Poetic Possibilities in Conversations About Suffering

Suffering is presented as an experience affected by the meanings, stories, and conversations held by sufferers and caregivers. Seen this way, therapy offers many opportunities to join sufferers and caregivers in a search for meanings, stories, and ways of talking that best serve them. By bringing a poetic sensitivity to how therapists listen and intervene it is possible to engage these clients in reflecting upon, trying on, and engaging in new, relief-promoting forms of meaning. Further, this way of intervening can heuristically prompt sufferers and caregivers to engage in poetic meaning-making when they feel stuck on the sameness of meanings they associate with suffering.