Reflections from our 2026 February Community of Practice session

At Shapes and Sounds we acknowledge the importance of accessing up-to-date scientific evidence in the delivery of evidence-based mental health care. As such, we bring together Asian mental health practitioners each quarter in our Community of Practice (formerly Connect and Grow) - a professional development program where we collaboratively reflect and discuss the practical relevance of recent literature surrounding the mental health of Asian populations within Australia.

What did we discuss in our session?

We were honoured to invite Dr Neha Christopher, MS, BC-DMT, AThR, from the University of Melbourne to discuss her doctoral research on the importance of oral narratives and storytelling in creative arts therapy for treatment resistant depression (i.e., depressive symptoms that persist despite attempts at psychotherapy and medication). Here, she shared the ability for storytelling to help a) name and b) role model certain emotions (joy, sadness, shame etc.), and how this process can assist in developing emotional intelligence and awareness. 

Key discussion themes and practitioner reflections 

• Practitioners reflected on how within their own Asian cultures, stories were often rooted in morality (e.g., filial piety) or fear, or were often loaded with sorrow or grief, as stories and folklores were often used as means to pass down lessons throughout generations. This contrasted the role of storytelling in Western cultures, which are often used for family bonding and sharing happiness.
  • This leads to many Asian stories being merely functional, rather than for enjoyment, and the limited exposure to primary emotions such as joy or sadness may inhibit a child's ability to understand what these emotions feel like, thus impacting their sense of emotional awareness. 
• This highlighted the role which storytelling can play in developing emotional awareness, and practitioners appreciated how stories allowed complex emotions to be broken down into non-confrontational ways for clients to understand. 
  • For clients who find it difficult to articulate their emotions (e.g., trauma exposed, terminally ill clients etc.), focusing on the felt sense of emotions when hearing stories may allow them to better identify, name, and describe their own emotional experiences. In other words, emotional awareness and intelligence can be nurtured by allowing clients to feel and embody emotions that naturally arise when listening to and reading stories within a therapeutic space.
  • By exploring these sensations implicitly through stories, this can prepare clients to gain a better understanding of how emotions manifest within their bodies and allow them to be more aware of sensations of distress before they become unmanageable. 
• Practitioners also highlighted how this may play a critical role in psychotherapy, as traditional talk therapy heavily relies upon the client's ability to articulate their own emotions (and sometimes even under time pressure e.g., at the GP). Processes such as embodied storytelling can therefore provide clients with the needed vocabulary and experience to slowly build their ability to appropriate articulate themselves. 
• When working with Asian clients, inclusion of oral narratives and stories that allow for discussion of cultural meanings and archetypes may therefore allow for the reprocessing, reclamation, and improved understanding of one's emotional experiences tied to one's identity. 

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Shapes and Sounds is home to the largest Community of Practice for Asian mental health professionals in Australia and we meet quarterly to discuss papers as summarised above. Stay tuned our on website here and our socials to receive updates on our Community of Practice sessions for 2026.

Alternatively, if you're interested in connecting with Shapes and Sounds through our cultural-competency trainings, you can learn more about our trainings here.