Narrative therapy explained

Narrative therapy should not be confused with Narrative theory.

Narrative therapy (or narrative practice)^[1] is a form of psychotherapy that seeks to help patients identify their values and the skills associated with them. It provides the patient with knowledge of their ability to live these values so they can effectively confront current and future problems. The therapist seeks to help the patient co-author a new narrative about themselves by investigating the history of those values. Narrative therapy is a social justice approach to therapeutic conversations, seeking to challenge dominant discourses that shape people's lives in destructive ways. While narrative work is typically located within the field of family therapy, many authors and practitioners report using these ideas and practices in community work, schools and higher education.^{[2] [3]} Narrative therapy has come to be associated with collaborative as well as person-centered therapy.^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]}

History

Narrative therapy was developed during the 1970s and 1980s, largely by Australian social worker Michael White and David Epston of New Zealand,^{[9] [10]} and it was influenced by different philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists such as Michel Foucault,^{[9] [11]} Jerome Bruner,^[12] Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky^[13] etc.

Conversation maps

Re-authoring identity

The narrative therapist focuses upon assisting people to create stories about themselves, about their identities, that are helpful to them.^[14] This work of "re-authoring identity" helps people identify their values and identify the skills and knowledge to live out these values by way of the therapist's skilled use of listening and questioning.^[15] Through the process of identifying the history of values in people's lives, the therapist and client are able to co-author a new story about the person.^[16]

The story people tell about themselves and that is told about them is important in this approach, which asserts that the story of a person's identity may determine what they think is possible for themselves. The narrative process allows people to identify what values are important to them and how they might use their own skills and knowledge to live these values.^[16]

This includes a focus on "unique outcomes" (a term of Erving Goffman) or exceptions to the problem that wouldn't be predicted by the problem's narrative or story itself.

Externalizing conversations

The concept of identity is important in narrative therapy. The approach aims not to conflate people's identities with the problems they may face or the mistakes they have made. Rather, the approach seeks to avoid modernist, essentialist notions of the self that lead people to believe there is a biologically determined "true self" or "true nature". Instead, identity, seen as primarily social, can be changed according to the choices people make.^[17]

To separate people's identities from the problems they face, narrative therapy employs conversations. The process of externalization allows people to consider their relationships with problems.^[9] A person's strengths or positive attributes can also be externalized, allowing people to recognise the stories of how such strength and positive attributes come into the person's life, and engage in the construction and performance of preferred identities.

An emphasis involves naming a problem so that a person can assess the problem's effects in their life, can analyze how the problem operates or works in their life, and in the end can choose their relationship to the problem.

"Statement of Position Map"

In a narrative approach, the therapist aims to adopt a collaborative therapeutic posture rather than imposing ideas on people by giving them advice. Michael White developed a conversation map called a "Statement of Position Map" designed to elicit the client's own evaluation of the problems and developments in their lives. Both the therapist and the client are seen as having valuable information relevant to the process and the content of the therapeutic conversation. By adopting a posture of curiosity and collaboration, the therapist aims to give the implicit message to people that they already have knowledge and skills to solve the problems they face. When people develop solutions to their own problems on the basis of their own values, they may become much more committed to implementing these solutions.^[18]

Re-membering practice

Narrative therapy identifies that identities are social achievements and the practice of re-membering draws closer those who support a person's preferred story about themselves and dis-engages those that do not support the person.

Absent but implicit

Inspired by the work of Jacques Derrida, Michael White became curious about the values implicit in people's pain, their sense of failure, and actions. Often, people only feel pain or failure in when their values are abridged, or when their relationships and lives are not as they should be. Furthermore, there are often stalled initiatives that people take in life that are also guided by implicit values.

Outsider witnesses map

In this particular narrative practice or conversation, outsider witnesses are invited listeners to a consultation. Often they are friends of the consulting person or past clients of the therapist who have their own knowledge and experience of the problem at hand. During the first interview, between therapist and consulting person, the outsider listens without comment.

Then the therapist interviews them with the instructions not to critique or evaluate or make a proclamation about what they have just heard, but instead to simply say what phrase or image stood out for them, followed by any resonances between their life struggles and those just witnessed. Lastly, the outsider is asked in what ways they may feel a shift in how they experience themselves from when they first entered the room.^[19]

Next, in similar fashion, the therapist turns to the consulting person, who has been listening all the while, and interviews them about what images or phrases stood out in the conversation just heard and what resonances have struck a chord within them.

In the end, an outsider witness conversation is often rewarding for witnesses. But for the consulting person the outcomes are remarkable: they learn they are not the only one with this problem, and they acquire new images and knowledge about it and their chosen alternate direction in life. The main aim of the narrative therapy is to engage in people's problems by providing the alternative best solution.

Therapeutic documents

Narrative therapy embodies a strong appreciation for the creation and use of documents, as when a person and a counsellor co-author "A Graduation from the Blues Certificate", for example.^[20] In some instances, case notes are created collaboratively with clients to provide documentation as well as markers of progress.

