Narrative Therapy

Basic Assumptions

Narrative therapy (NT) holds that we all tell stories in an attempt to understand ourselves and to understand the world around us (Winslade and Monk, 2006, p. 2). Sometimes we believe the stories that we tell ourselves, and sometimes we believe the stories that others tell us” (Winslade and Monk, p. 2). The stories we end up believing is referred to as the dominant stories.[1]

Dominant stories “influence what we think about ourselves” (Winslade & Monk, p. 3). For example, “If we are located in a school story line as dumb, mischievous, or a bad egg, there is a tendency to live our lives according to the contours of the problem story laid out before us by such a description. These negative character descriptions often stick like glue” (p. 3).[2]

Most dominant stories have their cracks, however. As Morgan puts it, “There are many stories occurring at the same time and different stories can be told about the same events. No single story can be free of ambiguity or contradiction and no single story can encapsulate or handle all the contingencies of life.” As I will explain shortly, narrative therapy is interested in undermining certain dominant stories and replacing them with alternative stories.

Therapeutic Process

1) Externalizing the Problem

A key NT technique is externalizing the problem, or “separating the problem from the person and giving it a name” (p. 8). Externalizing the problem allows the client to see the problem form a new perspective; it also serves to alleviate the client’s guilt and consequently causing them to feel “less weighed down and more able to challenge the problem” (50).

An example of externalizing a problem would be a therapist who frames a depressed client  as being “under the influence of Sadness” (Murdock, 2012, p. 501). This therapist might ask: “What are the effects of Sadness? How does Sadness influence your relationships with others? What does Sadness tell you about yourself?” (p. 501).

2) Relative Influence Questions

The therapist asks two sets of relative influence questions. “The first set encourages persons to map the influence of the problem in their lives and relationships. The second set encourages persons to map their own influence in the ‘life’ of the problem” (White & Epston, 1990, p. 42).

2a) Questions about the Problem’s Influence on the Client. These questions help clients identify how the problem has impacted them and those around them (White & Epston, 1990, p. 42). White and Epston give an example of this first set of questions when describing Nick, a six-year-old client who would poop his pants and then streak his poo “down walls, smear it in drawers, roll it into balls and flick it behind cupboards and wardrobes, and had even taken to plastering it under the kitchen table” (White & Epston, p. 43). By asking relative influence questions, Nick’s therpist learned that this habit was “making a mess of Nick’s life by isolating him from other children,” “interfering with his school work,” “driving [his mother] into misery, forcing her to question her capacity to be a good parent and her general capability as a person,” and “deeply embarrassing” his father (White & Epston, p. 44).

2b) Questions about the Person’s Influence on the Problem. These questions are essentially what solution-focused therapist would call exception-finding questions. In other words, these are questions meant to elicit times when the person did not allow the problem to affect them (what NT refers to as “unique outcomes”). White and Epston discuss how Nick’s therapist helped him identify a number of times when he had resisted the temptation to smear his poop erverywhere (p. 46). Put in NT terms, therapists ask these questions in hopes of finding events “that contradicts the dominant story” (Carey & Russell, 2003).

Once an exception to the problem has been identified, the therapist would ask landscape of action questions, that is, questions intended to elicit more information about the exception(Carey & Russell). The therpiast here might ask things like: “Can you tell me more about how you did this? What steps did you take? What name would you give to these steps? Were there any things that you said to yourself at the time? What was it that made the difference do you think?” (Carey & Russell).

Next, the therapist would ask lanscape of identity questions, questions that “invite people to reflect differently on their own identities on the identies of others” (Carey & Russell). The following is an example of such a question: “As you have been describing these times when you have been able to evade the influence of the problem, or how you have been able to outsmart it, what do you think this says about you as a person?” (Carey & Williams).

3) Building the Alternative Story

The therapist’s next task is to link the exception with other exceptions. “This is because, no matter how significant a single event might become, no matter how strongly it may contradict the dominant problematic story-line, one event on its own will always be vulnerable” (Carey & Russell).

To help the client identify other exceptions, the therapist can ask such questions as the following: “Have you ever done anything like that before? Have you ever made similar preparations or taken similar steps? Have there been other times when your care and love for your son has enabled you to slip away from Anxiety? Have there been other times either recently or in the distant past when you have demonstrated a similar sense of strength of will, or a similar sense of determination?” (Carey & Russell).

If the exception can be linked to other exceptions, the therapist begins helping the client create an alternative story. Narrative therapists help ensure that these alternative stories are “richly described.” “Rich description,” Morgan (2000) writes, “involves the articulation in fine detail of the story-lines of a person’s life. If you imagine reading a novel, sometimes a story is richly described—the motives of the characters, their histories, and own understandings are finely articulated.”

4) Strengthening the Alternative Story

Winslade and Monk (2006) write that “new stories take hold only when there is an audience to appreciate them” (p. 63). Consequently, narrative therapists sometimes ask clients to invite to a session significant others “who are identified by the client as the most likely to believe in the client’s ability to change can be invited to hear the client tell the [alternative] story and react to it. They might also become allies of the client in establishing the [alternative] story” (Murdock, 2012, p. 505).

Winslade and Monk list other ways to strengthen the client’s alternative story: writing letters to clients, “recording on paper their achievements in overcoming the problem’s regime”; working with clients to write a letter to their significant others; issuing “certificates of recognition, or graduation, to celebrate the defeating of specific problems”; (for students) drawing up “report form that ask teachers to notice the performance of the new story in class” (p. 64).

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Carey, M., & Russell, S. (2003). Re-authoring: Some answers to commonly asked questions. International Journal of Narrative Therapy & Community Work, 2003(3).

Morgan, A. (2000). What is narrative therapy. An easy-to-read introduction. Adelaide, South Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.

Murdock, N. L. (2012). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: A case approach. Pearson Higher Ed.

White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: WW Norton & Company.

Winslade, J., & Monk, G. D. (2006). Narrative counseling in schools: Powerful & brief. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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Notes

[1] Morgan (2000) gives an example: “I could have a story about myself as a ‘good driver’. This means I could string together a number of events that have happened to me whilst driving my car. I could put these events together with others into a particular sequence and interpret them as a demonstration of me being a good driver. I might think about, and select out for the telling of the story, events such as stopping at the traffic lights, giving way to pedestrians, obeying the speed limits, incurring no fines and keeping a safe distance behind other vehicles. To form this story about my ability as a driver, I am selecting out certain events as important that fit with this particular plot. In doing so, these events are privileged over others.”

[2] Returning to Morgan’s example: “The dominant story of my driving abilities will not only affect me in the present but will also have implications for my future actions. For example, if I am asked to drive to a new suburb or drive a long distance at night, my decision and plans will be influenced by the dominant story I have about my driving. I would probably be more inclined to consider doing these things when influenced by the story I have about myself as being a good driver than if I had a story about myself as being a dangerous or accident-prone driver.”