Writing Our Way Toward Understanding: Fairy Tales, Symbol, and the Therapeutic Imagination.

From our Clinical director: Dr Pearl Brock

At Think Well, my clinical and academic work has long been guided by a simple but demanding question, how do we come to understand ourselves when ordinary language fails. My doctoral research grew directly from this question and from years of sitting with clients whose inner lives could not be captured through symptom lists or diagnostic shorthand. Fairy tales emerged not as a literary indulgence but as a rigorous and ethically grounded method for psychological inquiry, reflection, and change.

Fairy tale writing and analysis offer a symbolic language that allows the psyche to speak indirectly. In therapy, this indirectness is not avoidance. It is often the most honest route available. When a client writes or tells a fairy tale, they are not reporting facts. They are revealing structure, pattern, conflict, longing, fear, and possibility. The story becomes a psychological space where the unsayable can be safely approached. Characters, landscapes, monsters, helpers, and transformations are not metaphors imposed by the therapist. They arise organically from the individual psyche and carry personal as well as archetypal meaning.

This work is deeply informed by Jungian psychology, particularly the understanding that the unconscious communicates symbolically. Carl Jung observed that the psyche does not argue or explain, it shows. Fairy tales operate in this showing mode. They bypass intellectual defence and invite engagement at an imaginal level where insight is felt before it is understood. Within my PhD research, I explored how fairy tale writing allows clients to encounter aspects of the self that are split off, bound in shame, or held at a developmental distance. The tale becomes a container for these elements, allowing them to enter the therapeutic space without overwhelming it.

In practice, I do not ask clients to write well. I ask them to write honestly. Grammar, structure, and literary skill are irrelevant. What matters is the movement of the story, where it begins, where it stalls, and whether it is allowed to end. Many clients discover that their tales repeatedly circle the same forest, tower, ocean, or threshold. These recurring images are not coincidences. They reflect psychological tasks that have not yet been completed. Through gentle analysis and reflective dialogue, the story can be returned to, rewritten, or simply understood differently. Change often follows not because the story is fixed, but because it has finally been witnessed.

From a clinical governance perspective, fairy tale work is neither unstructured nor whimsical. My research situates it firmly within psychodynamic and narrative traditions, supported by reflective practice, supervision, and ethical containment. The fairy tale does not replace therapy. It deepens it. It provides a shared object that therapist and client can explore together, reducing defensiveness and supporting psychological safety. For many clients, particularly those who struggle with direct emotional articulation, this approach offers a sense of agency and authorship that is profoundly reparative.

At Think Well, this work informs both individual therapy and my wider educational and supervisory roles. Trainees often report that engaging with fairy tale writing sharpens their symbolic literacy, enhances their capacity to tolerate not knowing, and strengthens their ability to listen beyond content to underlying meaning. In an increasingly outcome driven mental health culture, fairy tale analysis offers a counterbalance. It reminds us that depth, complexity, and imagination are not luxuries. They are central to psychological life.

Ultimately, fairy tales endure because they mirror the human condition. They speak of exile and belonging, loss and return, danger and transformation. My doctoral work affirms that when these stories are invited into the therapeutic space with care and respect, they become powerful tools for understanding differently. Not as fantasy, but as a disciplined engagement with the symbolic truths that shape who we are and who we might yet become.

If this way of working resonates with you, whether as a client, clinician, or student, it reflects an openness to meeting the psyche on its own terms. At Think Well, that meeting is always the beginning of meaningful work.