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Overview of Narrative Therapy

Narrative therapy is a postmodern, social-constructivist approach that views realities as socially constructed and organized through language rather than objective truths. The basic process involves mapping influences, externalizing problems, identifying unique outcomes, and constructing alternative stories through restorying. Applications include preventative counseling, developmental issues, clinical problems like anorexia, and school issues. Strengths are its accessibility and cultural applicability, while criticisms note its relativism and emphasis on language and downplaying of expertise.

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8K views13 pages

Overview of Narrative Therapy

Narrative therapy is a postmodern, social-constructivist approach that views realities as socially constructed and organized through language rather than objective truths. The basic process involves mapping influences, externalizing problems, identifying unique outcomes, and constructing alternative stories through restorying. Applications include preventative counseling, developmental issues, clinical problems like anorexia, and school issues. Strengths are its accessibility and cultural applicability, while criticisms note its relativism and emphasis on language and downplaying of expertise.

Uploaded by

trixmaster1
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • Definition of Narrative Therapy: Explains the nature of narrative therapy, emphasizing its role in privileging personal experiences and constructing narratives.
  • Theoretical Assumptions: Describes the foundational assumptions underlying narrative therapy, including the social construction of reality and criticism of essential truths.
  • Basic Process: Outlines the key steps in the narrative therapy process, including mapping influences and constructing new stories.
  • Applications: Discusses the varied applications of narrative therapy across multiple contexts such as clinical and educational environments.
  • Strengths/Weaknesses/Criticisms: Analyzes the advantages and criticisms of narrative therapy, highlighting issues such as cultural applicability and underlying biases.
  • Closing Comment: Provides final thoughts on narrative therapy, stressing the difference between the simplicity of its approach and the complexity of its theory.

Narrative Therapy

Nathan Missen
Outline
• Definition of Narrative Therapy
• Theoretical Assumptions
• Basic process
• Applications
• Multicultural considerations
• Strengths/weaknesses/criticisms
• Closing comment
What is Narrative
Therapy?
• In the words of Epston & White (1990): “A therapy situated
within the context of the narrative mode of thought would take
the form that:
• 1. privileges a person’s lived experience;
• 2. Encourages a perception of a changing world through the
plotting or linking of lived experience through the temporal
dimension;
• 3. Invokes the subjunctive mood in the triggering of
presuppositions, the establishment of implicit meaning, and in
the generation of multiple perspective;
• 4. Encourages polysemy and the ordinary, poetic and
picturesque language in the description of experience and in the
endeavor to construct new stories;
What is Narrative
Therapy? (2)
• 5. Invites a reflexive posture and an appreciation of one’s
participation in interpretive acts;
• 6. Encourages a sense of authorship and re-authorship of
one’s life and relationships in the telling and re-telling of
one’s story;
• 7. Acknowledges that stories are co-produced and
endeavors to establish conditions under which the
“subject” becomes the privileged author
• 8. Consistently inserts pronouns “I” and “you” in the
description of events
• Basically, people construct stories (narratives) to help
them understand and make sense of their lives
• It is a postmodern, social-constructivist approach to
therapy
Theoretical assumptions
• 1) Realities are socially constructed
• 2) Realities are constituted through
language
• 3) Realities are organized and
maintained through language
• 4) There are no essential truths
• (adapted from Freedman and Combs,
1996)
Basic process
• Map the influences
• Initiate externalizing conversation/externalize
the problem (cultural conditions / medical
discourse
• Identify unique outcomes
• Construct an alternative story / restorying
• Alternate story history
• Provide an audience
Applications
• Preventative - Petersen, Bull, Propst, Dettinger &
Detwiler, 2005
• Developmental (typical and atypical) - Cashin, 2008,
DeSocio, 2005, White & Epston, 1990
• Clinical e.g. Anorexia/Bulimia - Lock, Epston, Maisel
& Faria, 2005; BDD - Costa, Nelson, Rudes &
Guterman, 2007; Alcoholism - Monk & Winslade,
1997; Sexual abuse - Monk & Winslade, 1997
• School problems - Winslade & Monk, 1999
• Eclectic applications - Speedy, 2000
Strengths/Weaknesses/
Criticisms
• Advantages
– Counseling applicability
– Cultural applications
– Accessibility
• Disadvantages/Criticisms
– Relativistic
– Nihilistic
– Notion of agency (Logio-scientific/Narrative/Humanistic)
– Indeterminate amount of time
– Downplays the role of expertise - S or W?
– Emphasis on language
– Cultural bias / difficulties
– The “blameless self”?
Closing comment
• The approach is easy, the theory is not.
• Fundamentally, requires a different
mindset than most approaches.
A little bit of humor…
• Three baseball umpires are sitting around
over a beer, and one says “There’s balls and
there’s strikes and I call them the way they
are.”. Another one says, “There’s balls and
there’s strikes, and I call them the way I
see’em.” The third says, “There’s balls and
there’s strikes, and they ain’t nothin until I call
call’em” - Walter Truett Anderson
Questions/Comments?
Resources
• Cashin, A. (2008). Narrative Therapy: A Psychotherapeutic
Approach in the Treatment of Adolescents With Asperger’s
Disorder. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing,
21, pp 48-56
• Costa, D., Nelson, T.M., Rudes, J. & Guterman, J.T. (2007). A
Narrative Approach to Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Journal of
Mental Health Counseling, 29, (1), pp 67-80
• DeSocio, J.E. (2005). Accessing Self-development through
Narrative Approaches in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.
Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 18, (2), pp
53-61
• Lock, A., Epston, D., Maisel, R. & de Faria, N. (2005). Resisting
anorexia/bulimia: Foucauldian perspectives in narrative therapy.
British Journal of Guidance & Counselling [sic], 33, (3), pp 315-
332
• Monk, G., Winslade, J., Crocket, K. & Epston, D. (1997).
Narrative Therapy in Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Resources (2)
• Petersen, S., Bull, C., Propst, O., Dettinger, S. & Detwiler, L.
(2005). Narrative Therapy to Prevent Illness-Related Stress
Disorder. Journal of Counseling & Development, 83, pp 41-47
• Speedy, J. (2000). The storied helper: narrative ideas and
practices in counselling [sic] and psychotherapy. The European
Journal of Psychotherapy, Counselling & Health, 3 (3), pp 361-
374
• White, M. & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to Therapeutic
Ends. NY, New York: W.W. Norton
• Winslade, J. & Monk, G. (1999). Narrative Counseling in
Schools; Powerful & Brief. CA: Corwin Press

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