Social-political therapeutic approach

A strong awareness of the impact of power relations in therapeutic conversations, with a commitment to checking back with the client about the effects of therapeutic styles in order to mitigate the possible negative effect of invisible assumptions or preferences held by the therapist.^[21] There is also an awareness of how social narratives such as femininity and masculinity can be corrupted and negatively influence peoples identities.^[16]

Eating disorders

Narrative therapy has made numerous contributions to the field of eating disorders. David Epston, Stephen Madigan and Catrina Brown have made the most significant contribution to bringing a depathologizing approach to this issue.^[16]

Men and domestic violence

Narrative therapy has also been applied to work with men who abuse their female partners. Alan Jenkins and Tod Augusta-Scott have been the most prolific in this field. They integrated a social-political analysis of the violence, while at the same time engaging men in a respectful, collaborative manner.^{[16] [22]}

Community work

Narrative therapy has also been used in a variety of community settings. In particular, an exercise called "Tree of Life" has been used to mobilize communities to act according to their own values.^[23]

Criticisms

There have been several formal criticisms of narrative therapy over what are viewed as its theoretical and methodological inconsistencies, among various other concerns.^{[24] [25] [26]}

• Narrative therapy has been criticised as holding to a social constructionist belief that there are no absolute truths, but only socially sanctioned points of view, and that Narrative therapists simply privilege their client's concerns over and above "dominating" cultural narratives.^{[25] [27]}
• Several critics have posed concerns that narrative therapy has made gurus of its leaders, particularly in the light that its leading proponents tend to be overly harsh about most other kinds of therapy.^{[25] [27]}
• Narrative therapy is also criticized for the lack of clinical and empirical studies to validate its many claims.^[28] Etchison & Kleist (2000) stated that narrative therapy's focus on outcomes is not congruent with larger research and findings which the majority of respected empirical studies employ today. This has led to a lack of research material which can support its claims of efficacy.^[28]

See also

Theoretical foundations

• Constructivist epistemology
• Feminism
• Hermeneutics
• Postmodernism
• Poststructuralism

Related types of therapy

• Brief therapy
• Family therapy
• Logotherapy
• Response based therapy
• Script analysis
• Solution focused brief therapy

