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RESTOR(Y)ING LIFE:
STRUCTURED NARRATIVE
JOURNALING
IN ONLINE GROUPS
4th European+ Conference
of Narrative Practice and Community Work,
Barcelona, Spain, 7-9 July 2016
Daria Kutuzova, Valentina Guseva,
Ivanna Smolyana, Anna Silnitskaya
and Maria Nesmeeva

This is Emma Watson  She
lives a very intense and
fulfilling life. It is known
that she journals daily.
Obviously, it supports her
in her preferred life.
How about you? Do you use
journaling or other kinds of
personal writing to have
more clarity, energy and
balance in your life?
How about the people you
work with? Do they use
writing? If so, how?

THERAPEUTIC WRITING
- Exists as a branch of therapeutic work since mid-1970s
or mid-1980s, according to different sources
- Many dozens of manuals
- Several hundreds of research articles (especially about
expressive writing)
- Close to a hundred websites with free-access materials
and online courses

JOURNALING IN A
NARRATIVE WAY
Therapeutic writing can be based on almost any
conceptual basis (existential, humanistic,
psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural etc.,
narrative included)
Have you tried journaling in a narrative way?
What worked for you? What didn’t work?

MAIN PROBLEMS
WITH SYSTEMATIC THERAPEUTIC
JOURNALING:
Lack of structure
Lack of pacing
Lack of containment and support
Risk of retraumatization
Unbalanced representation of experience

HOW THE MAIN PROBLEMS WITH
JOURNALING
ARE SOLVED IN OUR METHODOLOGY?

“TENDING YOUR INNER GARDEN”
(ENGLISH VERSION)/”16 TOPICS”
(RUSSIAN VERSION)
Developed by Daria Kutuzova (the story of development can be read
at http://writecompass.com)
Trial versions (2009-2013)
Basic version (2013-2015)
Beta version (2015 - )
Over 700 people have participated in online groups so far
Over 1100 people purchased the book to work independently

Exists as a book in
Russian, the translations
to English and Spanish
are underway

STRUCTURE:
The methodology consists of
6 series of guiding questions;
reflective writes;
consolidation tasks

1st block
of
questions
2nd block
of
questions
3rd block
of
questions
4th block
of
questions
5th block
of
questions
6th block
of
questions
Topic 1
Topic 2
Topic 3
Topic 4
Topic 5
Topic 6
Topic 7
Topic 8

Block of questions Topic 1 Topic 2 … Last
topic
(max:
14th)
Reflection and
consolidation
Remote
preferred
future-
oriented task
Personal write
(private)
Reflective
write (posted
on the forum)
Facilitator’s
response
Response to
the facilitator’s
response

PACING:
The participants are encouraged to choose 7-12
themes for 2 weeks of work;
They get daily email reminders;
Plus daily topics on the forum

CONTAINMENT:
The participants’ responses to the guiding
questions are private;
reflective writes are posted on the forum (can be
done under a pseudonym);
each reflective write is read and responded to
supportively by a facilitator (using narrative “good
questions” and/or outsider witnessing response)

PREVENTION OF
RETRAUMATIZATION:
the sequence of series of questions helps to build
reliable territory of preferred identity – problems
(as “obstacles”) are specifically addressed in the
5th block of questions, after two months of regular
writing.

BALANCED REPRESENTATION OF
EXPERIENCE:
The guiding questions are such that the writing contains
facts and feelings; self-criticism and pride;
confidence and lack of competence;
actions and intentional categories of experience;
individual and transcendent; past and future;
actual and outdated;
cultural prescriptions and personal queries

NARRATIVE PRINCIPLES
THAT INFORM THIS JOURNALING
METHODOLOGY

1: LIFE AS MULTI-STORIED
Exploring preferred storylines of development
simultaneously in different areas of life
(family, work, body, sexuality, spiritual
practices, health, beauty, finances, home,
hobby, parenthood, etc. etc.)

