The Shack Discussion Questions

The Shack by William P. Young is a story about Mack, a man whose daughter is kidnapped and brutally murdered. A few years after her murder, Mack receives an invitation from God to meet Him at the shack where they found his daughters bloody clothes. Mack goes and works through the meaning of suffering as he spends the weekend with the Trinity. Spoiler warning: This study guide reveals important details about The Shack by William P. Young. Finish the book before reading on. Were you drawn in by the plot of The Shack?Why do you think Macks encounter with God took place at the shack? If God were to invite you somewhere, where would it be? (In other words, where is the center of your doubt and pain)?Do you think suffering makes people closer to God or causes them to distance themselves from Him? What has been the pattern in your life?Were you satisfied with Gods answers to Mack about suffering? Do you struggle with believing God is good in light of all the tragedy in the world?How is Youngs description of God different from your concept of God? What parts of his description did you like and what parts didnt you like?Did The Shack change any of your opinions about God or Christianity?What were some of the things The Shack teaches about God, faith, and life that you disagreed with?Would you recommend The Shack to a friend?Rate The Shack on a scale of 1 to 5.

What Is Narrative Therapy Definition and Techniques

Narrative therapy is a psychological approach that seeks to adjust the stories one tells about one’s life in order to bring about positive change and better mental health. It considers people the experts on their own lives and views them as separate from their problems. Narrative therapy was developed by social worker Michael White and family therapist David Epston in the 1980s. Key Takeaways: Narrative Therapy The goal of narrative therapy is to help clients adjust and tell alternative stories about their lives so they better match who and what they want to be, leading to positive change.Narrative therapy is non-pathologizing, non-blaming, and sees clients as experts on their own lives.Narrative therapists view people as separate from their problems and strive to have clients view their problems that way too. That way a client no longer sees a problem as an unchangeable part of them, but as an external issue that can be changed. Origins Narrative therapy is a relatively new, and therefore lesser known, form of therapy. It was developed in the 1980s by Michael White, an Australian social worker, and David Epston, a family therapist from New Zealand. It gained traction in the United States in the 1990s. White and Epston developed narrative therapy to be a non-pathologizing form of therapy based on the following three ideas: Narrative therapy respects each client. Clients are treated as brave and agentic individuals who should be commended for recognizing and working to address their issues. They are never viewed as deficient or inherently problematic.Narrative therapy does not blame clients for their problems. The client is not at fault for their problems and blame is not assigned to them or anyone else. Narrative therapy looks at people and their problems as separate.  Narrative therapy sees clients as experts on their own lives. In narrative therapy, the therapist and the client are on equal footing, but it is the client who has intimate knowledge of his or her own life. As a result, therapy is meant to be a collaboration between the client and the therapist in which the therapist views the client as having all the capabilities, skills, and knowledge necessary to address their problems. Narrative therapists believe people’s identities are shaped by the stories they tell about their lives. When those stories become focused on specific problems, the person often begins to view the problem as an inherent part of themselves. However, narrative therapy views peoples problems as external to the individual and seeks to adjust the stories people tell about themselves in ways that let them see their problems this way too. Narrative therapy’s stance is quite different from many other forms of therapy in which the therapist takes the lead. It can be uncomfortable and take a lot of practice for clients to successfully separate themselves from their problems. The Stories of Our Lives Narrative therapy positions stories as central to the way people understand and evaluate their lives. Humans use stories to interpret events and experiences. Each day many stories occur at the same time as we go about living our lives. These stories may be about our career, our relationships, our weaknesses, our triumphs, our failures, our strengths, or our possible futures. In this context stories consist of events that are linked in sequence across time. Together these linked events create a plot. The meaning we assign to different stories is based on the context of our lives, both as an individual and as a product of our culture. For example, an elderly African American male will likely tell the story of an encounter with a police officer very differently from a young, white female.   