Take What Exists in the Culture Posted on February 15, 2006 An intervention based on traditional storytelling is described by Philip A. Fisher (bio).

For instance, our intervention was based on storytelling because the tribe said, "This is the traditional way that we instructed children and taught children cultural values and norms and how to behave." Rather than go with this is the state-of-the-art parenting classes that we have for people, we went with this was the way that people used traditionally to inform their kids in how to behave.

Actually, I think it's an interesting reverse translation process because listening to tribal members and elders and people who were storytellers in the community talk about how storytelling was used, it was easy to understand how the ways we think about parenting being contingent, feedback, and non-abusive ways of dealing with problem behavior, that storytelling would be a really nice way to be able to respond consistently and yet in ways that maybe weren't so predisposed to increase the conflict.

I think rather than going from "This is the only way it works. Do it this way," it's possible to take what exists and try to understand it from within the ways that we try to think about things.

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