Narrative Therapy

Purposes of Narratives

Narrative therapists maintain that people use stories to make sense of their life experiences. Stories form informal theories or maps of personal experiences and history. Narratives allow storage of large amounts of information, particularly information relevant to personal goals; they facilitate quick decision making; and they organize information about social interactions and experiences.

Narratives provide important information about the speaker's worldview, as illustrated by the following examples. One writer might say “Language is the data of counseling” to explain the importance of narratives in counseling. By that the writer means that much of the important information communicated between counselor and client takes the form of the connotations and denotations of spoken language. But that description also reveals something important about the writer; that is, that the writer tends to view his or her professional world through the role of a researcher who seeks to obtain and understand data related to counseling. A more behaviorally oriented writer might say “Language is the behavior of counseling,” while a theatrical writer might say “Language is the script of counseling.” These descriptions convey different aspects of the potential role of language in counseling, but all are valid and all reveal something of the speaker's roles and worldview.

Narrative Use in Different Counseling Approaches

All therapies pay attention to language to some degree. For example, rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) practitioners listen for clients' use of words, such as must and should, because those words often indicate irrational beliefs (i.e., untrue thoughts) that lead to distress for the individual. For example, a client might say “I must get an A on this test!” An REBT counselor would challenge that statement and explore with the client what would happen if he or she did not receive an A on that particular test. Another example: A father might report “I'm frustrated because my children always disobey me,” when in fact, most disobedience occurs when the children are physically tired. A solutions-focused counselor might help this client recognize this more complete description so that the client could begin to perceive his children differently.

Narrative Use to Help Clients Change

Narrative therapists and their clients extract meaning from client stories, with the goals of helping clients understand themselves and change some aspect of their lives. Deconstruction is the process in which [Page 694]therapists help clients become aware of the dominant story that guides their lives and to question its elements so that the story becomes just one possible view of the self. Other life events become more fully incorporated into the story and the client is placed as a more active protagonist in the story. For example, the student who reports that she “must get an A on a particular test” may also tell stories of other tests and courses in which she feels pressure to perform extremely well. However, she is also likely to be able to recall situations in which she did not perform extremely well and no catastrophic consequences occurred. The client may also relate instances when she felt relaxed while performing. Narrative therapists explore events such as these in an attempt to integrate an expanded account into the client's dominant plot.

...