Book excerpt: Pragmatic and poetic, this book is a tribute to the complexities and mysteries of working with people who are suffering and striving to tell their stories through expressive artistic processes. Its roots lay deep in encounters with children, adolescents, and adults who have come to the author for help over the last three decades. It is grounded in interactions with graduate art therapy students and encounters with important themes in life. This book makes no effort to affix particular meanings to the metaphors discussed in the clinical vignettes, but rather, suggests ways to listen and respond.