2: AUTHORSHIP
Participants choose the number of themes and
the names of the themes they explore; at the
end of each 2-weeks block they can alter the
names of the themes and their number
Participants are encouraged to name the topics
in such a way so questions related to personal
agency would make sense

Participants choose what to share on the
forum and how much to disclose (they can
mention which topic they are working on,
or keep it a secret)
Many guiding questions imply and
therefore construe personal agency

3: BECOMING A SUPPORTIVE
WITNESS TO ONE’S OWN
STORIES
Reflective write (this block of questions is used daily):
1. How did I feel writing about this today?
2. What was easy, what was difficult?
3. What was new? Did I surprise myself with something? Did
something that I have known already, become clearer?
4. Where does it lead me? To what thoughts, what actions?

Self-compassion instead of self-criticism
Externalizing the voice of self-criticism, creating space
for alternative ways of relating to oneself

Facilitators model the voice of compassion in
their responses to the participants’ reflective writes:
Acknowledgment of achievements, however small
Acknowledgment of strong feelings and situations that
cannot be changed quickly or easily
Questions that help the persons to align with their best
intentions and what they give value to in life
Questions that help to formulate small steps in the near
future

4: FROM THE ZONE OF ACTUAL
DEVELOPMENT TO THE ZONE OF
PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
Always starting from the experience-near
description of the known and familiar, and
then scaffolding the journey towards what is
possible to know

5: CREATING THE “RIVERBANK
POSITION” FIRST
Building the firm land of the preferred territory of
identity before looking at the problems:
-Actions that create the experiences of
confidence and pride
-Small everyday achievements and their place
in the wider picture of intentions, values,
dreams and commitments

-Supportive memories of connection,
transcendence and re-membering
-One’s actual personal belief systems and
communities of belonging

6: EXTERNALIZATION
Dis-identifying oneself from the voice of self-
criticism
Building relationships with one’s achievements
(creating thicker descriptions of subjugated skills
and knowledges)
Seeing problems as obstacles
Seeing problems as “expired” coping strategies

7: BOOTSTRAPPING DIFFERENT
TEMPORAL ELEMENTS OF
STORY
From the present (1st group of questions)
to the future (2nd)
to the past (3rd)
to the past, present and future (4th , 5th and 6th)

IMMEDIATE RESULTS: 1ST BLOCK OF
QUESTIONS
Experiencing more clarity and awareness, less
anxiety
Feeling in charge, in control of one’s life
Seeing the direction(s) for future development
Feeling that the tasks ahead are manageable

Seeing progress in the tasks that have been
“hanging” for a long time
Building a habit of attending to one’s life daily
Discovering the reasons to feel pride
Discovering that self-criticism is limited or
obviously exaggerated

IMMEDIATE RESULTS: THE
WHOLE PROGRAM
Different relationship with one’s own self – kinder,
gentler, more harmonious
Better self-understanding, awareness of the
dynamics of one’s inner states
Feeling of cohesiveness of life, of “wholeness” and
balance
Clarity and energy

Feeling of self-reliance, of personal agency and of being
able to improve one’s own state of mind
Feeling of “momentum”, of ongoing movement in
preferred direction, that doesn’t feel like “pushing
oneself forward”
Experiential knowledge of the effectiveness of small
systematic actions
Possessing a working instrument for dealing with
uncertainty and confusion

FOLLOW-UP (AFTER 6 AND 12
MONTHS)
The respondents shared that generally their state of mind is
better. There are ups and downs, but the downs are not as
low or long as they used to be.
The momentum of development in various areas of life has
continued and has brought some impressive results.
After working with the facilitators, the participants acquired
the internal position of supportive witnessing and asking
oneself questions, so many of them return to this journaling
practice independently, using the book.

RESEARCH TO BE CONTINUED…
We are working on applying the Linguistic Inventory and Word Count
program/procedure (LIWC), developed by Prof. James Pennebaker
and his team at the Texas University, to the analysis of the change in
the texts produced by the participants. We are especially interested in
the dynamics of the usage of pronouns, words with positive and
negative connotations, words that express reflectivity and agency,
words that are used to create a cohesive story. Hopefully, we’ll be able
to present the results of this research in foreseeable future.

MORE AND LESS USUAL
REFLECTIVE WRITES: AT THE FIRST
GLANCE
Length: average about 1/3 – 1/2 page.
Use of positively and negatively connotated words
Use of pronouns: “I”, “Me”, “Myself” – and others
Coherence and clarity of expression
Reflexivity

WHAT THE FACILITATORS
RESPOND TO?
Is this reflective write “open” or “closed”
– is the process of reflection still going and
might benefit from some scaffolding etc., or did
the person achieve a sense of stability at the
end of the reflection process, no further nudges
needed?

