How can a story help?

It’s usually difficult for a person to change an emotional reaction because they are stuck in it. eg. If Ben continually experiences anger outbursts he may wish to change that but find it hard to do. What is happening here? For whatever reason, Ben has an emotional pattern that’s not working for him – he feels guilty, embarrassed and anxious about his outbursts.

There a number of different interventions or approaches to enable Ben to deal with the pattern. A story on its own is unlikely to work, but as part of the package it might:

impress upon him the need to address the issue,
show him that he is reacting to something from the past,
point out a way of detaching himself from the issue
show him a way of dealing with it
enable him to feel less anxious and more in control

How would a story do that? The emotional brain pattern matches all the time. If someone extends a hand to us, we shake it. That’s a pattern. If someone threatens us, we feel fear. That’s a pattern. We all respond to patterns. Sometimes emotional patterns and our responses are inappropriate, unacceptable to ourselves or others or can be a nuisance such as fear of lifts or spiders.

When we hear or read a story, this is what happens:

we pattern match to it and it can provide an alternative, an insight or a new way of understanding something.
a story allows us to move the issue outside us and view it more objectively
when the truth is difficult to take, a story can tell it for us
it works with subtlety and on an unconscious level
it can continue to do its work for a long time
it can “creep in under the radar” when our logical minds might stand in the way