An individual’s narrative or story is defined by Botella and Gámiz (2011) as an amalgamation of factual information, personal constructs, third person perceptions, and even future desires and hopes. We use storytelling as a way to organize our thoughts, experiences, and feelings in a comprehensible way. Social and mental events are sequentially linked to make meaning and these narratives add to our value and can be quite beneficial. However, when our story is steeped in our own or others’ dysfunctional identities and patterns of behaviour, it may be necessary to challenge these negative assumptions and oppressive philosophies. Significantly, this therapeutic orientation places an emphasis on deconstructing social and cultural discourses that support unfair and unhelpful ideals. The goal of Narrative therapy (NT) practices is to help clients realize their potential, visualize their strengths, and envision a more empowering scenario for themselves.

“The goal of Narrative therapy practices is to help clients realize their potential, visualize their strengths, and envision a more empowering scenario for themselves.”

As explained by numerous narrative theorists, a client’s life experiences are the raw material with which they create a narrative or dominant story. Their beliefs, attitudes, culture, environment and much more interact in a unique way to form their perspective, which lays the foundation for their story.

A dominant internalized narrative that is riddled with trauma and adversity and oppressive in nature could be the cause of distress and dysfunction. Thus, NT seeks to promote awareness and encourage the development of alternative narratives through unique outcome seeking, externalization, deconstruction, mapping, thickening and reauthoring.

The goal is to have the clients correct dysfunctional psychological processes by constructing new, liberating narratives for their life. Matos et al. (2009) explained the process as one in which the therapist guides the client through unique outcomes to highlight the “temporal plausibility” of novel outcomes and which supports the emergence of a new story.

When applying a narrative approach to therapy, the therapist may begin by focusing on having the client describe their narrative and eventually work towards mutually co-constructing narratives that serve them better. Reauthoring and thickening stories fosters the development of enriched descriptions of life and relational bonds, which allows them to create alternative stories and free themselves of the problematic storyline (Goldenberg et al., 2016). As the authors described, this externalization, thickening and reauthoring does not remove the problem, however, it makes the problem less significant and shifts the meaning. The thickening process allows for a perspective that is more aware of positive occurrences that were once obscured by thin descriptions influenced by superficial, disempowering governing bodies (Duba et al., 2010).

Deconstruction is a Narrative Therapy intervention that involves identifying and deconstructing the problem through externalization and comprehending the influence of the issue. As such, the therapist facilitates clients in separating themselves from the problem. This technique also addresses internalization, encouraging clients to consider certain values, attitudes, beliefs, and habits that foster the existence of the problem. Facilitating a client reauthor their story involves thickening descriptions of their life. Consequentially, their self-definition would be rich with a comprehensive understanding of their subjective experiences, underlying values, and commitments (Goldenberg et al., 2016).

Another helpful tool in externalizing a problem is to map out or identify how the problem affects you and how you affect it. Therapists will collaboratively map out a problem’s influence and presence in the client’s life, including environmental, relational and cognitive factors. Mapping seeks to strategically draw out the externalized problem’s actions and explores whether or not the client is comfortable with the effects of these actions.

Similar to solution-focused practices, NT utilizes unique outcome seeking to find exceptions or contradictions to the problem-oriented story. This technique also empowers clients as it helps them identify their strengths and circumstances in which they were able to overcome their problem.

Overall NT can be an effective therapeutic modality for clients dealing with any number of concerns related to dominant internalized narratives they’ve constructed over time. This can include issues of complex grief, trauma, depression, anxiety, self-worth and more.

If you or someone you know would like to explore the ways that Growth & Wellness Therapy Centre can help you on your journey, please contact our intake and administration team to set up a free consultation with one or more of our clinicians. We have a number of clinicians who practice Narrative Therapy who would be happy to meet with you to discuss your needs and see if they’re the right fit to support you.

References

Botella, L., & Gámiz, M. (2011). Narrative assessment in psychotherapy: A constructivist approach. Personal construct methodology, 247-268.

Duba, J. D., Kindsvatter, A., & Priddy, C. J. (2010). Deconstructing the mirror’s refection: Narrative therapy groups for women dissatisfied with their body. Adultspan Journal, 9(2), 103-116.

Goldenberg, I., Stanton, M., & Goldenberg, H. (2016). Family therapy: An overview (9th ed.). Brooks-Cole.

Matos, M., Santos, A., Gonçalves, M., & Martins, C. (2009). Innovative moments and change in narrative therapy. Psychotherapy Research, 19(1), 68-80.

What is Narrative Therapy and How Can It Help Me?