Some stories become dominant in our lives and some of these dominant stories can be problematic because of the way we interpret the events weve experienced. For example, perhaps a woman has a story of herself as unlikeable. Over her lifetime she can think of numerous times when someone didn’t want to spend time with her or didn’t seem to enjoy her company. As a result, she can string together numerous events into a sequence that she interprets as meaning she is unlikeable. As the story becomes dominant in her mind, new events that fit the narrative will become privileged over other events that dont fit the narrative, such as when someone seeks her out to spend time with her. These events might be passed off as a fluke or an anomaly. This story about being unlikeable will impact the woman’s life now and in the future. So, for instance, if she’s invited to a party, she may decline because she believes no one at the party will want her there. Yet the womans conclusion that shes unlikeable is limiting and has negative consequences on her life. Narrative Therapy Techniques The goal of the narrative therapist is to work with the individual to come up with an alternative story that better matches what they actually want from their lives. There are several techniques that are often used by narrative therapists to do this. They are: Constructing a Narrative The therapist and the client work together to tell the client’s story in the client’s own words. In the process, the therapist and the client look for new meanings in the story that may help them alter the clients existing stories or create new ones. This process is sometimes referred to as â€Å"re-authoring† or â€Å"re-storying.† This is based on the idea that one event can have many different meanings and interpretations. In narrative therapy the client will come to recognize that they can make new meanings from their life stories. Externalization The goal of this technique is to change a client’s perspective so they no longer see themselves as problematic. Instead, they see themselves as a person with problems. This externalizes their problems, reducing the influence they have on the individual’s life. The idea behind this technique is that if we see our problems as an integral part of our personality, they can seem impossible to change. But if those problems are simply something the individual does, they feel far less insurmountable. It’s often challenging for clients to embrace this perspective. However, doing so can be empowering and make people feel like they have more control over their issues. Deconstruction Deconstructing a problem means making it more specific in order to zero in on the core of the issue. When a story has been dominant in our lives for an extended period of time, we may begin to overgeneralize it, and therefore, have difficulty seeing what the underlying problem really is. A narrative therapist helps clients reduce the story to its parts in order to discover what the problem theyre struggling with really is. For example, a client may say he feels frustrated because his colleagues at work don’t value his work. This is a very general statement and it’s hard to develop a solution to this problem. So the therapist would work with the client to deconstruct the problem to get an idea of why he’s constructing a narrative in which hes being devalued by his colleagues. This can help the client see himself as someone who has a fear of being overlooked and needs to learn to better communicate his competencies to his colleagues. Unique Outcomes This technique involves looking at one’s story from a new perspective and developing more positive, life-affirming stories as a result. Since there are many stories we could potentially tell about our experiences, the idea of this technique is to reimagine our story. That way, the new story can minimize the problem that became overwhelming in the old story. Critiques Narrative therapy has been shown to help individuals, couples, and families with problems including anxiety, depression, aggression and anger, grief and loss, and family and relationship conflict. However, there are several criticisms that have been leveled at narrative therapy. First, because its been around for such a brief period of time in comparison to other forms of therapy, there isn’t a great deal of scientific evidence for the efficacy of narrative therapy. In addition, some clients may not be reliable or truthful in their narration of their stories. If the client is only comfortable putting his stories in a positive light with the therapist, he won’t get much out of this form of therapy. Moreover, some clients may not want to be positioned as the expert on their lives or to help drive the therapeutic process. People who are less comfortable expressing themselves in words may not do well with this approach. Moreover, the approach will be inappropriate for individuals who have limited cognitive or language skills, or who are psychotic. Sources Ackerman, Courtney. 19 Narrative Therapy Techniques, Interventions Worksheets. PositivePsychology, 4 July, 2019. https://positivepsychology.com/narrative-therapy/Addiction.com. Narrative Therapy. https://www.addiction.com/a-z/narrative-therapy/BetterHelp. How Can You Benefit From Narrative Therapy? 4 April, 2019. https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/therapy/how-can-you-benefit-from-narrative-therapy/?Clarke, Jodi. What is Narrative Therapy? Verywell Mind, 25 July, 2019 https://www.verywellmind.com/narrative-therapy-4172956Cline King, Laney. What is Narrative Therapy? HealthyPsych. https://healthypsych.com/narrative-therapy/GoodTherapy. Michael White (1948-2008). 24 July, 2015. https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/michael-white.htmlMorgan, Alice. What is Narrative Therapy? Dulwich Centre, 2000. https://dulwichcentre.com.au/what-is-narrative-therapy/

