What's your story? Listening to the stories of mothers from multi-problem families

The use of a narrative approach in research and treatment enables a close-up view of the world of the client from his/her point of view. This approach opens a door to a differential understanding of states of distress and is particularly relevant with regard to distressed populations for whom verbal communication is the natural means of expression and much richer than any more formal means. The following article offers narrative analyses of stories of three women, mothers of multi-problem families, whose children's development is at risk. The stories were recorded during a research project which studied the responses of the participating women in an intervention program called Yachdav. The narrative analysis reveals the women's subjective perception of their situation of stress and of the methods of assistance available to them. The article examines the contribution of the narrative approach to the understanding of the point of view of the distressed segments of the population as a means of creating an alliance in assistance reception relations.