The Transpersonal power of stories: Creating a community of narrative practice

Abstract

This paper describes the principles and procedure of ‘definitional ceremony’; a narrative method employed to create a community of narrative practice. It argues that the transformative power of these practices can be regarded as transpersonal. Additionally, such an approach can be rapidly implemented across groups and entire communities. Therefore, building communities of narrative practice is more efficient and effective than traditional care model and one-to-one psychological interventions. The paper argues that it is an appropriate approach to a crisis situation – such as the aftermath of the Grenfell fire – where rapid community intervention is needed. (This paper is written in preparation for the workshop in collaboration with Cruse Bereavement Care UK at the BPS East of England Branch 1st Annual Conference: Applying psychology in the Eastern region: From theory to practice, at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge on 8 September 2017. The workshop offers an opportunity to train more psychologists, counsellors, social workers, community leaders and trainers who may not be familiar in this approach thereby widening access to psychological interventions.)