I misunderstood Alejandra the following is information that she is going to present and will not be added to the handout.
Central Ideas
Life is storied
“The Narrative metaphor proposes that everyone tells stories about their lives and experiences, and that it is through the telling of
these stories that meaning is given to experience”
As people, we are inescapably meaning makers. We have an experience and then attach meaning to it. Since time immemorial,
and the days around the campfire, we have been telling stories. Stories are our most familiar means of communicating the
meaning we find in our experiences.
Narrative therapy is interested in the stories we live by - those stories we carry with us about who we are and what is most
important to us. Narrative therapy involves finding these stories, understanding them, and re-telling them.
Stories are socially constructed

Problems are constructed in cultural contexts. These contexts include power, relations of race, class, sexual preference,
gender, and disadvantage.

Everyone has story, every culture has its own story, and narrative therapy is about the exploration and re-authoring of
their story.

Narrative therapy proposes that identity is co-created in relationship with other people as well as by one’s history and
culture. Thus, being seen by others in a certain way can contribute as much as seeing oneself in a certain way. We
come to see ourselves by looking in the mirrors that other people hold up for us. In this way, a person’s identity is said
to be socially constructed. Narrative therapy involves finding these stories, understanding them, and retelling them.
Stories give meaning but are partial

No story can be told that encompasses all lived experiences

The stories that are told are not descriptions of some truth, but that they often appear to be so.

Conflicting stories may coexist

A person’s life is crisis-crossed by invisible story-lines. These unseen storylines can have enormous power in shaping a
person’s life. Narrative therapy involves the process of drawing out and amplifying these story-lines. Questions are
used to focus on what has been most meaningful in a person’s life. Common areas of inquiry include intentions,
influential relationships, turning points, treasured memories, and how these areas connect with each other.
Stories are constructive

Stories tell us how to live our lives and are shaping of our lives

How we interpret our life experiences

Influences our behavior

Narrative therapy proposes that people use certain stories about themselves like the lens on a camera. These stories
have the effect of filtering a person’s experience and thereby selecting what information gets focused in or focused out.
These stories shape people’s perspectives of their lives, histories, and futures. Despite information to the contrary, these
stories of identity can be remarkably stable. Narrative therapy provides a means to refocus the lens on this camera and
help reshape a person’s stories and lives
Externalizing the problem

Take a quality that is seen as being internal and make it external

“I am weak” vs. “I get overwhelmed by a feeling of weakness”

I am depressed vs. so depression has moved in with you this last month

I am the way that I am vs. I am the way that I’ve been influenced to be

So it’s Deconstruction of the problem

Like liberating see the problem in new ways

Develop a new perspective

Externalizes clients’ experiences so they can interact with them and untimely become less dependent on he therapist
and therapy sessions as they begin to internalize their re-authored perspective
Example: Man suffered from panic attacks since he was a young boy, and he was told and he believed that he was a nervous
rack, shy and anxious. Narrative therapy he re-authored his story. He could look back and see on the instances, take self out of
character and see that it was not his fault. Look at other areas like maybe mom was drinking, home not safe place, re-authoring
able to develop a sense of self worth positive and confidence.
References
Excerpt from The One-minute question: What is Narrative Therapy? by Erik Sween, originally published
in Gecko 1998 #2, Dulwich Centre Publications, reproduced by permission of the author. Retrieved on March 30, 2008
from http://www.brucechalmer.com/about_narrative_therapy.htm