Words

Words of life

Words of light

Words to face

The darkest night

How simple. A set of cards each with a single word-a word that relates to life with all its struggles and joys.

Single, unadorned words can have a power and a resonance; they can stand like beacons to illuminate our feelings and stories; they can provoke the most potent memories and strong emotions. A single word can transport our thoughts to a very different place.

Words is a set of 100 cards each elegantly designed but starkly minimalist in order to capture the beauty and transcendence of words that resonate with the human spirit. This card set grew out of discussions with counsellors who work daily with grief and loss. But Words does not only speak to times of sadness and depression. There are possibilities here for rediscovering hope, joy and meaning as we reflect on the significance that particular words have in our lives.

 

In search of hope

Sam began frantically searching among the Words cards for a particular one that could express her current experience. In tears, she talked with her counsellor about looking for the word 'hope'. Her counsellor suggested she say out loud, 'I'm looking for hope.' Sam repeated this sentence several times with strong emotion. When asked to notice her body sensations, Sam talked about feeling panic at not being able to find the word 'hope'. She reflected on her desperate search for hope; hoping for some positive outcomes relating to her current situation. Many fruitful insights emerged as the reflection and conversation about Sam's experience of hope continued to unfold.

 

 

Foreword

 

 

So often in our everyday life, especially when we are overwhelmed by painful moments or stumped by the magnitude of events, a pervasive sense of isolation is accompanied by the cry, ‘I feel lost for words'. Being mute in this way is never about not feeling anything; nor does it reflect an absence of desire to give expression to our experience. Rather, it is often the case that we feel like there is too much on the inside pushing to be on the outside. Such emotional bottlenecks limit how understood and connected we feel to others in our life and death moments. The resulting isolation constrains our capacity to bring understanding to our experience, heightens our sense of shame, impedes our healing and stops us from grasping new opportunities. Often in such moments of choked emotion and uncertainty the only words you will hear expressed are, ‘If only I had the words'.

 

Being without words at times when plain speaking is required evokes frustration and aloneness. These moments can arise in our personal experience when we feel young and unsure or fragile and unsteady. Grasping for words to capture the ‘out of reach' essence of our experience is known to us all. However, such moments routinely characterise the experience of children and the elderly. Regardless of whether we are young or old, emotionally literate or tongue-tied, in a significant transition or stuck—finding just the right words can be such a source of comfort. Here lies the great gift of this imaginative resource. It has the promise to connect us to our ‘out of reach' experience and to do so in company.

 

Words emerge in response to our lived experience. When they hit the mark our awareness is heightened, our understanding is broadened and our relationships are deepened. Often the result is that we feel more known to ourselves and others, and can let go our tight grip on the things that trouble us. The Gestalt Therapy approach to working with people, the approach that has informed the development of this resource, simply but profoundly reminds us that our natural tendency is to strive for completion. This often involves completing unfinished business, locating our unique experience in a meaningful context and appreciating that we are embedded in relationships. Words assist and are often central to these processes.

 

I applaud the creativity of this resource. I draw your attention to how intelligently it is embedded in a rich theoretical and practice framework. I encourage you to lean into your own imagination as you strive to find meaningful, comforting and healing words for yourself and the people with whom you work. The vision of Linda Espie and the team at St Luke's Innovative Resources has produced a thoughtful, creative and profoundly useful resource. I believe Words has the potential to help us all connect to our personal experience. In doing so, we may also make connections with others around everyday life and death events that can often leave us feeling unhappily lost for words.

 

Dr. Gabriel Phillips

Psychologist and psychotherapist,

Co-Director, Gestalt Therapy

Australia

 

Using Words

 

THE POWER OF WORDS

 

‘But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.'

Lord Byron

 

Arthur Stace is a name that a number of Sydney (Australia) residents would recognise but it is largely unknown to the world outside that city. However, many people may well have heard, or seen, what Arthur became famous for.

 

From the 1930s up until his death in 1967 Arthur walked the streets of Sydney writing one word on footpaths in chalk in his flowing copperplate style at least 500,000 times. That single word was ‘Eternity' and Arthur (or ‘Mr Eternity' as he became known) was on a personal mission to remind all of Sydney what they faced after death.

 

Many, perhaps most, would regard Arthur's mission in life as quaint or quixotic, but did he make thousands, perhaps millions, think? Quite likely.

 

A single word that jumps out at the reader from a pavement or a page can indeed be life-changing. If this were not so then the advertising industry would not be spending millions of dollars each day in its quest to help businesses construct the perfect badging for their products.

 

What's in a name? What's in a word? Possibly everything.

 

Single, unadorned, unadulterated words pack a punch. They have a power and a resonance often forgotten by human service professionals who in their professional socialisation are all too often taught that ‘academic' or ‘professional' writing has to be flowery. Why only use one word when a hundred will do?

 

The temptation to dress up our writing and speech to try to sound clever is seductive and ubiquitous. However, single words—freed from jargon, acronyms and gratuitous adjectives—can stand like beacons illuminating hidden, perhaps murky, parts of our consciousness.

 

In writing this very booklet should we be hoisted on our own placard? Perhaps. This booklet of suggestions about the transformational power of single, simple words is certainly dispensable. The reader/user of this resource called Words can simply scan one or more of the cards and draw their own conclusions about their usefulness.

 

However, if you would like to hear some suggestions for using the cards, the activities and ideas suggested in this booklet may be used for:

 

 

‘Words can give everybody wings.'

Aristophanes

 

SPREAD AND SCAN

 

‘Stories allow us to see something familiar through new eyes'.

Rachel Naomi Remen

 

Probably the most common way that Innovative Resources' card sets are used is to spread them out, briefly scan the array, and then make choices according to pertinent questions.

 

A great advantage of using cards as therapeutic, conversation-building tools is that you do not need to use the entire set. A valuable conversation can be built around a partial set or even just a few cards. These can be sorted according to themes, priorities or goals. They can be stacked, flipped through, turned face up or down, dealt or even randomly selected.

 

There are 100 cards in the Words set—a lot to scan at once! So, for some people, it may be preferable to reduce the pack. At times, the facilitator may want to include only those cards that seem directly relevant to the person or group concerned.

 

While spreading the cards on the tabletop may be the most comfortable way to view them, you might also consider working on the floor. Walking around the cards and scanning from a greater height can provide a different perspective and adds an extra degree of physicality. Even placing a group of cards on the floor in the room can encourage movement. This is particularly effective for people with kinesthetic learning preferences (those who learn best by using the hands or moving the body).

 

Another option is to mount the cards on a board and lean or fix to a wall to save space and capitalise on the way in which the individual cards can combine to create a single work of art, possibly with layered meaning for some participants. Sometimes when all the cards are presented in this way they can combine to create a symbol of the multi-faceted nature of our experience.

 

Spreading and scanning can work with an individual but is also ideally suited for working with groups where the activity can act as an icebreaker, a means of breaking up ‘the talk' or as an evaluation exercise.

 

Once scanned, an array of activities can be developed. While many of these are discussed in subsequent sections some of the commonly used questions are:

 

Words cards can also provide a means of closure and evaluation for a group.