Narrating, Hearing, Adjusting, and the Art of Connecting with Others and the Community: Woody Mary (XyloMaria), the Example of Incest and Sexual Abuse in the Fairy Tales: A Gestalt Approach

Introduction: The aim of this study is to demonstrate how fairy tales reflect social reality and how they can be used in therapeutic sessions. They represent the safe way people in urban societies have chosen to communicate thoughts, fears, instincts, and passions by using symbols. They create a new safe field to make contact about the here-and-now process, projecting on the heroes’ behavior personal meanings. Methodology: The fairy tale of Woody Mary (XyloMaria) is analyzed as a case study according to Gestalt’s theory approach. Results: Several aspects of Gestalt theory are analyzed: resistances, cycle of contact, stages of neurosis, co-creation of the field, phenomenology, polarities, and unfinished business. A case study where Woody Mary has been used will be briefly presented and the impact to the client will be discussed. Conclusion: This study illustrates the way folk tales visualize through symbols and metaphor the inner human process and help them through the path of projection to come to awareness by bending the resistances of consciousness. Narration and fairy tales in the process of psychotherapy function as an experiment, according to the Gestalt approach, and act experientially and for this reason liberates emotion and facilitates awareness, paving the way for healing and change. Further research implications are discussed. Keywords: fairy tale; fairy tales in psychotherapy; sexual abuse; gestalt psychotherapy; cycle of contact; stages of neurosis; resistances.