NARRATIVE THERAPY

INDEX-
1. WHAT IS NARRATIVE THERAPY
2. KEY BELIEFS
3. FUNDAMENTALS OF NARRATIVE THERAPY
4. GOALS AND STEPS OF NARRATIVE THERAPY
5. NARRATIVE THERAPY IN CAREER COUNSELLING
6. ROLE OF THERAPIST
7. TECHINQUES OF NARRATIVE COUNSELING
8. WHAT CAN NARRATIVE THERAPY HELP WITH
9. BENFITS FROM NARRATIVE THERAPY
10. HOW THIS APPROACH IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS

1. WHAT IS NARRATIVE THERAPY?

Narrative therapy is a style of therapy that helps people become—and

embrace being—an expert in their own lives. In narrative therapy, there is an
emphasis on the stories that you develop and carry with you through your life.
As you experience events and interactions, you give meaning to those
experiences and they, in turn, influence how you see yourself and the world.
You can carry multiple stories at once, such as those related to your self-
esteem, abilities, relationships, and work, for example. Developed in the 1980s
by New Zealand-based therapists Michael White and David Epston, narrative
therapy seeks to have an empowering effect and offer counseling that is non-
blaming and non-pathological in nature.

So, Narrative therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasises the

importance of story and language in the development and expression of
interpersonal and intrapersonal problems. The term narrative implies listening
to and telling or retelling stories about people and the problems in their lives.
The way people experience themselves and their situation is constructed
through culturally mediated social interactions which is called “social
constructionism”. Narrative approach is based on the principle of social
constructionism. People construct the meaning of life in interpretative stories,
which later on become truth for them. The assumption of the approach is that
the client’s life experiences are internally organised in story form. Hence most
often narrative approach involves writing poems, bibliotherapy, and
storytelling. The focus of this approach is on the client’s narration of the story.
The simple assumption is that we live out of the stories that we tell about
ourselves and also what stories others tell about us. The therapist listens to the
stories narrated by the client which is an essential part of narrative approach.
The stories are heard without interruption and without confrontation by the
therapist. This approach focuses on the capacities of the humans to be creative
and imaginative. Clients are the primary source of information. The therapist
never assumes that the clients have better understanding of their lives which
they are living and experiencing. Thus, each person has his own way of making
a story which is true to his or her life.

2. KEY BELIEFS
The key beliefs of the narrative approach are discussed below to understand
basic concepts of the narrative therapy:
1) People or clients are experts who can to handle their own lives and its
problems.
2) The therapy views problems as separate entities to people
3) It assumes that the individual has a set of skills, experience and mindset that
will assist him/her reduce the influence of problems throughout life.
4)This therapeutic approach places the individual in both the protagonist and
author roles.
5) It switches the view from a narrow perspective to a systemic and more
flexible stance.
6) The aim of this therapy is to help clients realize what forces are influencing
their lives and to focus on the positive aspects of their life.
7) The narrative approach believes that problems are manufactured in social,
cultural and political contexts.
8) Each person produces the meaning of their life from the stories that are
available in these contexts.
9) Stories in a ‘narrative’ context are made up of events, linked by a theme,
occurring over time and according to a plot.
10) A story emerges as certain events are privileged and selected out over
many other events.
11) As the story takes shape, it invites the teller to further select only certain
information while ignoring other events so that the same story is continually
told.
So, Counsellors and therapists interested in narrative ideas and practices
collaborate with people and step away from problem saturated and oppressive
stories. They try to discover the ‘untold’ story which includes the preferred
accounts of people’s lives (their intentions, hopes, commitments, values,
desires and dreams). Counsellors listen to these stories of people’s life, their
cultures and religions and look for clues of knowledge and skills which might
assist people to live in accordance with their preferred way of being.
3. FUNDAMENTALS OF NARRATIVE THERAPY
In many events of our lives, we tend to focus on particular things and ignore
others. Analysing our lives as a play helps us understand the different forces
and roles that are influencing our behaviour. This in turn gives us flexibility to
invoke the necessary changes for improvement.
The emotional, cognitive and spiritual perspectives of a person are usually
combined in order to derive meaning to an event. In many instances, one or
two perspectives will prevail over the others, and this will depend upon the
particular scenario and the individual’s personality traits.
 People differ in their perceptions and decision-making aspects and they
respond to the setting, the characters, the theme and plot.

