Challenge & Selection

Storytelling is a tool I use to normalize the experiences of new parents. I coach and provide therapy to women experiencing postpartum anxiety and depression and am a parent myself. Oftentimes, in the early stages of parenting, individuals struggle to feel like their thoughts, emotions and decisions are normal. So much so, that they have difficulty with making even basic decisions. For example, should I take the baby to the park or just stay home? What if my baby cries when I have to go to the supermarket. On a more extreme level, parents will attach value statements about themselves or about their child. For example, “I can’t go to the park because I don’t know how to get my child to come home. I’m a terrible parent and can’t set boundaries.” Storytelling provides great support and normalization and because I’ve worked with parents for so long, I’m able to share some of the struggles other parents are experiencing and help other parents recognize that they are not alone in their struggles and that their children are not uniquely challenging. Further, storytelling helps alleviate anxiety because it creates a common space for thoughts that feel too difficult to share with others.

Application

I also use storytelling to improve my agency's level of care and to help my colleagues decrease their anxiety around note taking. I developed the internship program at my current agency to improve access to care and to improve student learning opportunities. I provided examples and stories of how interns have helped agencies in the past and how this may apply to our environment. For my colleagues, when they are struggling with notes, I provide not only storytelling but some visualization tools for them to rely on when they are feeling stuck. I created a list of typical clips and phrases used in mental health notes to guide anyone struggling to develop the proper language and I discussed my experience in higher level of care environments to reduce anxiety around notes in our own environment. I shared historical stories around the kind of data many social service agencies used and coached on protective language to use when writing clinical notes.

Insight & Approach

A colleague of mine had her notes subpoenaed and developed high levels of anxiety around note taking following the event. I have been able to help her reduce her levels of anxiety by sharing tools around protective not taking approaches for both herself and her clients without making her feel like she was sacrificing her quality of care. I also helped her reduce contact with clients who were focused on harmful behaviors towards her and used storytelling to help her safely and ethically find the appropriate level of care for clients who needed additional support to be successful.

Next time, I may rely even more on visualization tools to improve resources and outcomes for younger clinicians in the field who need additional note taking support.

