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• Tomislav Bišić-Pauletić

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Micbaet lWite, rlirectrtr rtf tbe Dttht.icLt Centre in Adehide, Attstralia, and one of tbe origit'ultors of tbe nanratiue metbocl

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a disconcerting effect of his new celebrify on the international therapy conference circuit is the recurrent

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experience of getting offa plane, being met by a w'orkshop

Wspecting

sponsor and told something like, "Ve sure havc a real hurndinger of a family for your live consultation. ()h. and by the way, about 500 people have signed up to w'atch." Whereupon White, the most visible representative of what

is the beart of Micbael Wbite's appoach to rwffatiue

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is loosely called the "narrative method" of therapy, is plunked down in front of an impossible situation, rvhile the audience waits breathlesslyfor a therapeutic nriracle. ril/hite,who finds the hoopla attached to his ne*'status puzzling, denies that there is anything magical about what he does. He says he is just very "thorough."

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painstaking, and that "it's silly that people expccr ro get a good idea of this kind of work by setting me up in one meeting with the most complex situations rhcv'can find." Then he adds, "Certainly, the idea thar I'r'c qor

BY MARY SYKES WYLIE 40

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all the answers doesn't fit the spirit of Inonesession,forexample,theparents rarelyeventalkedroanytrody,hasbegun, the work." of a deeply shy and isolate d prehowever hesitantly and timidly, ro s:ly our Nonetheless, over the past decade, adolescent girl, are trying to coax her loud what sDe wanrs for her life. White has developed a worldwide followaway from her perch in front of the This kind of work may look to some ing of both senior therapists and neotelevision and go walking with her father. practitioners like cutting grass blade by phytes on several continents who insist Butthegirl'sreluctanceissuchthateven blade,butitisprobablymorelikepanning he has something vitally imponant to say wten she does consent, she dawdles so for gold in an overworked stream long that the field needs to hear. But it can that her father says he must then take a since abandoned by other prospecrors. hardly be his therapeutic style that s€cond walk in order to get any exercise Slowly, meticulously, steadfastty, White explains his eleration to the ranks of the for himself. He is disheartened and sifts through the sandy deposit, patiently illuminati. Watching him in session is a wonders if the effort is worth it. In ttris extracting alrnosr invisible flakes-until, by far cry from seeing one of the recognized segment, White tries to get a statement imperceptible increments, he has lions of clinical performance sweep of feelingfrom the girl herself. It is uphill amassed .dn asronishing mound of pregrandly into the middle of a dysfi.rnctional work White asks, "Do you have different cious metal. Clearly, White,s reputation family circle and in one session transform paces of walking? A snail's pace? A torrests less on rherapeutic brrvgra than on it into a little kingdom of love and tois€'s pace?. . . Are you &ster or slower the extraordinary,iransfiguring moments halmony, while being wildly enrenaining when you go walking with your dad?" thar occur in his practic.--.piptr*i.t in the process. Far from it. FIis pace is After a long pause, she murmurs, "Probthat take place with people most thermeasured, even monotonous-some find ably slower." "Probably slower," vo[eys apists would write offas hopeless. it maddeningly slow-the therapeutic White. "That means you da have more Mary, a young woman horribly abused persona respectfrrl, solicitous, inquisitive, than one gear. [Do you walk more slowly] as a child, appears in White's office slightly donnish, almost defercntial, the because you don't want to go Edking anorexicandbulimictothepointofnear circuitous language an eccentric mix of v/ith him?" "I don't wanr to do it," she death, suicidal, actively hillucinating, the folksy and the politicallv correct. It says finally. unable ro leave her house or talk with is hard to imagine the follow'ing questions Ignoring this response, he asksher how anytndy excepr her husband. Discharged appearing in anypsychotherapv textbook: she could help her dacl work out what from her last prychiatric hospital with the "Do you know how you got recruited into to do-abandon their walks together or medical prognosis of death by salration these habits of thought that have been persist. She yawns hugely. Building on a within a few.weeks, she is brought in to so capturing of your Life?" ''What skills microscopically tiny adrance in the girl's therapy by Harry, her despairing husband, have you developed as a couple that life emerging earlier in the session (vtren and spends the iession .,tit.a.r! in a fetal allowed you to hold on to your relationhe had etcited from her a barely spoken position, rocking ro and fro on th. floo. sfup in the face of adversiry. and in spite acknowledgement that she might like to inthe comerofrJ/hite'soffice.',Shewould of thepolitics of heterosexist dominance be "taking more initiative in life, rather nor answer any questions, and I did not and ageism that marginalize your ways of than being a passenger") White asks, ger ro see her face for the first three 'rVhat being?" "what's it like for Anorexia would you like to do with your sessions," says white. Nervosa, which has been pulling the wool dad that would fit qrith this new dtection When Mary does nor respond to his over your eyes, to witness these recent, ofyours?"-a"newdirection"thatwould gentle, persistent probing, he asks her more positive developments in vour life?" have been invisible to anyone but White. husband to pose thi questions to her, and During sessions,white hunches down She mumbles "Go walking." "Going when she still remains silent, White in his chair over his notes-he seems walking-would that fit this new direcwonders aloud if Harry would like to almost to recede from view. He almost tion?" he pushes. "Fits," she barely "speculate" on what her answers might asserts anlthing, rarely utters a muf,murs. "It does fit," White continues be. At the end of the ttrird session, after \a/?r declarative s€ntence, iust patiently asks enthusiastically, "So would you like him one of White's r'?ical questions-what questions, hundreds of questions, often tokeepontryingtogosdking,orwould did Harry think her answer might be if repeating back the answers and writing you like him to stop?" "Hmmm, hmmm, he asked her how she had been recruited them down. Like an archaeologist, White hmmm," she replies. 'You have to say into zuch setf-hatred-she moves a little sifts through the undi-fferentiated debris wtrat you'd like," says Vhite -the closesr and whispers somerhing into her husof experience for minuscule traces of he comes to making a demand. "Keep on band's ear. "For that one instant, hatefulmeaning-the tiny, precious shards of walking," she finally answers. It is an ness did not speak to Mary the truths of struggle, defeat and victory that reveal a achievement, sa's white, because she has her identiry," says White, ,,-and from then life-all the while doggedly taking notes, determined that the decision to keq> on on, she began to speaft more and more even occasionally requesting the speaker walking "fits more with self-care than selfin a different voice for herself.,' to slow down so he can take it all in. neglect." By the end of a later session, With time, rhis almost unbearably At the same time, there is a startling while she doesn't exacrly s€em as "bright, fragile woman has acquired a smali puppy tenacityabout the process, a kind of polite op€n, ch@X communicarive, chatqf' as anJ tafts abour how sweerly the Oog fiCts but unshakable insistencc on participaWhite suggests to her, she is clearly much her chin in the morning-ar fust, she had tion, a refusal to let peoPle_off the- hook, thought she was so hatiful the dog would lnore engaged. She looks at him out of even after hours and days of nonitre comer of her eye and smiles shyly, perii in her care. Once rerrified into response-long silenccs, e mbarrassed and even produces some whole, unequiv- parallsis by the possibility of personal reshrugs, parrot-like reiterations of "l don't ocal answers (short ones) to his ques- jection, somc months later she has organknow'" vhite wil.l not allow the people tions, obviously delighring her parents. ized an outing for herself, her husban