4. TECHNIQUES AND OBJECTIVES OF NARRATIVE THERAPY

 Externalising the Problem The techniques that narrative therapists use
have to do with the telling of the story. They examine the story and look
for other ways to tell it differently. They tell it in another way so as to
make the person understand the same situation and event in certain
different ways. By this strategy they put the problem outside of the
individual, thus externalising it.
 Reconstructing the Story In Narrative Therapy the problem becomes the
antagonist of the story. y. Certain behaviours are based on particular
‘unhealthy’ or ‘undesired’ characteristics, such as lack of patience,
aggressiveness, etc. Thus, they are approached as not a part of the client
but as an opposing force which needs to be ‘defeated’. this strategy
helps clients re-construct their own stories in a way which will reduce
the incidence of the problem in order to eliminate negative outcomes
and reinforce personal development and achievement. The protagonist
becomes the author and re-writes the story constructively. An example
would be a child that has a very bad temperament and tends to be
aggressive to other kids at school and his parents. The child might feel
guilty for his temperament and blame it on himself (“I don’t know… it is
the way I am…”). The counsellor will work with him towards isolating
that undesired trait (aggressiveness)
 Unique Outcomes If a story is full of problems and negative events, the
counsellor will attempt to identify the exceptional positive outcomes.
When exploring unique positive outcomes in the story, the counsellor
will assist the client in redeveloping the 64 Approaches to Assessment in
 Counselling narrative with a focus on those unique outcomes. This focus
on unique positive outcomes, assists the client in empowering
him/herself by creating a notion that those unique outcomes can prevail
over the problems that he or she is facing.
 Alternative Narratives The focus of Narrative Therapy is to explore the
strengths and positive aspects of an individual through his or her
narrative. Therefore, the main objective of this therapeutic approach is
to improve the person’s perspective internally (reflective) and externally
(towards the world and others). Alternative narratives are a simple way
to relate to this concept. This technique works in combination with
unique outcomes. The individual will reconstruct a personal story using
unique outcomes, focusing on the positive aspects of a previous story in
order to achieve a desired outcome. This is similar to Cognitive
Behavioural Therapy as it aims to create a positive perspective of an
event.
 The Leading Role The most important aspect of Narrative Therapy is to
empower the client. Placing the client as an expert, and understanding
his/her story instead of attempting to predict it, indicates the therapist’s
mindset. The idea is to emphasise the therapeutic relationship, in
particular the therapist’s attitudes. This standpoint encompasses many
of the important aspects of good interpersonal communication, such as
demonstration of care, interest, respectful curiosity, openness, empathy,
and fascination. The Narrative Approach to Assessment and Counselling
Once this collaborative relationship has been established, the counsellor
and the client can move forward and work on how to improve the
outcomes of the narrative.
5. GOALS AND STEPS IN NARRATIVE COUNSELING
There are four goals commonly set for Narrative therapy or counselling
1. The first goal is to invite people and make them aware about the stories of
their life and facilitate them to share the same with the therapist or the
counsellor. This opportunity to share these stories enables them to express
the stories in new and fresh language. This new language has a positive
effect on the client’s life. It gives different meaning to the client’s
understanding of the problem. With this change the client also starts feeling
differently and thus the client’s behaviour also changes.
2. The second goal is to make the client aware of the impact that the culture
has on people living in it. Various aspects of the dominant culture are
discussed during the counselling process.
3. The third goal is to enlarge the perspective of life.
4. The fourth goal is to find the alternative to the stories that the client has
been holding so far about their life.

