After reading the interesting article by Dmitry Borisovich Kudzilov, “Fairy Tales that Don’t Work,” I wanted to talk about my experience of using psychotherapeutic fairy tales when working with clients. My favorite thing to use is unfinished fairy tale stories. Why unfinished? Unlike completed psycho-correctional tales, even those successfully selected for a given client or successfully composed for him by a psychologist, in which a ready-made solution is offered, unfinished stories do not offer ready-made solutions, much less instill them, but give the client the opportunity to come to his own decision. Sometimes this path is long, sometimes it seems that instilling the “right” solution is faster and easier. And yet, the value of a solution found independently is much higher, and the likelihood that the client will follow his decision also increases. I think that “someone else’s” decision, even if the client has emotionally accepted it, lives in his soul (or in his unconscious) along with his past decisions. The independently found solution, while the client was coming to it, had already surpassed (outgrown) the previous solutions. That is why the independently found solution does not exist along with the previous ones, but instead of them. Such a solution works already at the moment when the client pronounces it, plays it out, draws it. I see my role as a psychologist in helping the client (whether an adult or a child) come to his decision. First, I compose for him (or select from existing ones) an unfinished story in which I metaphorically describe his problem. Knowledge of psychoanalytic symbolism, archetypes and the use of metaphors, symbolism, and associations of the client himself helps me in this. After I read an unfinished story to a client, I invite him to draw it (blind it) and come up with a continuation. Sometimes (usually for adult clients) I suggest that they act out the story in their imagination (as in the symboldrama method). Leading to a decision, I ask questions: “What does the hero feel now? What does he want? What will he do? How will he do this? What does he feel, want, will do now? How does the other character feel? What does he want? What will he do? You can see that questions lead the client from understanding the character's feelings to understanding his needs, from understanding the needs to choosing an action. In many cases, this is enough for a person to come to a decision. And all I can do is invite him to draw the final picture and come up with a name for the story. During the course of work, the original drawing may be subject to changes or the client may draw other drawings. Sometimes there is one drawing, sometimes two, sometimes there are 5–8 drawings. I take into account that I am primarily a child psychologist, and I have more examples from working with children and adolescents. I will share them. I would like to note that after a series of classes with unfinished stories, children and adolescents with behavioral and emotional disorders develop the ability to understand the feelings, needs, and motives of behavior of both their own and other people; the skill (and habit) is formed to talk about one’s feelings and needs in a socially acceptable form, and to consciously choose one’s actions. This “side effect” of working with unfinished stories leads to the child’s behavior becoming normal and relationships with other people being normalized. Below are examples of several unfinished stories. House (consequence of psychotrauma) One boy lived in his own house. The house may not have been the best in the world, but it belonged to the boy and the boy loved it. Different people came to the boy’s house (as well as to other houses), each of those who came to the house left something of their own in it, took something and left when his time came. Sometimes good people came to the house - they also took something, left something and left. Sometimes people came who wanted to show the door. And they also left something of theirs, somethingthey took it and left when their time came. ... One day a person close to him came to the boy’s house, he left a very large, terribly unpleasant-looking package. The sight of this package evoked the most unpleasant feelings in the boy. And the hardest thing was that this bundle was in his own house... The task was to help all the things find a place in the house. Stepan, 13 years old. His mother died when he was little. The boy feels resentment towards his mother: “Because of her death, I have a lot of problems in my life.” The father, who recently left the MLS, abuses the child, Stepan hates him. Grandparents can't handle parenting. Diagnosed with socialized personality disorder. “It’s a bag. Filthy. At first it was scary, the boy thought there might be a knife and blood there. And he thought that there might be a lot of sins on this bag.” He began to draw and at the same time he said: “The ring is “Save and Preserve.” The priest left him. He also left a large cross and a candle. And a message where he wrote that he would pray for him. (?) This caused a pleasant feeling in the boy.. (?) A feeling of gratitude. And he thought, and he realized that the priest had blessed him. This is a plate of food. The traveler left her. There is fruit on the plate that the boy didn’t have…. I think this package is from mom. The boy's mother died. The boy doesn’t remember her because he was little. The boy has a brother or sister. Let there be a brother who saw mom, and he brought things that were left from mom. This is a family photo, an icon, my mother’s cross and a royal coin. (?) Feelings are pleasant. From this he understood that his mother was with him, that she was helping him, that God was also with him. And the medallion - a royal coin - is a symbol of good luck in life. That is, the boy realized that now everything would be fine for him. The Tale of a Little Flower (leaving home, vagrancy among children left without parental care, living in a state institution or in a foster family) In one flower country there lived a flower king with his wife, the flower queen. The moment came when they wanted to continue their royal line - to have a child. Each of them took their own seed, combined them into one and planted them next to them. After some time, a sprout appeared from the ground, and after some time, a bud appeared on the sprout. And everything went well. But one day a hurricane hit the flower kingdom. He was so strong that he uprooted many flowers from the ground. The same fate befell the flower king and flower queen. When the hurricane ended, the little flower saw that he was left without parents. Other adult flowers also noticed this and decided that the baby should not be left alone. The adult flowers closest to him began to take care of him. The baby grew, became taller and taller. And he became bored with living in one place, he wanted something “like that.” He pulled his roots out of the ground and went wherever his eyes looked. Adult flowers warned him: “Flowers must live in their place, your roots will gradually dry out and you will die. Stay!” ...Maxim, 10 years old. The mother is deprived of parental rights, the father is legally absent. He repeatedly left the social shelter without permission, wandered, and had experience using surfactants. Tsvetok wanted to take revenge on the hurricane and went looking for him. He walked and asked the trees: “Where can I find Hurricane?” They told him how to go further. And he went and reached the cave in which the Hurricane lived. The hurricane is out. (?) The flower felt brave. He said, “I'm not afraid of you, Hurricane. I want to take revenge on you!” Hurricane got angry and wanted to start mocking the flower. The flower defeated him. (How?) The flower ran away from him. Hurricane ran after the flower for a long time, but got tired. The flower went to the clearing where it lived before. He was sad because he was sad about his parents. (Psychologist: “But he understood that he could not return them.”) When he saw his clearing, he felt joyful. (?) Since he saw his relatives. (?) They said: “We are glad that you returned,” “I defeated the Hurricane,” said the flower, “We are proud of you,” said the other flowers. About the man who made the weapon. (Perception».