Recapturing the Oral Tradition of Storytelling in Spiritual Conversations with Older Adults: An Afro-Indigenous Approach
Abstract
:1. Introduction
Indeed, if these final decades of the millennium have taught us anything, it must be that oral tradition never was the other we accused it of being; it never was the primitive, preliminary techno logy of communication we thought it to be. Rather, if the whole truth is told, oral tradition stands out as the single most dominant communicative technology of our species as both a historical fact and, in many areas still, a contemporary reality.
2. The Value of Storytelling in Therapeutic Contexts with Older Adults
When I take my son to the doctor, we untangle the web of distortions provided by his birth parent in his younger years. We strive to make right the wrongs, to set his story straight. I’m grateful his new doctor knows the patient’s story matters—and that it matters who’s telling the story, who’s listening.
2.1. The Art of Storytelling
“In a distracted world where even undergraduates at top universities are increasingly challenged to read the kinds of books we have traditionally written, and at a moment when there seems to be widespread public doubt about whether to continue supporting the study of the past as this organization has traditionally understood that activity, what is the future of history?”
“We need to remember the roots of our discipline and be sure to keep telling stories that matter as much to our students and to the public as they do to us. Although the shape and form of our stories will surely change to meet the expectations of this digital age, the human need for storytelling is not likely ever to go away. It is far too basic to the way people make sense of their lives—and among the most important stories they tell are those that seek to understand the past”.(p. 5)
Wherever a story comes from, whether it is a familiar myth or a private memory, the retelling exemplifies the making of a connection from one pattern to another: a potential translation in which narrative becomes parable and the once upon a time comes to stand for some renascent truth. This approach applies to all the incidents of everyday life: the phrase in the newspaper, the endearing or infuriating game of a toddler, the misunderstanding at the office. Our species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.
2.2. Spiritual Conversations
3. Methodology
3.1. Ethnography
3.2. Autoethnography
“ethnographically informed methods can enhance counseling psychology research conducted with multicultural communities and provide better avenues toward a contextual understanding of diversity as it relates to professional inquiry”(p. 206)
4. A Case Analysis
4.1. Description
4.2. Storytelling as a Medium in Establishing a Therapeutic Relationship
4.2.1. Storytelling 1: Learn to Know Mr. C
4.2.2. Storytelling Option 2: The Story in Transition
4.2.3. Storytelling Option 3: Connect with Surrounding
4.3. Storytelling for Assessment
4.3.1. Spiritual Story
4.3.2. Option B: Assessing for Spiritual Coping
4.3.3. Option C: Assessing for Spiritual Goals
4.4. Storytelling for Intervention
4.4.1. Incorporating Rituals and Objects
4.4.2. Option B: Expanding Possibilities
4.4.3. Option C: Capitalizing on Presence
5. Theory Integration
5.1. Sponteinity to Flow with the Rythym
5.2. Attentive to the Flow of the Story
5.3. Affirming the Story
6. Storytelling and Narrative Approach in Therapy: A Comparative Analysis
One way of structuring these experiences is to organize them into meaningful units. One such meaningful unit could be a story, a narrative. For most people, storytelling is a natural way of recounting experience, a practical solution to a fundamental problem in life, creating reasonable order out of experience. Not only are we continually producing narratives to order and structure our life experiences, we are also constantly being bombarded with narratives from the social world we live in. We create narrative descriptions about our experiences for ourselves and others, and we also develop narratives to make sense of the behavior of others.(p. 60)
7. Conclusions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
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Juma, F.A. Recapturing the Oral Tradition of Storytelling in Spiritual Conversations with Older Adults: An Afro-Indigenous Approach. Religions 2022, 13, 563. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060563
Juma FA. Recapturing the Oral Tradition of Storytelling in Spiritual Conversations with Older Adults: An Afro-Indigenous Approach. Religions. 2022; 13(6):563. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060563
Chicago/Turabian StyleJuma, Florence Akumu. 2022. "Recapturing the Oral Tradition of Storytelling in Spiritual Conversations with Older Adults: An Afro-Indigenous Approach" Religions 13, no. 6: 563. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060563
APA StyleJuma, F. A. (2022). Recapturing the Oral Tradition of Storytelling in Spiritual Conversations with Older Adults: An Afro-Indigenous Approach. Religions, 13(6), 563. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060563