Where is the “centre of gravity” in this
reflective write? What is the most
essential thing in it, the focus point?

How can we support the persons’ agency,
their primary authorship of their lives?
How can we support self-compassion?

WHAT DOES THIS KIND OF
WORK DEMAND FROM A
FACILITATOR?
Mindful awareness of one’s state of mind and body
Mindful awareness of the resonance that is created
by the participants’ responses
De-centred stance and ability to take a witnessing
position
Creative (sometimes playful) approach, imagination

A “map” of orienting oneself in the text of the
response – and training in using this map (we have
our own “in-house” training for asking
narrative good questions in writing, and also
we have the tradition of apprenticeships for aspiring
facilitators, when each of their “draft responses”
receives feedback from two experienced facilitators)
Ability to express in writing one’s resonant response
in such a way that creates a feeling of immediate
presence and support

WHAT DOES THIS WORK GIVE
TO A FACILITATOR?
Increased awareness of one’s own resonant responses to
the person’s words, and increased ability to express this
resonance in a de-centred way, to perform witnessing
Clear feedback from the participants on the helpfulness
of certain questions, responses and ways of
communicating them
Feedback from the co-facilitators, intervision and sense
of belonging

Inspiration from witnessing how much work the
person is able to do and does independently – the
participants evaluate the facilitators’ contribution
as 5-10%, and their own as 90-95%
Much improvement in the ability to read a person’s
text therapeutically – and to hear important things
in oral communication

Amazing realization that it is not actually necessary to know
the details of the context and the plotline of the person’s
story to be able to respond therapeutically – working with
reflective writes is possible and effective.
That means that it is possible to help people who value their
privacy too much to go to a therapist.

It is not very easy to learn the style of facilitating that we
perform here,
and some people have more aptitude towards it than others,
but it is possible and we see that it has long-term positive
consequences for our development as therapists.

AND
This structure of questions, reflective writes and
consolidation tasks works not only with many topics
considered in turn, one after another.
It can be used as a basic framework for a more in-depth
exploration of one particular topic, for example “Time-
management, self-organizing and productivity” or
“Parenting”, or any other. Other tasks can be added to
thicken the preferred description of development in this area
of life and to limit the negative consequences of existing
problems.

WHAT CAN THE CLIENTS DO SO
THERAPEUTIC WRITING WOULD
WORK FOR THEM?

DON’T ENGAGE IN THERAPEUTIC
WRITING ON YOUR OWN IF
You know that you have a mental illness, and it is in an
acute phase now.
You are not sure if whatever you are suffering from qualifies
as mental illness or not, but the things that are
happening in or to your mind are weird and quite
scary.
You experienced severe adversity, and you are still
very much influenced by it. You have flashbacks or
nightmares, you cannot think about things related to that
event, you feel anxious and cannot relax.

In these cases therapeutic writing might help,
but you must get support and supervision from
your physician, psychiatrist or
psychotherapist.

TO MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU
Find/create some time and place when/where you
won’t be disturbed.
Ensure you’ve got the type of social support you
would prefer, in case you need it after writing.
Protect your privacy – ensure that the things you
write for yourself are not going to be read by anyone
else.

Don’t force yourself to write if it makes
you feel worse. Allow yourself to stop if you feel
overwhelmed.
If you are stressed, give yourself a lot of
structure for/in your writing.
If you are feeling vulnerable, write about
something that makes you happy.

FINAL DISCUSSION: WHERE
DOES THIS LEAD YOU?
What do you take away with you from this
presentation?
What is unclear – what would you like to know
more about?

THANK YOU!
Our team can be contacted at
16themes@gmail.com or via
daria.kutuzova@gmail.com

AND LAST BUT
NOT LEAST, WE’D
LIKE TO
ACKNOWLEDGE
THE ARTIST!
Tatiana Efimova
teffy007@gmail.com
www.t-island.com

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Restor(y)ing life narrative structured journaling in online groups

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Restor(y)ing life narrative structured journaling in online groups