Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Narrative Therapy
2
Conflict
Plot
Resolution
Narrative
Therapy
By: Deborah Adedoyin Ladoja and Emily Tennyson
History
- Narrative Therapy was co-constructed in the Early 1980s by Michael White and David Epston.
- Popularity grew in 1990s and is now widely practiced
- Especially Effective in:
- Working with blended families
- Treating couples impacted by infidelity
- Addressing adoption issues
- Assisting families in which adolescents have come out as identifying as a member of the LGBTQ community
- Reducing parent-child conflicts
- Supporting homeless families
- Improving the family functioning of couples
- (Suddeath, Kerwin, & Dugger, 2017)
Michael White & David Epson
Constructors
Theoretical Foundations
(Suddeath, Kerwin, & Dugger, 2017)
Themes
Relational/contextual/anti-individualist (Madigan, 2019)
Influences are:
- Systems Theory
- Postmodernism/ Social Constructivism (Suddeath, Kerwin, & Dugger, 2017)
Systems Theory
Systems Theory focuses on:
- Reciprocal influences of family members on each other
- Attachment style and boundaries within system
- External impacts on the family
- Family system’s tendency towards homeostasis
(Suddeath, Kerwin, & Dugger, 2017)
Postmodernism
+
Social Constructivism
- Counselors are less interested in facts---- more interested in stories of families or individuals
- This epistemology contends that seeking facts is futile, instead it champions the "exploration and understanding of multiple, sometimes differing, but always valid views of reality" (Suddeath, Kerwin, & Dugger, 2017)
- Within Social constructivism is the emphasis of the impact of social and cultural contexts in shaping one's perceptions of reality
The Nature of Reality
(Suddeath, Kerwin, & Dugger, 2017)
- Reality and meaning are co-constructed through interaction with others within a social and cultural context
- One’s beliefs and values become internalized as “reality”
- Though clients present stories as reality or fact, therapists aim to help clients see that their “realities” are simply constructed “stories” that have been influenced by whatever contexts they may be in, whether familial, social, or cultural
The Nature of Reality
- Doing this, the therapist empowers the client to begin to realize that there are alternative views of their situation
- Since truths are socially constructed, they can be deconstructed and then reconstructed in a healthy way
The Importance of Language
Importance of Language
- (Suddeath, Kerwin, & Dugger, 2017)
- Therapist pays a lot of attention to the language that clients use in their stories and the impact of this language for understanding and labeling their experiences
- The terms “story” and “language” are used as nouns and verbs
- "Language is how people story (create meaning from) their experiences,
- How people language (express meaning about) their experiences" is grossly dependent on expressions within culture
- An individual’s stories reflect their beliefs about their identities and those of others
conception of the "Problem"
sETTING
- The Person is Not the Problem, the problem is the problem (Payne, 2006)
- Narrative therapy finds no cause or reason to diagnose and/or label a person’s lived experience (No use of the DSM-5) (Madigan, 2019)
- Symptoms are explored but not named with a particular diagnosis (Grande, 2018)
- Problems are characterized as unhealthy/ negative narrative or a misinterpretation of a narrative (Grande, 2018)
Role of Therapist
NARRATOR
- Role is passive-active (Shapiro & Ross, 2002 and Kaminsky, Rabinowitz, & Kasan, 1996)
- Must conceal the extent of their influence and covertly steer patients in the right direction
- Clients are also encouraged to consider ways in which their problem- saturated narrative might be enriched by a strengths-based perspective (Shefer, 2018)
- Encourage the questioning of these messages instead of judging themselves on what society has deemed to be right/wrong, good/bad, normal/abnormal (Suddeath, Kerwin, & Dugger, 2017)
- Help people recognize what they are paying attention to or placing meaning, value, or weight in regards to societal & cultural messages (Payne, 2006)
Role of Therapist
continued...
Narrative Therapists utilize questioning (Kaminsky, Rabinowitz, & Kasan, 1996)
Figure out mutual influence: how the problem influences the client and how the client influences the problem?
• Deconstruct the problem saturated narrative
• Separate story from client
• Rewrite the narrative
• Accurately understand new narrative
• Ensure that new narrative facilitates change
(goal of therapy) (Grande, 2018)
Narrative Therapy
& Addiction
Addiction
- Externalization of the problem
- Joe has a relationship with alcohol where the alcohol is taking over (Reiter, 2019)
- HERO and not victim (Reiter, 2019)
- Which story is the main story?
- The client is the expert in their experience (Williams-Reade, Freitas, & Lawson, 2014)
Methods & Interventions
Characters
• Since narrative therapy has a postmodern view emphasis is placed on principles rather than techniques (DeMille & Montgomery, 2016)
• The therapist strategically conducts purposeful conversations within the family unit (Lund, Eron, & Dagirmanjian, 2016)
• The overarching goal is to form personal agency and connection (Williams-Reade, Freitas, & Lawson, 2014)
Type of Conversations
Now what?
• Deconstruction/ Externalization
• Re-authoring
• “Re-membering”/ Mapping
• Unique Outcome
• Definitional Ceremonies
visual
Image: http://www.narrativeapproaches.com/216-2/
Clinical Conversation Guidelines
Symbols
• Stay curious
• Help client find their preferred story
• Highlight preferred and important qualities
• Help point out gaps in-between their stories and the problem behavior
• When the gaps are noticed by client continue to stay curious
• If family is involved help all members recognizes the gaps in the whole story
(Lund, Eron, & Dagirmanjian, 2016)