Steps-
There are basically 5 steps.
1. Naming the problem, The therapist encourages the client to name the
problem. For example, the story of a loser. In most instances the story is
used with some adjective that is given by the client. Discussion takes place
regarding that name and mutually therapist and the client agree to that
name. When the patient creates a personalised “working label” for his/her
problem, he/she gains power and control. For example, a student perceives
himself as not intelligent and hence fails in the examination, and develops
story that ‘I am not intelligent’.
2. Discussion on the depth and intensity of the problem This session includes
the in depth understanding of the problem that is stated by the client. The
therapist tries to understand how this problem had been disrupting the
client’s life, and how it has been dominating the client’s life.
3. To encourage the client to have an alternative way of looking at his story
So far, the assessment is complete for the intervention. At this step the
client is encouraged to give up the story that is discouraging him and
 affecting his life negatively. The therapist does not provide him with a new
readymade story rather he encourages him to find an alternative story. The
new story is expected to be better than the previous story. The new story is
considered to be more constructive.
4. Imaging changed life The therapist suggests to the client to think about the
future on the back drop of the changed story he holds. The client is asked to
imagine how would be his life with this changed life story. The mental
exercise of how it will change client’s life is taken up. The possibilities of the
changes that will take place and what are the expected outcome with this is
discussed in the sessions.
5. The client is encouraged to create an audience to support the new story
Repetition of the same story to the same audience may block the
imagination. Therefore, the therapist encourages the client to find new
audience that will perceive the story in the right perspective and would also
support the client by accepting the story with open mind. Thus, it is not
enough to recite new story but need to live according to the new story
outside the counselling sessions. Since the problem of the client developed
in the social context it is essential to create supporting social environment.

6. NARRATIVE THERAPY IN CAREER COUNSELING

Narrative career counseling moves away from a scientific approach that is

exemplified by the matching of relatively static personality traits with job
factors. Narrative approaches recognize that as dynamic social actors
individuals speak, act, and interpret events through their particular contexts
and cultures. In other words, it views career decision making as a holistic
process, recognizing that the career story is shaped by the increasing
complexities of life in a diverse social world.

To assist individuals make career decisions, many narrative practitioners use

techniques that seek to reveal life-career themes. By focusing on aspects such
as key events, early memories, favorite characters from stories, and role
models, the stories that are re-collected give an indication of the dominant
themes that are the preoccupations for the individual. This process situates the
self as the main character in the story, where individual meaning rather than
historical fact is placed in the foreground. The aim is to develop the story by
recognizing the themes, exploring the related career interests, and helping the
individual to draft future possibilities. Narrative approaches recognize that as
part of the sequence of moving from the past and present to the future, a
period of indecision is necessary where potential career ideas can be tested. It
is the action taken in the testing and enactment stages that moves the story
on; without this action, the approach could be stuck in reflective storytelling.
This approach provides a reality-testing element where the potential new story
is evaluated in regard to its fit with the rest of the individual’s life and includes
recognizing the part that significant others play in career decision making.

The approach is empowering since the individual takes an active part in

defining career roles that fit into his or her own understanding of meaningful
life events. It provides a telling way of assessing an individual’s career
counseling needs, revealing more than objective assessment methods. Many
practitioners will incorporate objective methods at a later stage, once the
individual has developed a self-concept. Inevitably what the person recounts
when telling his or her story is subjective, but life is subjective and people
understand their own experience and that of others through the medium of
storytelling. Such subjective exploration leads to the identification of goals and
actions that are more meaningful for the individual and consequently more
likely to be successful.

7. ROLE OF THERAPIST
The success of narrative approach is more dependent on therapist’s skill than
on techniques. In the light of basic concepts every approach of counselling
expects specific set of behaviour in the counselling process.
The role of the therapist in the narrative approach is given below:
• The therapist should be a good facilitator.
• He should be caring towards the client.
• He has to be interested in the client’s stories
. • He should be respectfully curious.
• He should not disturb the privacy of the client.
• He should be open to all the stories that come from different clients

