Books by Peggy Penn

As the title, Joined Imaginations, suggests, this volume takes us into the lives of Peggy Penn's clients and illustrates how her love of language and its infinite possibilities invites the creation of new stories, new possibilities, and joined imaginations. Peggy positions herself as a master of double description as she takes on the serious business of clients' problems by expanding their voices as well as the means by which those voices are given expression. This book is about language and writing and therapy. Joined Imaginations draws on Mikhail Bakhtin's idea of "dialogism in therapy" and attempts to illustrate how we author ourselves in conversation with others. Using the ideas of inner and outer dialogue, coupled with an understanding of subtext (an idea taken from the author's work in the theatre) the therapeutic conversation is seen as creating a text. Therapist and client build a new story together -- in their talk and in writing -- it is a "participant text." Creating a participant text is more than the usual talk of therapy. This volume features the use of writing as a central part of the therapeutic process. The client writes from new and appreciative stances and the byproduct is a change in one's life story; the result, a "kind of" literature. The act of writing invites meanings that have been ignored or unspoken into the relational field by way of the text. Words cross or bump up against one another when captured in writing, cracking open and revealing other words that may evoke experiences of self with others. This book is for all readers who use language as a treatment option. It is the author's hope that their extended language will attract others. Language has the properties of mystery and insight beyond its use in direct expression. More than reading a volume on social construction and therapeutic practice, this book takes us into the magical world of language and the drama of life.

Dette er en bog om sprog, skrivning og terapi; om hvordan det at skrive breve i et terapeutisk forløb skaber nye synsvinkler og nye muligheder i klienters liv. Ideen er, at vi forfatter os selv i samtale med andre. Den terapeutiske samtale skaber en særlig tekst, som Penn kalder en deltagertekst, idet klient og terapeut bygger den sammen gennem brugen af skrivning som den centrale del af den terapeutiske proces. Klienter lærer at skrive fra nye og anerkendende positioner og ændrer dermed deres livshistorie i processen. Selve skrivehandlingen åbner for, at betydninger eller erfaringer, der har været ignoreret eller uudtalt, atter kan deltage i fortællingen. Penn beskriver det, som at klienter udvider deres stemmer.Indlevende imaginationer peger på sprogets uendelige samskabende muligheder, dets magt og magi. Brugt terapeutisk i f.eks. familieterapi, ved relationelle traumer eller kronisk sygdom, opløses de fastlåsende mønstre og lader ny mening blomstre. Altid med udgangspunkt i den konkrete situation præsenterer Penn os for den mangfoldighed af rige ideer og praksisser, som hun indlevet og kreativt anvender og videreudvikler. Særligt centralt står Gregory Bateson, Milanogruppen, Mikhail Bakhtin, Tom Andersen og Kenneth Gergens arbejder. Indsigtsfuldt beskrives terapeutens ikke-vidende position og lyttende stemme samt brugen af cirkulære spørgsmål, positiv konnotation, fremtidsspørgsmål og reflekterende processer. Særligt systemisk og socialkonstruktionistisk orienterede terapeuter, konsulenter og sundhedsprofessionelle vil i denne bog finde inspiration til at arbejde med skrivning som en virkningsfuld tilgang.