The Use of the Scaffolding Map in Narrative Therapy: Case Study with Peter

December 22nd, 2009
By Peggy Gold, MS, NCC, LMHC, Narrative Therapy Topic Expert Contributor

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Recently in my private practice I had the pleasure of meeting with an 11 year old boy named Peter. His father referred him to me because Peter was showing signs of “melancholy”, anger, and seemed to be lacking in his ability to experience happiness and/or high levels of positive emotion.

Peter’s father had already shared with me that their entire family had been exposed to extreme domestic violence in the home for a number of years. The offender of this violence had been removed from the home 6 months prior, and the family (Peter’s dad and his 3 siblings) had been adjusting well. Peter, however, appeared to be having more emotional symptoms than his siblings and his father wanted to give him more support through counseling. In particular, his dad lamented the seeming loss of Peter’s “carefree” nature from his earlier childhood.

When I initially met with Peter, I included his father in the entire session, which was also Peter’s choice. With Peter’s permission, his father expressed his worries about Peter directly to me so that Peter could hear his father’s thoughts from a position of distance. I checked in with Peter periodically while his father was talking to ensure that he was OK with what was being said. By doing this, I was keeping Peter at the center of the conversation, and giving him the power to decide whether or not his father’s version of his story was accurate and acceptable to him.

Through externalizing questions (using Michael White’s Externalizing map) with both Peter and his father, we all identified that Peter was being affected by feelings of anger, as well as feelings of responsibility to avoid any arguments in the home, between and among siblings. By experiencing this responsibility, Peter identified that he often felt “stressed” and “on edge.” Even with the use of externalizing language, and Peter’s expressed willingness and desire to participate in counseling, he had a difficult time holding back tears as we discussed the effects anger and responsibility. I knew from his father that Peter would show this sensitivity and ease of crying at home, and I wanted to spare him any further internalized negative experience. Also, because Peter had identified already that he liked the feeling of “calm” and “peace” in his home, I decided to abort my use of the externalizing conversation, and instead explore Peter’s initiatives that ran counter to his experience of the problem (using Michael White’s scaffolding conversation).

I explored with Peter his interest in having a calm household. He told me that it made him feel more comfortable and less stressed when things were calm. His father had earlier expressed a concern that Peter seemed always at the ready to anticipate problems and try to stop them, preventing him from relaxing and acting carefree. While this is a legitimate concern from his dad (and one that Peter concurred was problematic), I didn’t want this ability of Peter’s to be overlooked as a detriment, but as a particular skill developed because of a stressful violent living situation. I focused more globally on what kinds of things Peter would do to keep his household calm. He spoke of trying to stop arguments by saying “stop it” to his siblings, how he loved to read and found that to be calm-producing, and how he was always very aware of what is going on. Through this inquiry, Peter was able to say that his skill of seeking calm in the household had dual effects; he liked that it was less stressful when things were calm, but he also agreed that sometimes his “calm” prevented him from being carefree. In concluding our conversation, he expressed that he would like to work towards ways of letting his carefree nature return.

Most noteworthy, however, was the change in Peter’s body language as soon as I changed my method of inquiry. Once I switched to the scaffolding map, Peter was able to separate himself from his tears and his feelings of shame and sadness that accompanied my initial attempts to externalize the problem. As soon as I began talking about Peter as being “skilled,” he stopped crying, sat up, spoke louder, and became more focused in the conversation. We spent very little time exploring the problem at hand, and in this case it was warranted. Peter had already told me that having calm was important to him. He quickly provided me with a description of his unique response to the stress and violence in the household. I didn’t have to go looking for it. I just had to explore it with him.

By the end of our conversation, I began to experience Peter as a much more engaged and focused 11 year-old. His speaking was more animated and he smiled more. He said he would like to come back and talk more about ways to become more carefree. His father shared some of the times that he has experienced Peter acting more carefree. Both father and son appeared happy and relaxed.

In next month’s submission I will share the process and outcome of my second session with Peter, focusing on the Reauthoring Map, describing his new initiatives of becoming “adventurous” in his life.

 

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©Copyright 2009 by Peggy Gold, MS, therapist in Rochester, NY. All Rights Reserved.

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