The Magic Loom: Weaving body and mind in narrative therapy conversations with survivors of early trauma

In 'The Magic Loom' the author, Heather McClelland, invites adults who survived trauma in their childhood to become more aware of their sensations. She helps them interweave the narratives and wisdom of both body and mind as they safely explore and make meaning of the past and put it behind them. This is a text for therapists primarily, teaching with metaphor and case-study. Therapists will discover why and how weaving the body and mind together in interpersonal narrative style conversations meets the needs that contemporary scientific research is uncovering.

It is the author's hope that survivors themselves may find they can identify with the stories of trauma recovery as they unfold and engage with the Magic Loom's conversational style and translation of the languages of therapy and of science.

Neuroscientists inform us that unresolved aspects of early trauma become hidden within a person's somatic memory (van der Kolk, 2006). Memories are not cognitively or narratively retrievable because at the time of the original trauma, the hormonal impacts on the traumatised child's brain prevented vital neural signals from reaching the brain's higher, sense-making parts (Perry, 1997; van der Kolk, 2006). The trauma is remembered, not by her rational mind but by her body.

Raising a person's awareness of her body means that key threads can be woven together with the full range of narrative therapy approaches that enable her to explore what her mind presents. The body-focused narrative therapist is learning to listen to an added voice and a different suite of narratives. She is helping to make explicit and visible to the survivor what has long remained implicit and hidden. It's as if the person's body gives her back her voice and her mind.

Body-focused narrative therapy owes its transformative power to the synthesis of a range of somatic and narrative approaches.

Heather McClelland, BA, Dip Ed, Dip PS, Dip Social Health is a qualified body-focused narrative therapist who has worked in clinical practice for thirty years in a variety of settings. Her case load has always included a high proportion of people living with the many devastating life ramifications of developmental trauma. Heather has worked with individuals, couples and groups. She has run workshops and presented at professional development conferences. In August, 2018 she will present her therapy model at the International Child Trauma conference in Melbourne, Australia. Heather works in private practice from her home in the northern rivers area of NSW, Australia. She enjoys her family roles as well as art and music, refugee support and opportunities to work directly with women in Bangladesh who are finding their way out of poverty.

Julie O'Brien B.A. Diploma in Psychosynthesis Counselling (N.Z.)Post-Grad. Cert. in Professional Supervision; Assoc.MPAnzA, Certificate in Journalism, Wellington Polytechnic, Graduate Certificate in Editing, Whitireia Publishing Programme continues as a moderator and an advisor for the Institute, while undertaking her own writing informed by psychosynthesis. Bachelor of Arts in English, Canterbury University Certificate in Journalism, Wellington Polytechnic Graduate Certificate in Editing, Whitireia Publishing Programme. She now offers writing and editing services.

Tina Wilson, M A from Edith Cowan University and B A from the University of Newcastle. From 2006 till 2017 Tina initiated and organised, as executive director, the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture, which has become Australia's 3rd richest art award and a rival to the Archibald Prize for Portraiture.