8. TECHNIQUES OF NARRATIVE COUNSELLING

The success of this approach lies in the fact that the therapist should be
able to empathise with the client so that he can ask the appropriate
questions.
Questioning Technique Questioning is the basic tool of narrative therapy.
Narrative questioning has the intent of uncovering meaning and generating
experience rather than creating information. These are always in relation to
the context the client provides to the therapist. The purpose of the question is
not to gather information but it is to enable the client to experience some new
perspective.
Exploration and Deconstruction Narrative psychologist is different from the
traditional therapist in many respects. We just saw how the technique of
questioning is different from the other therapies in counselling. Now there is
one more difference, and that is the therapist does not look at the client as a
problem. He separates the client from the problem. Let us understand this. For
example, in cognitive therapy, specifically REBT the therapist tries to make the
client aware that the root cause of his problem are his own irrational beliefs. In
addition, these irrational beliefs are creating problems for him. So in a way the
clients thinking is held responsible for the problems he is facing. Whereas in
this approach the therapist does not label the client as having anything wrong,
rather he seeks solution by accepting the client the way he is.
Search for Unique Outcomes The above questions are asked for externalising.
In the next step questions are asked for searching for unique outcomes. The
therapist asks the client questions as to what were the moments of choice or
success regarding the problem. For this purpose, an experience is chosen
which stands apart, even if this is insignificant it is focused.
Alternative Stories and Re-authoring The process of deconstruction of the
stories automatically starts the new stories. The therapist encourages the new
stories that the client wants to come up with. The therapist tries to find out
clues that are opening to new stories and takes the client into that direction.
Sometimes with the help of the clues that are given by the client he develops a
competent story. The turning point comes in the narrative therapy when the
client chooses an alternative of a new story over the old problem saturated
story.
Documenting the Evidence This approach believes that the story takes hold
only when there is an audience that is appreciating it. This is done in the
therapy by the therapist. The therapist writes letters to the client regarding his
understanding and the changes that are taking place between the sessions.
The letters also document the description about the struggle the client is
making to make life more meaningful and to what extent the culture is
responsible for it. These letters also encourage the client, and highlight the
client’s achievements.

9. WHAT CAN NARRATIVE THERAPY HELP WITH

While narrative therapy is a relatively new treatment approach, there is some
evidence that it may be helpful for a variety of conditions. Mental health
conditions it might help include:

 Anxiety
 Attachment issues
 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
 Depression
 Eating disorders
 Grief
 Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

This approach can also be useful for anyone who feels like they are
overwhelmed by negative experiences, thoughts, or emotions. Narrative
therapy allows people to not only find their voice but to use their voice for
good, helping them to become experts in their own lives and to live in a way
that reflects their goals and values. It can be beneficial for individuals, couples,
and families.

This type of narrative therapy stresses the importance of people not labeling
themselves or seeing themselves as broken or the problem, or for them to feel
powerless in their circumstances and behavior patterns.

10.BENEFITS OF NARRATIVE THERAPY

Narrative therapy has a number of key benefits including:

 Respect: People participating in narrative therapy are treated with

respect and supported for the bravery it takes to come forward and
work through personal challenges.
 Non-blaming: There is no blame placed on the client as they work
through their stories and they are also encouraged to not place blame
on others. Focus is instead placed on recognizing and changing
unwanted and unhelpful stories about themselves and others.
 Client as the expert: Narrative therapists are not viewed as an advice-
giving authority but, rather, a collaborative partner in helping clients
grow and heal. Clients know themselves well and exploring this
information will allow for a change in their narratives.

Narrative therapy challenges dominant problematic stories that prevent

people from living their best lives. Through narrative therapy, people can
identify alternative stories, widen people's views of self, challenge old and
unhealthy beliefs, and open their minds to new ways of living that reflect a
more accurate and healthier story.

Narrative therapy does not aim to change a person but to allow them to
become an expert in their own life.

11.HOW THIS APPROACH IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS

Narrative Therapy is different from other therapies in many ways. Firstly,

Narrative therapists do not assume that current problems are related to a
client’s childhood, parenting or attachments before the age of five! Instead
client’s relationships with problems are investigated and clients are
encouraged to negotiate new relationships with problems-often locating the
problem well outside the client’s life! This means that Narrative Therapy is a
quicker, more exciting and more energizing approach to therapy!

Narrative therapy is also an extremely optimistic therapy. People are

commonly seen in Narrative Therapy as active agents (and sometimes even
“heroes”) in their own lives. Narrative therapists are profoundly interested a
person’s skills, knowledges, talents and expertise. Narrative therapists also
have many conversations with clients about their hopes, dreams, plans and
wishes for their future, and what these hopes, dreams, plans and wishes say
about the client now. In this way narrative therapy conversations can be
incredibly exciting-not only are problems commonly eliminated, but many
options for a client to live in new and powerful ways are created!
Narrative therapy is a perfect therapy modality for individuals, couples and
families.