Other related concepts

• Dialogical self
• Lucid dream
• Narrative

Notes and References

1. Web site: Re-Authoring. 2015-08-18. What is narrative practice?. 2021-10-06. Re-Authoring Teaching. en-US.
2. Book: Winslade . John . Monk . Gerald . 2000 . Narrative Mediation: A New Approach to Conflict Resolution . San Francisco . . 0787941921 . 42598442.
3. Nylund . David . Tilsen . Julie . December 2006 . Pedagogy and praxis: postmodern spirit in the classroom . Journal of Systemic Therapies . 25 . 4 . 21–31 . 10.1521/jsyt.2006.25.4.21.
4. Book: Malinen . Tapio . Cooper . Scot J. . Thomas . Frank N. . 2012 . Masters of Narrative and Collaborative Therapies: The Voices of Andersen, Anderson, and White . New York . . 9780789038258 . 703208854 . 10.4324/9780203806999.
5. Chow . Esther OW . Narrative therapy an evaluated intervention to improve stroke survivors' social and emotional adaptation . Clinical Rehabilitation . SAGE Publications . 29 . 4 . 2014-08-20 . 0269-2155 . 25142279 . 10.1177/0269215514544039 . 315–326 . 33230523 . In narrative therapy, people construct their life stories to make sense of their lives. However, in view of illness narrative, these stories are regularly constrictive and blaming. ...narrative therapists believe that multiple realities can serve as a means to help people reconstruct their lives from a more positive and appreciative perspective.. free .
6. Grossoehme . Daniel H. . Chaplaincy and Narrative Theory: A Response to Risk's Case Study . Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy . Informa UK Limited . 19 . 3 . 2013 . 0885-4726 . 23844843 . 4609436 . 10.1080/08854726.2013.806119 . 99–111 . While both narrative therapy and narrative theory focus on storytelling and constructed meaning, they are different; narrative therapy resisting the “expert” knowledge (which means power) that is inherently claimed by someone who classifies or labels a narrative as a particular type. Power lies not as a quality internal to people who exercise it over others, but instead power resides in the jointly constructed meaning that people give to the problem in their lives..
7. Cashin . Andrew . Narrative Therapy: A Psychotherapeutic Approach in the Treatment of Adolescents With Asperger's Disorder . Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing . Wiley . 21 . 1 . 2008 . 1073-6077 . 10.1111/j.1744-6171.2008.00128.x . 48–56 . 18269411 . Narrative therapy specifically involves working with a person to examine and edit the stories the person tells himself or herself about the world to promote social adaptation while working on specific problems of living. These complex stories include those related to who they are as a person and their interpretation of events that signal to them where they fit into the world. It is very much about re-ordering parts or in some cases the whole of the personal in head filing cabinet..
8. STRAND . PAUL S. . Toward a Developmentally Informed Narrative Therapy . Family Process . Wiley . 36 . 4 . 1997 . 0014-7370 . 9543655 . 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1997.00325.x . 325–339 . ...defocusing on pathology while verbally elucidating the hidden strengths and resources of families (4), and generating questions such that important family narratives are re-authored to provide greater possibilities for developing solutions to present problems. ...narrative approaches are designed to free families from their difficulties by helping them verbally construct new mental frameworks that deemphasize problems and/or open opportunities for their solutions..
9. Book: White . Michael . Michael White (psychotherapist) . Epston . David . 1990 . Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends . New York . . 0393700984 . 20828023.
10. Book: Payne, Martin . 2015 . Narrative therapy . Nelson-Jones . Richard . Nelson-Jones' Theory and Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy . 6th . Los Angeles . . 360–382 . 9781446295564 . 897445861.
11. Combs . Gene . Freedman . Jill . October 2012 . Narrative, poststructuralism, and social justice: current practices in narrative therapy . . en . 40 . 7 . 1033–1060 . 10.1177/0011000012460662 . 145432322 . 0011-0000.
12. Book: White, Michael. Narrative therapy classics. 2016. 978-0-9752180-8-2. Adelaide, South Australia. 961218406.
13. Book: Kingsley), White, Michael (Michael. Narrative therapy with children and their families. 2006. Dulwich Centre Publications. 0-9752180-2-6. 70782282.
14. Book: Angus . Lynne E. . McLeod . John . The handbook of narrative and psychotherapy : practice, theory, and research . SAGE Publications . Thousand Oaks, Calif. . 2004 . 0-7619-2684-4 . 52766323 . 60 . The socially authored plots adapted to the local circumstances of individuals are termed dominant stories. Overcoming the dominant story: therapist works with the person to deconstruct his or her dominant plot. The first step in overcoming an internalized, culturally imposed self-story is to bring the story to awareness..
15. Bavelas . Janet B. . Coates . Linda . Johnson . Trudy . December 2000 . Listeners as co-narrators . . 79 . 6 . 941–952 . 11138763 . 10.1037/0022-3514.79.6.941. 39770808 .
16. Book: Brown . Catrina . Augusta-Scott . Tod . 2007 . Narrative Therapy: Making Meaning, Making Lives . Thousand Oaks, CA . . 978-1412909877 . 64688794.
17. Book: White, Michael . Michael White (psychotherapist) . 2007 . Maps of Narrative Practice . New York . . 139 . 9780393705164 . 76792066.
18. Book: White, Michael . Michael White (psychotherapist) . 1995 . Re-Authoring Lives: Interviews & Essays . Adelaide . Dulwich Centre Publications . 39 . 9780646227351 . 34403483.
19. Book: White, Michael . Michael White (psychotherapist) . 2004 . Narrative Practice and Exotic Lives: Resurrecting Diversity in Everyday Life . Adelaide . Dulwich Centre Publications . 15 . 9780957792999 . 60583048.
20. Book: Payne, Martin . 2006 . Narrative Therapy: An Introduction for Counsellors . 2nd . London; Thousand Oaks . . 106 . 9781412920124 . 62178252 . 10.4135/9781446213322.
21. Book: Madigan, Stephen . 2019 . Narrative Therapy . 2nd . Theories of Psychotherapy Series . Washington, DC . . 81 . 9781433829864 . 1056201760 . 10.1037/0000131-000. 150822712 .
22. Book: Augusta-Scott . Tod . Scott . Katreena . Tutty . Leslie M. . 2017 . Innovations in Interventions to Address Intimate Partner Violence: Research and Practice . New York . . 9781138692268 . 948558557 . 10.4324/9781315532776.
23. Book: Denborough, David . 2014 . Retelling the Stories of Our Lives: Everyday Narrative Therapy to Draw Inspiration and Transform Experience . New York . . 11–21 . 9780393708158 . 855507198.
24. Fish . Vincent . July 1993 . Poststructuralism in family therapy: interrogating the narrative/conversatinal mode . . 19 . 3 . 221–232 . 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1993.tb00983.x.
25. Minuchin . Salvador . Salvador Minuchin . October 1998 . Where is the family in narrative family therapy? . . 24 . 4 . 397–403 . 9801999 . 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1998.tb01094.x.
26. Madigan . Stephen . March 1996 . The politics of identity: considering community discourse in the externalizing of internalized problem conversations . Journal of Systemic Therapies . 15 . 1 . 47–62 . 10.1521/jsyt.1996.15.1.47.
27. Doan . Robert E. . Fall 1998 . The king is dead; long live the king: narrative therapy and practicing what we preach . . 37 . 3 . 379–385 . 9879006 . 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1998.00379.x.
28. Etchison . Mary . Kleist . David M. . January 2000 . Review of narrative therapy: research and utility . . 8 . 1 . 61–66 . 10.1177/1066480700081009 . 143708204 .