Oh, this is dr. Grande today's question is what is narrative therapy
So narrative therapy is a therapeutic
Modality and it can be used with families or with individuals, and it's based on a few key concepts
surrounding the idea of a person's life and their story and
there are several stories in a person's life and
narrative therapy is looking at how to
Change a problem saturated story
Into a more productive story so part of the idea behind their therapy is that identity is
formed by the narrative of a client's life and
There's actually several narratives that are at work and this interpretation of the narrative can influence
thinking feeling and behavior and can result in mental health symptoms
many narratives are
Useful or healthy we would consider them relatively normal other narratives are focused on
Difficulties these are referred to as problems saturated
dominant stories so symptoms come about when there's an unhealthy or negative narrative or
If there's a misunderstanding of the narrative or a misrepresentation
Narrative and this can interfere this interpretation can interfere with an individual's ability
to make changes
So narrative therapy has a lot of qualities about it that make it quite a bit different than a lot of other therapeutic modalities
To start off with in there to therapy. There's no
diagnosis
So right away, you can see the narrative therapy breaks from mainstream modalities fairly significantly
there's no use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and narrative therapy and
No diagnosis is given initially or at any point during the therapy process
the problem is explored mental health symptoms are explored, but they're never named with a diagnosis, so
What a narrative therapist does is seek to understand the narrative
the positives and the strengths of the client
They look for an alternative way to understand the narrative or to describe the narrative
the role of the therapist in narrative therapy is that of an investigative reporter a
Non-directive collaborator the therapist in this modality is extremely curious about the narrative
particularly the clients perception of the narrative the clients point of view and
They're particularly curious about the nature of the problem
They're not particularly interested in the cause of the problem etiology is not really a part of narrative therapy
Just like diagnosing isn't a part of it, but they are open to the clients description of the problem
What could be the cause they're open to the clients?
Perception of the cause as I mentioned in narrative therapy the narrative therapist attempts to externalize the problem now
This is a fairly common technique and a number of modalities. I think what makes it different for narrative therapy is the level of vigor
Brought to this concept. This is beyond just mere
identification with the problem so for example if someone's treated by a cognitive behavioral therapist I
Wouldn't be surprised if that therapist
if a person came in and said they were depressed that therapist would say you're a person with depression a
cognitive behavioral therapist would be reluctant to
identify the person as
Depressed they would look at depression as something external a person with depression
with narrative therapy
They do that, but they take it further
so the
Externalized problem really takes on sometimes human characteristics so as I mentioned. It's not merely just
Not identifying with the problem. It's looking at the problem as
Having a mind of its own as trying to interfere with one's day as being subtle or sneaky being crafty
tricking the client we see this particularly when using their to therapy with
adolescents or children a
Behavioral problem will be externalized and given this identity as being
subtle and trying to trick the
Child or adolescent into doing something that would be unacceptable
There's a phrase that's popular narrative therapy
the person is not the problem the problem is the problem and
This phrase is really seen throughout the theory the whole theory of narrative therapy and particularly with this
externalizing the problem technique or position
language is important to narrow the therapists self-talk course self-talk from cognitive behavioral therapy and
Questions as I mentioned a narrative therapist is curious
They asked questions about influence and the future so how does the problem influence the client?
How does the client influence the problem so kind of a Systems Theory at work here and?
What's the future hold?
