Sandra Monika Matissek

Healing Harry: The Psychotherapeutic Process as a Magical Narrative

Sandra Monika Matissek, M.A.

Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna

smmatissek@aol.com

Just like a magic wand, words have empowered us since we could talk. They can lend us a voice and embrace us; they can make us fly high into the sky like Harry Potter on his broomstick or they can turn into the deadliest of curses when being used as a weapon. Words are shape-shifters; they can be tenderly whispered into our ear or find their way into the pages of a book which is transporting us into the author’s mind, enabling us to learn from their experience. Each of our lives tells a story, if only someone would take the trouble to listen which is why psychoanalysis is also known as the “talking cure” (Launer, 2005, p.456). As a psychotherapist in training, I have seen the healing power of words, they can foster self-esteem and resilience in the patient and even bring about corrective experiences. This is why I am advocating to offer supplementary courses in the field of “narrative therapy” (Boracchia, n.d.) and creative writing for students of Psychotherapy Science at the Sigmund Freud Private University in Vienna. In my presentation, I will show that the possibilities of narrative therapy are endless, unequivocally beneficial, and completely devoid of side effects. It is my aim to illustrate how specific tools of narrative therapy, journaling and superhero therapy can be incorporated into the psychotherapeutic process, thus enlarging the narrative field. I will be rounding off my presentation by presenting a poem of my own making. As the psychotherapist endeavours to see the world through the eyes of the patient, encouraging them to depict their favourite fictional character from a book, movie or a television series might lead the therapist into a treasure trove of hidden information. Together, patient and therapist can venture into remote parts of the patient’s inner domains, thus allowing the therapist to gain “information … impossible to obtain in direct conversation” (Jaźwińska-Chren, 2024, p. 208). As such, ‘“superhero therapy’” (Khazan, 2019) and narrative therapy can be a valuable replenishment to the psychotherapeutic process which empowers the patient.

BIOGRAPHY

Sandra Monika Matissek received her Magister Artium in British Studies, Criminology and Common Law at the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz (topic of M.A. thesis: Identity in Wuthering Heights). She has received her training as a psychotherapist at the Sigmund Freud University in Vienna and is currently working as a psychotherapist in training (Individual Psychology) in her private practice in Vienna while completing her master’s degree in Psychotherapy Science in Vienna.