OACCPP Toronto Regional Network
First Annual Members' Book Review
February 2013
OACCPP Toronto Regional Network
First Annual Members' Book Review
*****************************************
White, Michael (2007). Maps of narrative practice. Norton Professional Books, 304 p.
Definitions
Narrative ~ story
Narrative practice ~ psychotherapy technique(s)
Narrative Therapy is a set of ethically-based therapy practices that recognize that
people use narrative to make meaning in their lives and to construct their
identities.
People, person = Client(s)
Figure = someone, who played a role in person's life
Narrative psychology = is a viewpoint within psychology, it is not a subfield
of psychology, concerned with the "storied nature of human conduct"
Constructivism (psychological school): in the act of knowing, it is the human mind
that actively gives meaning and order to that reality to which it is responding
Narratology = structuralist analysis of narrative (narrative constructions). The fabula is the raw
material of a story, and syuzhet, the way a story is organized.
Biography
Michael White (1948–2008), one of the founders of narrative therapy and co-director of the
Dulwich Centre, an institute for narrative practice and community work in Adelaide, Australia,
made significant contributions to psychotherapy and family therapy.
Summary
In the book "Maps of narrative practice", Michael White outlines the key maps of narrative
practice ‒ externalising, re-authoring, re-membering, definitional ceremonies, scaffolding
conversations and ways of highlighting unique outcomes. This easy-to-read and yet rigorous
book contains moving transcripts of conversations and detailed explanations of practice. This
book pulls together and summarises the key therapeutic ideas and practices that have come to be
known as narrative therapy.
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White, Michael (2007). Maps of narrative practice. Norton Professional Books, 304 p.
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Content
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pp.
Externalizing Conversations
Re-authoring Conversations
Re-membering Conversations
Definitional Ceremonies
Conversations that Highlight Unique Outcomes
Scaffolding Conversations
Valery Belyanin
www.psyling.com
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61-128
129-164
165-218
219-261
263-292
lifemaybegood@gmail.com
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OACCPP Toronto Regional Network
First Annual Members' Book Review
February 2013
Chapter One
Externalizing Conversations
Many people think that they are the problem. By objectifying the problem the therapist may help
the person to experience an identity that is separate from the problem.
Case of Jeffrey
Father: Jeffrey has ADHD. He knows he has it.
Therapist: Jeffrey, what sort of ADHD do you have? What color is it?
Jeffrey shrugs his shoulders.
Therapist: I know the twin of your ADHD. It crashes into everything, pretends to be a horse,
throws things over the place. What if you wake yourself in the night and take a picture of
him in your mind and then paint it in the morning.
Jeffrey brought a picture of a "mutant ninja".
Therapist: Your AHD was making trouble for you at school and at home, hasn't it? Tell me more
about its tricks.
Jeffrey tells and the therapist retells what he heard.
Therapist: So, only AHD is happy. Do you want your life back?
Therapist asks Jeffrey and his parents about the relationships they want to have. Jeffrey
contributes some proposals that showed what knowledge and skills did he have. Parents
came up with arranging circumstances that will curtail AHD's activities.
Externalizing conversations provide a context where family members can collaborate initiatives
to address the problems.
Stages in the development of Externalizing Conversations (Categories of Inquiry):
1. Negotiating an Experience-Near Definition of the Problem so that to make the person more
knowledgeable about how to "get one's life back".
Therapist: Tell me, what's it like to be living under the reign of this <problem>?
Spencer: It comes down in torrents at times, and it is messy.
2. Mapping the Effects of the Problem = identifying the domains of living (home, familial
relationships. Identity. Future possibilities and life horizons).
Sarah: I feel worthless, useless and deserve my lot in life. <"truth" about identity>
Therapist: What are the consequences of self-hate activities with regard to your own body and
your connections with others?
Externalizing Conversation will help to open a space between identity and negative conclusions
about identity.
3. Evaluating the Effects of the Problem's Activities.
Therapist: Are these activities okay with you? How do you feel about these developments?
Valery Belyanin
www.psyling.com
lifemaybegood@gmail.com
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OACCPP Toronto Regional Network
First Annual Members' Book Review
February 2013
4. Justifying the Evaluation.
Therapist: Why is it okay with you?/Why isn't it okay with you?
Therapist: Do you think you may be entitled to a little something in your life? < = Question
about values>. <This is a transition to Rich Story Development>.
The therapist should help the person to answer "Why" question.
Chapter Two
Re-authoring Conversations
When people tell stories, they speak of the history of the problems, and they tell why they came
for therapy. They link the events of their lives in sequence, and they cover the themes of loss,
failure, incompetence, hopelessness or futility. They also tell about protagonists (main character)
and about their motives, intentions and personal characteristics.
Re-authoring conversations invite people to include neglected events ("unique outcomes",
"exceptions") in their dominant storylines.
Storylines of one's life:
Dominant storyline
Subordinate storyline
(neglected events in lives).
Liam and Penny case
Liam ‒ son (15 y.o.), dropped out of school, was thinking of suicide; Penny ‒ his mother.
Liam: I gave my mom and my grandmother a pretty hard time.
Therapist: Penny, were you concerned about your mother?
Liam: Yes. More about my mom than about myself.
Penny: I knew I was precious to him.
Therapist: Can you tell me about Penny's actions that would be a reflection of what was precious
to him?
Penny told a story that her son once smashed a glass when his father was hitting her. Liam does
not remember this.
