Using the Tree of Life for the Storms in Life
One-day workshop
The Tree of Life is a recovery approach based on narrative theory that focuses on culture, heritage, spirituality, strength and hopes. It introduces psychological ideas of strength, resilience and relationship.
The Tree of Life uses a tree as a metaphor for someone’s life; different parts of the tree represent different aspects of an individual’s life. For example, the roots are about where we come from both physically and in terms of the values and commitments that influence us. The trunk represents our skills and resources, the branches our hopes and dreams. Leaves are those people who are important and influential in our lives. The fruits are the gifts we have received from others – not necessarily material; these could simply be gifts of love and tolerance.
The Tree of Life invites us to tell a different or preferred story of ourselves, outside of the influence of problems. This can be a difficult story to tell especially in problem-focused mental health services. In this workshop day we will explore different stories of ourselves by creating our own trees and sharing our trees to make a forest built on our collective strengths and resources.
The sharing of our trees is an important part of the workshop based on the idea in Narrative Therapy that ‘stories told are stories lived ‘ and that our stories will develop more richly when shared and responded to by others. After we have created our forest of trees we will look at the storms of life and how the forest can respond to these storms as hazards that we all face together.
When the storms pass we will end the day with a celebration to appreciate how we have all contributed to each other’s’ stories.
The Tree of Life is a recovery approach based on narrative theory that focuses on culture, heritage, spirituality, strength and hopes. It introduces psychological ideas of strength, resilience and relationship.
The Tree of Life uses a tree as a metaphor for someone’s life; different parts of the tree represent different aspects of an individual’s life. For example, the roots are about where we come from both physically and in terms of the values and commitments that influence us. The trunk represents our skills and resources, the branches our hopes and dreams. Leaves are those people who are important and influential in our lives. The fruits are the gifts we have received from others – not necessarily material; these could simply be gifts of love and tolerance.
The Tree of Life invites us to tell a different or preferred story of ourselves, outside of the influence of problems. This can be a difficult story to tell especially in problem-focused mental health services. In this workshop day we will explore different stories of ourselves by creating our own trees and sharing our trees to make a forest built on our collective strengths and resources.
The sharing of our trees is an important part of the workshop based on the idea in Narrative Therapy that ‘stories told are stories lived ‘ and that our stories will develop more richly when shared and responded to by others. After we have created our forest of trees we will look at the storms of life and how the forest can respond to these storms as hazards that we all face together.
When the storms pass we will end the day with a celebration to appreciate how we have all contributed to each other’s’ stories.