An unemotional technician and a romantically inclined office worker came for relationship counselling with the hope that I could help them understand each other better. I explained that people – and in particular men and women – are never able to understand each other. “I understand,” said the technician. “We need a converter which transforms my language into my wife’s language.” “That’s a very clear way of putting it,” I replied, and then asked, “What’s a converter?”

“The Converter” demonstrates how everyone speaks his or her own language and must learn to speak in the language of his or her counterpart, using the examples of men and women and different professions.

(From: Stefan Hammel: Handbook of Therapeutic Storytelling. Sories and Metaphors in Psychotherapy, Child and Family Therapy, Medical Treatment, Coaching and Supervision, Routledge 2019)