The Construction of the Narrative Self: Applying the Internal Multi-Actor Performance Method for Children (IMAP-C) to Help Children Cope with Emotional Distress

Abstract

Currently, young people are confronted with a rapidly changing world filled with uncertainty, which often triggers negative emotions such as fear or sadness, ultimately leading to emotional distress. This article demonstrates a method that structures practitioners’ work and helps young people to cope with emotional distress. Known as the dialogical Method of Internal Multi-Actor Performance (IMAP) (Gkantona, 2023), this method was founded on the Dialogical Self Theory (DST) and has been developed for therapeutic and counseling procedures. The IMAP is a narrative method which aims to analyze the client’s multi-voicedness and its methodology follows four evolving dialogical stages (Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis, and Meta-thesis), which facilitate the reorganization of clients’ internal narratives. Thus, the Internal Multi-Actor Performance Method for Children (IMAP-C) is presented, as modified to meet the needs of counseling and therapeutic procedures for children and adolescents experiencing emotional distress. Its adjustment to children’s needs focuses on developmental issues and the dialogical features of working with children as well as the use of art therapy techniques (i.e., role plays, drawings and therapeutic puppetry). A clinical case example illustrates the dialogical processes underlining the application of the IMAP-C in the treatment of a nine-year old boy who suffers from fears and post-traumatic stress. The child’s first attempts to form an integrated narrative identity are also highlighted.