The Power of Story to Motivate Change Reading, Writing & Responsivity Souder Tate 17 th Annual MATCP Conference March 25, 2015
“ Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny .”
Objectives • Discuss the role of motivation in evidence- based sentencing • Present an overview of how using concepts of Story can increase motivation in participants and provide other benefits • Provide specific examples of how to use the power of story in problem-solving courts
Elements of Story • Plot (story-line) What • Characters Who • Setting Where • Style How • Theme Why The Theme presents the overall wisdom or philosophy of the story
Elements of Story in Drug Court • Participant’s progress in drug court (reward/sanction/treatment) • Plot • Participant, Judge, Prosecutor, Defense Attorney, Probation Officer, Treatment • Characters Provider • Drug Court • Setting • Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Ten Key Components, Evidence-Based Practices • Style • Help Participant overcome addiction and • Theme reduce recidivism following the Ten Key Components and EBP
Elements of Participant’s Story • Everything that has happened in their life • Plot from birth to drug court • Family, Friends, Aquantances; significant • Characters influences in their life (drug dealer?) • Home, Work, Drug Court; where did they • Setting live growing up? • Culture, Literacy, Learning Style, • Style Cognitive Ability, Motivation • Theme • ??? Is it important to know the participant’s overall philosophy of life?
Evidence-Based Sentencing
PROGNOSTIC RISK • Prognosis for success in standard rehabilitation services. Not the same as risk for violence, dangerousness, or re-offending. • Most reliable Prognostic Risk factors include: • • prior unsuccessful attempts at Age <25 at time of Tx; • Male gender; treatment or rehab; • • a co-existing diagnosis of antisocial Onset of substance abuse or delinquency during early personality disorder (ADP); or • a preponderance of antisocial or adolescence; • Prior felony convictions; drug-using peers or associates
CRIMINOGENIC NEEDS • Criminogenic needs: Dynamic or changeable factors that contribute to the likelihood that someone will commit a crime • Anti-social attitudes • Substance abuse • Antisocial associations/peers • Lack of education • Anti-social personality • Poor employment history pattern • Lack of pro-social leisure • Family/Marital problems activities
RESPONSIVITY ISSUES • Personal strengths and/or specific individual factors which might influence effectiveness of treatment services • Mental Health Issues • Culture • Literacy • Offender’s Learning Style • Developmental Stage • Cognitive Abilities • Motivation
Importance of Story
Cognitive Benefits of Reading Fiction • Reading literary fiction improves social perception and emotional intelligence (Theory of Mind). (Kidd, Comer, Castano (2013) ); • Comprehending characters in a narrative fiction parallels the comprehension of peers in the actual world. Frequent fiction readers may thus bolster or maintain their social abilities unlike frequent readers of non-fiction. The tendency to become absorbed in a story also predicted empathy scores. ( Mar, Raymond A., et al. (2006) ); • Reading fiction affects parts of brain associated with understanding language and visualization and can improve empathy. ( Berns, et al (2013) and Bal, Matthijs, Veltkamp 2013) ).
Narrative Psychology and the Life-Story Model of Human Identity • Narrative psychology = how human beings deal with experience by constructing stories and listening to the stories of others. • Assumption = life is filled with "meaning" and stories, rather than logical arguments or lawful formulations. • Like other literary constructions, life stories may be analyzed in terms of plots, settings, scenes, characters, and themes. • Adults provide their lives with a sense of unity and purpose by constructing and internalizing self-defining life stories or “personal myths.” Dan McAdams, Psychology Chair at Northwestern. • Every individual is both the narrator and main character in his or her story. Adler, Jonathan Adler, Professor at Northwestern.
The Power of f Story ry, by Jim Loehr • Story is a lens through which we look at life; it is a road map and a blue print. • A story is our creation of a reality. • Telling ourselves stories helps us navigate life by providing structure and direction. • Just like attitudes determine actions, our story helps create and determine our destiny. • Unhealthy storytelling is characterized by faulty thinking and long-term negative consequences.