Therapist: Liam distracted his father. How will you name this action?
Liam: Protest.
Therapist: Liam, can you relate to this way of describing what you did?
Penny: Courage. Fairness.
Therapist: Liam, can you see how your mother arrived to these conclusions? <…>
Therapist: Liam, tell me about Liam when he was younger that would fit with this fairness.
Liam tells the Penny shared his lunch with two other kids who lost their mothers to make them
feel better.
Therapist: What sort of step was this?
Penny: Rescuing.
Valery Belyanin
www.psyling.com
lifemaybegood@gmail.com
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OACCPP Toronto Regional Network
First Annual Members' Book Review
February 2013
The structure of Re-authoring Conversations
Remote History
Distant History
Recent History
Present
Near Future
Landscape of Actions = sequence of events that make up a plot and the theme (fabula).
Landscape of Identity (Landscape of Consciousness) = attributing intentions and purposes to the
actions of the protagonist.
Internal State Understandings = center of identity (motives, instincts, needs, desires, personal
traits, personal properties like strengths). ~ Unconscious mind. ~ Human "nature".
Distortion of these elements => dysfunctions, disorders.
Intentional State Understandings are determined by personal agency, self-mastery (Vygotsky).
They shape people's existence. It is a foundations of responses to the actions of others.
Chapter Three
Re-membering Conversations
Case of Jessica
Jessica (40 y.o.) was abused by her parents when she was a child. A neighbor invited her to her
hobby of knitting and sewing.
Therapist: Why did she do this? Why she contributed to your life? What did she appreciate about
you? How did you shape her life?
Saying Hullo Again
Charting re-membering Conversation:
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Implications of these contributions for Figure's identity
Person's contribution to Figure's life
Person's identity through eyes of Figure
Figure's contribution to Person's life
Chapter Four
Definitional Ceremonies
Engaging the audience in Therapeutic Practice in order to use the audience responses for Rich
Story Development.
Stages of Definitional Practices:
1. The Telling. The therapist interviews the person, and the outsider witness listen as audience.
2. The retelling. The witness retells the story and the person is an audience.
3.The person retells the witnesses' retelling.
Categories of Expression.
1. Expression = specific words and statements.
2. Images that come to mind as you listen.
3. Personal resonance (in the listener; and with what people value in life)
4. Transport: places where you have not arrived = perspectives on life.
Valery Belyanin
www.psyling.com
lifemaybegood@gmail.com
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OACCPP Toronto Regional Network
First Annual Members' Book Review
February 2013
Chapter Five
Conversations that Highlight Unique Outcomes
Experiences that are out of phase that may be significant and develop alternative storylines of life.
Case of Peter and Trudy
Peter. 14 was in a detention center. Trudy, his mother.
Trudy: Once Peter left the scene of frustration, which is not part of his history.
Therapist: Peter, why do you do this? Was this an encouraging development?
Peter: I stepped back, figured things out, kept my mind, walked away from trouble.
Therapist: Peter, how did you achieve this?
Peter: I wanted to manage my own life.
Inquiry categories:
1. Experience-near definition of the Unique Outcome.
2. Mapping the Effects of the Unique Outcome (trace it through different domains of people's life).
3. Evaluate he Unique Outcome and its Effect.
Excerpt 1
Therapist: What it is like for you to see that some things are possible for you?
Peter: It's positive.
Therapist: Positive for whom?
Peter: Positive for me. It makes me feel good.
Therapist: Do you know why this development makes you feel good?
Peter: It is good feeling getting somewhere.
4. Justifying the evaluation.
Therapist: Is getting somewhere important for you?
Charting Conversations that Highlight Unique Outcomes:
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Justifying the evaluation
Evaluating the effects
Mapping the effects
Negotiating definition of the Unique Outcome
Known and Familiar
From Unique Outcomes to Rich Story Development
Valery Belyanin
www.psyling.com
lifemaybegood@gmail.com
5
OACCPP Toronto Regional Network
First Annual Members' Book Review
February 2013
Chapter Six
Scaffolding Conversations (framing)
Personal Agency
Responsible Action
Concept Development ~ the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky)
Charting for Scaffolding Conversations
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Very high-level distancing task
High-level distancing task
Medium-high-level distancing task
Medium-level distancing task
Low-level distancing task
Known and familiar
plan for action
abstraction of learn. and lealiz.
learning and realizations
include into chain of associations
characterizing the UO
Inquiry into the nature of human agency and responsible action.
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Books by Michael White
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1989. Literate Means to Therapeutic Ends. With David Epston.
1990. Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. With David Epston.
1995. Re-Authoring Lives: Interviews and Essays.
1995. Narratives of Therapists' Lives.
2000. Reflections on Narrative Practice.
2004. Narrative Practice and Exotic Lives: Resurrecting diversity in everyday life.
1992. Experience, Contradiction, Narrative and Imagination: With David Epston
2006. Narrative Therapy with Children and their Families.
2007. Maps of Narrative Practice.
2011. Narrative Practice: Continuing the Conversations.
Web Resources
Dulwich Centre ‒ www.dulwichcentre.com.au
Narrative Therapy Center of Toronto (NTC) ‒ www.narrativetherapycentre.com
Presenter:
Valery Belyanin
www.psyling.com
lifemaybegood@gmail.com
<end>
Valery Belyanin
www.psyling.com
lifemaybegood@gmail.com
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