There's a positive orientation, and there's a willingness to explore the future
narrative therapy of course is also willing to explore the past and look at the present as well a narrative therapist seeks to
Emphasize an alternative story to help a client to build an alternative story
They believe that positive stories lead to preferred outcomes. There's a term in narrative therapy
Unique outcomes and these are exceptions to the dominant story
Much like we would see in solution focused therapy
Narrative therapists also refer to these exceptions as sparkling moments so again emphasizing that
curiosity and good listening skills and really paying attention
There's other features we see with narrative therapy letters these can be
letters written on paper or emails or some other way of communicating
But it be written communication and these are provided after the session
They could include information about the alternative story unique outcomes, and of course they're generally supportive
Also narrative therapy as I mentioned can be used for families or with individuals, but even when it's used with individuals
There's an emphasis on including other family members so again here
We see a little bit of systems theory that work in narrative therapy
So a narrative therapist tries to deconstruct a problem saturated narrative separate the story from the client rewrite the narrative
Accurately understand this new narrative and ensure that this new narrative
Facilitates change the kind of change the client is look for one of the goals of therapy
Narrative therapists seek to reconstruct identity and have an awareness of larger societal issues
Socio-cultural and political effects that are acting on the client
So when we look at pure narrative therapy? It's a postmodern and
constructivist approach there's an emphasis on
social justice as
I mentioned before
Etiology is not a concern in there to therapy causation
So how with the limitations of narrative therapy?
Well narrative therapy has a lot of positives it also has some limitations one of the major limitations is
That there's a lack of research
Demonstrating that narrative therapy is effective. There are a number of reasons for the lack of research one of the arguments that I've heard that
Explains why there's lack of research has to do with the scientific method and the view that narrative therapists have
The scientific method is about seeking truth
But in narrative therapy knowledge is subjectively
Constructed and there is no universal truth, so some narrative therapists have made the argument that narrative therapy should be studied
qualitatively for example with the phenomenological approach and not quantitatively
that's what we usually think of with the scientific method now this argument can certainly be appreciated certainly narrative therapy has a
Philosophy that seems much more qualitative than quantitative
But really when we look at therapeutic modalities, and we try to measure effectiveness
We do so usually by
seeing if a client's goals were achieved and seeing if
Certain symptoms are reduced like reduce depression reduced anxiety
So narrative therapy certainly could be studied with the scientific method
Again, I appreciate the philosophy, and how the philosophy is a key part of the narrative therapy
But to say that narrative therapy can't be studied because it has a particular philosophy doesn't really ring true to me
The scientific method has been used to evaluate
Many many modalities over the years and narrative therapy is not an exception to that it can be studied
With the scientist method in my opinion another criticism
I hear of narrative therapy is that it's relativistic and that if pure narrative therapy is applied
An air therapist would be predisposed to have a client isolate themselves from
Social support
Now I can appreciate these criticisms, and I certainly see the relativistic criticism
Narrative therapy does appear relativistic in terms of isolating
clients from social support
Probably what's being referred to there is isolating clients from the dominant culture so again
This goes back to a philosophy and narrative therapy more so than a technique
viii narrative therapist who follows the rules of narrative therapy strictly I suppose could be tempted to
Influence a client to break away from the dominant culture
the dominant story
Which may or may not be a good thing for the client
however, this is a technique based on the ideology of narrative therapy that can be easily sidestepped a narrative therapist can adopt many of the
Principles and techniques of narrative therapy and not take it to what some would consider an extreme
Which is having the client break away from the dominant culture or dominant story?
Certainly moving away from the dominant story to an alternative story is part of the therapy, but that doesn't mean that the client has to
reject
society or reject a significant part of society that's probably taking narrative therapy really to an extreme and
I would be surprised if a large number of narrative therapists included this as part of their practice
although again with the lack of research
It's hard to be certain on this issue
So narrative therapy overall is an interesting therapy it offers a unique perspective
It values the perspective of the client, and it's creative you can use a lot of
features in storytelling when you bring storytelling and the narrative into
Therapeutic work so I like a lot of the elements of narrative therapy. I wish we had more research on it
that would be helpful and
There are some concerns about how the philosophy could be extended in a way that would not be helpful for client
Narrative therapy is a modality that I see as easily integrated into other modalities
so if someone didn't want to practice as a narrative therapist exclusively I believe they could take a lot of the
Techniques of narrative therapy and bring them in to whatever the main modality is they use for example
CBT or existential therapy
Narrative therapy I think goes along well with a lot of other modalities
I hope you found this description of narrative therapy to be interesting. Thanks for watching