The Power of Story • With few exceptions, people tell stories about five major subjects: Work, Family, Health, Happiness and Friendships • According to Jim Loehr, the one idea he hoped people would take from his book was summed up in three words: Purpose - Truth - Action . • Every life-story must have a purpose (can you name it?), your story must be true (is it?), your story must lead to hope-filled action (does it? what is it?).
Application
Changing Lives Through Literature • An alternative sentencing program based on the power of literature to transform lives through reading and group discussion. • CLTL was created in 1991 by Robert Waxler, an English professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and New Bedford Superior Court Judge Robert Kane. • An early longitudinal study found that offenders going through CLTL had a recidivism rate of 19% compared to a control group with a rate of 45%.
CLTL • Initial group of eight men, ages 18 – 44, who had 145 convictions between them. Their educational range from 8th grade to community college • List of books varies based on makeup of group, e.g. gender, race. • Program length: typically 12 weeks, meeting every other week for two hours, but up to local group. • Curriculum determined by group leaders. Could use short stories, novels, poetry. • http://cltl.umassd.edu/home-html.cfm
Knightly Virtues The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues • Over the past two years the Knightly Virtues has been run in more than 65 primary schools across Britain, involving over 3250 students. • Designed for boys and girls ages 9 – 11; • Covers Eight core virtues: • Humility, Honesty, Love, Service, Courage, Justice, Self- Discipline, Gratitude
Knightly Virtues • Hypothesis is that “traditional chivalric ideals of knighthood provided a particularly noble and exalted distillation of moral ideals that are no less educationally and otherwise relevant to today than they were at the time of their conception .” • Organized around the King Arthur legends, Don Quixote, El Cid and the Merchant of Venice with both male an female heroes • Uses workbook, journal and class discussion. • New Study: An Attitude for Gratitude • http://www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/
The 8 Steps of Storyboarding the Transformation Process The Power of Story – Jim Loehr • Step 1 : Identify Your Purpose ( Ultimate Mission ) • How do you want to be remembered? • What is worth dying for? What makes life worth living? • Write Your Purpose/Ultimate Mission • Step 2 : Facing the Truth ( ID current dysfunctional stories ) • In what areas of life is your story not working? • Ex. Family, Work, Friendship, Happiness, Money, Spirituality/ Religion, Trust, etc. • If your behavior is not aligned with your Purpose, then this story cannot take you where you want to go.
Storyboarding • Step 3 : Select a Story to Work on • Which of Story selected in Step 2 causes you the most concern and grief? • Which is most out of line with your Ultimate Mission? • The story you chose to edit is your Training Mission . ( According to Loehr, if you want genuine transformation, then you must commit to work on this story for the 90 days ) • Step 4 : Current Dysfunctional Story ( Old Story ) • Write the dysfunctional story you have been telling yourself; this means including the faulty thinking and strange logic that helped to form the story you now wish to edit. Write in as much detail and with as much specificity as you can.
Storyboarding • Step 5 : Read Your Old Story • Sit back and read your Old Story. How does it make you feel? Does it stir powerful feelings of disgust? Can you see and feel the story’s dysfunctionality ? • Step 6 : Write a New Story • Your New Story is who you must become to achieve mission success in your life. It should communicate where you need to go in life to complete your Ultimate Mission. • Write a New Story that • is fully aligned with your ultimate purpose; • reflects the truth; • inspires you to take hope-filled action.
Storyboarding • Step 7 : Create Supportive Rituals • Design explicit rituals that ensure your New Story becomes reality. • Rituals are consciously acquired habits of behavior that enhance energy management in service of a mission. • Rituals represent the vehicle by which your New Story receives the investment of life-giving energy. • Step 8 : Provide Accountability • Establish a daily accountability system for the rituals you have committed to (Daily Log) • After 90-day mission is complete, select another faulty story, edit it and begin the process again.
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