eloquence of non-engagement'
  • 'Young people's mental health is 'Everybody's Business''
Papers:
​'Young People's Voices in the Policy Process: must we tell our own stories?', Storytelling and Justice Symposium, George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling, 13 May 2016
c_heinemeyer_must_we_tell_our_stories.pptx
File Size: 1310 kb
File Type: pptx
Download File

'Neither potion nor plaything, but a provocation: teenagers’ engagement with myth', Myth in the Social Sciences and Humanities symposium, University of York, 2 June 2015
c_heinemeyer_myth_paper.docx
File Size: 27 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Workshops:
  • 'A Dialogue in Another Room', participant handouts at Children's Faculty conference, Safe and Sound, 4th July 2015, York St John University
a_dialogue_in_another_room.docx
File Size: 21 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Images from Mill Lodge

Picture
John's Legend of Swimming
Picture
Story cubes in plaster
Picture
Unexpected by-product of story-quilt-making project
Next: Acting Up!
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  • Welcome
  • Home
  • PaR Settings
    • City School
    • Maple House
    • Acting Up!
    • Project J
    • Global Youth Club
    • Kitchen School
    • TICO
    • Holiday storytelling courses
    • Informal mentoring
  • Stories of practice
    • Layering stories at City School
    • Pushing it too far at Maple House
    • 'Meaty stories' at Acting Up!
    • The arresting strangeness of Wormwood
    • It's not about the story at Maple House
    • No space for stories at City School
  • Dissemination
    • Research outputs
    • Festival and Symposium
  • Blog posts and links
  • Contact