Narrative Therapy:
Narrative therapy: aims to separate the individual from the issue,
and externalize problems instead of internalizing them.
The problem is the problem, the problem is not the person.
Problem stories become our dominant stories and through narrative therapy we can seek alternative, preferred stories.
Four Principles of Narrative therapy:
1. Reality is socially constructed.
2. Reality is influenced by and communicated through language.
3. Having a narrative can help us organize and maintain our reality.
4. There is no ‘objective reality’ or absolute truth.
--Five Narrative Therapy Techniques:
Each technique uses a map to journey or scaffold the
Deconstruction Technique. This technique
conversation.
involves breaking problems down into
Telling One’s Story. A technique that
smaller, more specific issues that are
involves re-telling your own story to
easier to understand and address.
find new meaning in old experiences.al
Externalization Technique. Externalizing
helps you separate you from your problems,
making it easier to change something you
don’t like about yourself.
Unique Outcomes Technique. To help you
see from a new, more positive perspective,
broaden your view to see more of your own
storylines, and focus on one that doesn’t
include your most pervasive problems.
Existentialism. The belief that the world
holds no inherent meaning, and that we
all must make our own meaning in life.
According to White, there are three main processes in
treatment:
1) Externalization of the problem, which mirrors the steps of the position mapping exercise:
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Developing a particular, experience-near definition of the problem;
Mapping the effects of the problem;
Evaluating the effects of the problem;
and justifying the evaluation.
2) Re-authoring conversations by:
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Helping the client include neglected aspects of themselves;
and shifting the problem-centered narrative.
3) Remembering conversations that actively engage the client in the process of:
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Renewing their relationships;
Removing the relationships that no longer serve them;
and finding meaning in their story that is no longer problem-saturated as much as resilient-rich.