The Three Little Pigs Free Essays

Growing up I’m sure many kids believed in all fairy tales, giving them the reason to think everything in life had to be perfect, for example having the perfect boy/girlfriend and living happily ever after with him/her, or having to be rich and live in this big castle, and getting anything and everything they may want. As we all know in all fairy tales there’s always a downfall, because there’s always someone negative that’s hindering someone else from being happy or free. In the case of the Three Little Pigs there was a wolf that bullied three innocent little pigs. We will write a custom essay sample on The Three Little Pigs or any similar topic only for you Order Now The well-known fairy tale takes its audience on a journey of three pigs and a wolf. Although most if not all fairy tales are make-believe, some of the things in them are similar to real life situations. After reading the fairy tale, it is easy to relate this fictitious story to something we face in our society now which is bullying. There are several similar characteristics of the wolf and the average â€Å"bully† which are not limited to the fact that both expect control and submission, exhibit physical intimidation, and feeds on manipulation. In this particular fairy tale the wolf played the role of a bully. The wolf decided to torture the pigs until he got what he wanted just like the typical bully. In the fairy tale the pigs out smarted the bully and made him run away crying, shows kids that bullies are not all that tough in bad on the inside, it’s a front they put on to get what they want and to get respect. As the wolf runs away crying shows us that the story is over and although they may not say it but it leaves us to believe the three little pigs are living a happily ever after thanks to the pig with the brick house. As we all know that’s not necessarily how a real life story may end, the bully may run away crying but it usually comes back ten times harder. Bullies are usually the meanest looking people around, usually bigger than there victims, and also scary looking. Bullying solves nothing; it causes more problems, and gives the enemies low self-esteem for the next person. Most bullies usually meet there match just like in the fairy tale the Three Little Pigs. The bully messed with the two weakest pigs first and he won, but the third pig dared to be different and stood up to him and came out on top leaving the bully with a face full of tears and a hot bottom from trying to crawl down the chimney. That’s sometimes all it takes is for that one person to grow the guts to stand up to a bully, not to promote violence but sometimes that may be the only way out. The third little pig cut on boiling water when the wolf was trying to get down his chimney to teach him a lesson they’ve been hinting to him the entire time, and that was just to leave them alone. The bully wanted to be greedy and to get what he wanted, and ended up getting more than he bargained for. In the story we may know there’s three little pig brothers that all planned to live in separate homes now that their older. The first two pigs built their houses out of sticks and straw, the wolf came along and easily blew their house down. The last pig was the smartest because he built his house out of bricks, and once again along came the big bad wolf. The wolf first knocked and the pig answered yes who’s there, and the wolf said it’s a poor little sheep looking for food let me in. The pig wasn’t fooled and didn’t let him in so the wolf began trying to huff and puff and blow his house down like he did to his brothers. The wolf tried and tried until he turned blue but the house wouldn’t budge. The wolf then spotted the chimney and decided to go down it to get in. The pig heard him so he began boiling hot water and added fire then the wolf got set on fire. Notice I never mentioned what happened to the pigs after the wolf blew their houses down, leaving us to believe that the pigs all lived a happily ever after. Well not in the annotated Three Little Pigs from London, by David Nutt, the first two pigs were eaten by the wolf after he huffed and puffed and blew their house down. At the end the third little pig boiled and ate the wolf after it came down the chimney and fell in the boiling water. In the Walt Disney story for the Three Little Pigs, when the wolf blew the first pig’s house down he ran to the second pig’s house made of sticks. The wolf came there and blew his house down and they ran to their brother’s house with the bricks. Then when the wolf tried to come down the chimney they did however boil hot water and add some heat. Instead of the wolf getting stuck in the pot and getting eaten by the pig, the heat flew the wolf right back out of the chimney. The Three Little Pigs teach children morals through interesting stories. When it was first created it was called â€Å"The Wolf and the seven Young kids. † That version and the Walt Disney version show responsibility because the pigs had to build their own home for protection from the wolf. Responsibility is something all versions of the Three Little Pigs share. The pigs are independent, showing that hard work is always awarded and trust me it really is. Also in the Disney version when the pigs were all together, and the wolf was trying his hardest to get in. the pigs stood up to him as one in the brick house and actually sent him home crying. That simply shows teamwork, bonding, and bravery; and it could also help a person fight life battles throughout life. The wolf had no conscience or cares when it came to the consequences to his actions. Which is just like a bully these days, they don’t care about getting in any trouble what so ever. Those are the ones we usually see in jail till this day. At the end of the story when the wolf tried to go down the chimney and get burned, illustrates that bad behavior is not accepted and it eventually leads to some punishment. I’ve mentioned teamwork and responsibility. For example when there’s a child watching the movie they’re not going to think about how the pigs teamed up and took down the wolf and think of it as teamwork or bonding. Thought the children just seem so into the pigs, after it I’m sure they learn a little responsibility and some good morals in life. Looking at the Brothers Grimm version†¦ The comparison of the two stories are somewhat the same although the London version of the story may be more violent than the story we may know, there both similar because the third little pig did something his brothers didn’t which is use his brain and stand up to the bully in a way. When you read the London version it seems it’s easier to relate to because it’s more like a real life story. The first two little pigs got ate because they weren’t using their heads; the third pig was smarter than his brother and survived. How to cite The Three Little Pigs, Essay examples