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Thera-poiesis: An exploration of the work of resonant images in found poetry to create newness in counselling

ABSTRACT While clients embark of journeys of discovery when participating in counselling, a counsellor is also discovering which processes in counselling potentially facilitate change. In this paper, I present one research finding: that offering a client a found poem which featured resonant images from their own talk could enhance meaning-making by them. Drawing on Bachelard (1969b), this approach can be considered thera-poiesis. In my counsellor practitioner research, I engaged eight bereaved people in individual therapeutic conversations about how their lost loved spouse or partner still contributes to their life. In my listening, I paid attention to resonant images in their talk, wrote these as found poetry, and offered this poetry to each participant. In this paper, focusing on one participant’s image of the ‘bubbling life force’, I show the meaning making potential for the client of a counsellor’s highlighting of a resonant image. I argue that one engine of change in counselling may be the generative potential of language itself, and the artful replication of resonant images in particular.