Learn Mapping Through Templates
To aid in the understanding of the mapping process here are a few demonstrative templates of common narratives that can be found in the mapping process. This is of course not an exhaustive list but merely an illustrative selection
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Action Reaction Template
Hopes and fears Template
Hide and seek Template
Goals and Challenges Template
In box 1 on the map we put down what we are seeking to achieve and how working at it makes us feel. In box 2 we write down what would we be doing, if our desired achievements were going well, and how that would make us feel. Equally in box 3 we put down on paper where the difficulty or challenge is and how being exposed to that makes us feel. In box 4 go the thoughts about what we are ignoring, avoiding, or hiding from and the feelings that arise in consequence. In the middle is the work we then do in reflecting (alone) or talking things through (if in a group using a white board or flip chart). What we are doing is developing our relational awareness (see short description) by hovering our thinking and shimmering our feelings over the emerging relational map and drawing lines with arrows adding words to put the fuller picture together. The product at the end does not matter as much as the process of shared thinking or self-reflection assisted by the mapping process. We call this template the Hide and Seek with Hopes and Fears template and it has grown out of working with many teams.
Here and there Template
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In the map of the hide and seek pattern shown in the figure below, the starting point is feeling pressured in response to a challenge from others or from within myself or both, as in Box 1. I responding to the challenge with hopes and fears battling for what I want and seeking to avoid falling into what I don’t want (for examples see previous section and page 113). In the process, it can be personally exposing and, depending upon the kind of exposure, the client may be anxious or uncertain as in Box 2. They may resolve this in many ways, but some part of it involves times of struggling and getting stuck as in Box 3.
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The end of the sequence though is a familiar self-management procedure in which we retreat to a safe place or ‘identity’ solution (Box 4) where we are out of danger but at the price of being out of action.
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Much of therapy involves finding alternatives to hiding in the safe place or finding ways to notice when a place of escape and refuge has become something of a retreat and a prison. Most of the patterns of self-protection and hiding have a gain and cost.