What Makes a Good Story?—Room for One’s Own

The chapter explains why stories that appear moralizing or instructive often lead to inner resistance in the listener. Therapeutic stories are perceived as helpful when they can be flexibly applied to the client’s life. For this, even far-fetched metaphors and examples can be useful. Allegorical stories, on the other hand, offer only a limited range of interpretation and are often unfavorable for therapy. Particularly, example stories should not be too similar to the client’s life story. This avoids false promises as well as resistance from clients who do not feel recognized when hearing about the successes or failures of other people.