Jasmina Sermijn, PhD is clinical psychologist, family therapist and family therapy trainer at Rapunzel (training institute for Family therapists). Besides that she is part time lecturer at the Free University of Brussels. Her interest areas focus on the practice of narrative & collaborative therapy and postmodern philosophy.

In her PhD dissertation she researched the interaction between psychiatric diagnoses and the co-construction of selfhood. Jasmina Sermijn published two books (in Flemish), several articles and presented several international workshops.

jsermijn@vub.ac.be

Workshop: abstract

How Vasalisa and her doll succeed to come out of the shadows of old trees

Sometimes problem-stories become so dominant that they take the form of unsurmountable old oaks. They fill all space and light and leave no room for other stories to grow. Each experience, each new story-element threatens to become a leaf of that same tree, with the consequence that the multiple, flexible self changes into an old rigid oak.

By searching together with the clients for elements that do not fit into the dominant problem story, by creating together possible lines of flight, narrative therapists try to create space for richer, more preferred self-stories.

How can this be achieved? And how can we, as therapists, make sure that once the space for new self stories is co-created, the old trees will not take root again?

In this workshop we dive into the practice and let us carry  away by Vasalisa and her little doll. They show us how with the proper nutrients tiny seeds may grow out to rich stories and enable us to come out of the shadows of old trees.