_edited_edited.png)
Chapter 4: I Tell, Therefore I Am
Narrative and the formation of self
This class will focus on how narratives are created, held, and shape our identity—how our identities are reflected through the stories we tell on one hand, and how they are crafted and sometimes even transformed in many different ways and forms on the other—direct self-narrative, indirect or metaphorical stories, etc.
We will explore, experience, and discover various ways in which we can invite clients to expand their narrative, in ways that reveal more aspects of the self and integrate different voices or components of the psyche.
May 5, 2026
Assignments
Following the poem “Writing a Resume”:
Continue writing your life story through one of the portals you chose in the exercise.
You may also add a few lines or verses of your own to the poem:
Through which theme, image, or thread would you choose to tell the story of yourself?
Invitation for reflection:
Drawing on the Bionian idea of the continuous and the emergent self,
alongside Aaron Antonovsky’s concept of Sense of Coherence:
1. Can you recognize continuous elements in your story: parts of the self that remain stable, familiar, or grounding across the lifespan?
2. Can you also identify emerging parts: unexpected, evolving, or newly forming aspects of yourself?
3. How do these dimensions meet, challenge, or shape one another within your narrative?
Please submit only the reflective portion.
* You won't be asked to share the first part of the excercise, so feel free to write wha ever comes up.