From the author: The article will be of interest to oncology psychologists, fairytale therapists, and specialists who work with metaphorical cards. Hello, colleagues! Working with cancer patients, we pay a lot of attention to clinical fairy tale therapy: together with the healing patients, we write fairy tales, analyze them, play them, draw them... I often use metaphorical associative maps in my work. With the RIVER deck, the patient lays out the open (associative) river of his life: before the illness, during, after it... This is very deep work that requires a lot of effort from the patient. The psychologist should listen to him very carefully, perhaps ask leading questions, remember the metaphors that the patient uses. Then, based on this information, the psychologist either himself or together with the patient writes a fairy tale. And then they work with it. I would like, with the patient’s permission, to show you one of these fairy tales. Patient D., 38 years old, thyroid cancer. Stage 4. First we worked with metaphorical cards. The patient laid out cards, talking about different episodes of his life, including the beginning of the disease, its course, his hopes, faith, dreams... Well, after that the Tale of the Knight Dey was born. Long ago, in one distant kingdom, there lived there was a knight named Dey. He was kind and funny, and people loved him for his open heart. Dey felt absolutely happy in the world in which he lived, from the people who surrounded him, from the joy that lived in his soul. But suddenly everything changed. Days passed after days, and nothing happened in the knight’s life: hunting, feasts, beautiful girls... It’s not surprising that Day soon became bored. He so missed the smell of real battles, the clanging of swords, exploits... But alas... And then one day our knight decided to go on a journey, see how other people live and practice his military prowess... Dey wandered for a long time through foreign countries and kingdoms, but nothing hasn't changed. The same hunt, the same feasts and beautiful ladies, ready to give their love to a handsome young man for one night. But his heart remained cold. Day did not know that the evil witch envied his happiness and sent Indifference to him, so that the sun, the chirping of birds, the smell of the sea, the love of a Woman would no longer please him, so that his life would become dull and dull... And it is known that if the soul gets sick, then soon the body will also hurt. Our knight began to wither and fall ill, and none of the doctors could help him. One day Dey had a dream. It’s as if he’s walking through a green field, without end or edge. And he doesn’t feel himself. No body, no thoughts, no desires, as if he had already died... Suddenly he heard someone’s voice calling him by name. The knight looked around and saw a girl far, far away, who was waving her hand to him, and then suddenly turned into a white dove and flew away. Day woke up and realized that he definitely had to find this girl, and from these thoughts it was as if his strength returned to him. The knight set off on a long journey. He overcame many difficulties: he fought with a huge cannibal snake that kept the entire kingdom in fear, he helped build fortifications in a city that was threatened by a terrible flood, he froze in snow captivity... And then one day he found himself in an unusual city. All its inhabitants wore only white clothes. It turns out that the beautiful princess Sandra was bewitched by an evil sorceress. And this curse consisted in the fact that the girl could only be in human form at night, but every morning she turned into a white dove and flew away to God knows where. Dey’s heart trembled; he realized that he had found what he was looking for. Night has come. The knight crept to the castle and looked into the princess's chambers. The girl from Dey’s dream sat in front of a large, antique mirror and combed her silky curls... The man prepared for a long wait. As soon as the first rays of the sun appeared, Sandra turned into a snow-white dove and fluttered out of the window, and Day jumped on his horse and rushed after. He rode for a long time without feeling hunger or time, until he found himself at the foot of a huge cave. The bird flew into it. Knight of Tears…