Narrative Therapy Flashcards
Human Narrative RIghts
Article 1 Everyone has the right to define their experiences and problems in their own words and terms.
Article 2 Everyone has the right for their life to be understood in the context of what they have been through and in the context of their relationships with others.
Article 3 Everyone has the right to invite others who are important to them to be involved in the process of reclaiming their life from the effects of trauma.
Article 4 Everyone has the right to be free from having problems caused by trauma and injustice located inside them, internally, as if there is some deficit in them. The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem.
Human Narrative Rights 2
Article 5 Everyone has the right for their responses to trauma to be acknowledged. No one is a passive recipient of trauma. People always respond. People always protest injustice.
Article 6 Everyone has the right to have their skills and knowledges of survival respected, honoured and acknowledged.
Article 7 Everyone has the right to know and experience that what they have learnt through hardship can make a contribution to others in similar situations.
Statement of Position Maps
Externalisation
- Characterise the problem in an experience -near way
- Connect the problem in to its antecedents, effects, links with others etc
- Describe your experience of and position onthe effects ofthe problem.
- Locate this experience and position within your wider values.
Intentions
- To externalise the problem
- To characterise it in ways that make the person the expert on the problem.
- To provide a full acknowledgement of the effects of the problem.
- To link the problem in time, relationships and context.
- To enable the person to position themselves outside and in opposition to the problem.
- To locate the position in the wider values of the persons life.
Mt Elgon
Self-Help Community Project
1) Sharing stories of pride and survival
2) Outsider witness responses (acknowledge)
Principles
seek respectful non-blaming approach to counselling and community work
indiviudal is the expert in their own lives
people are not problems
people have many resouces (skills values etc) that will assist them to change the relationship with the problem
Conversations
cultivate curioristy and willingness to ask genuine questions
there are many possible directions that a conversation can take
the individual plays a significant part in determining the directions that are taken
Collaboration
Questions
How is this onversation going for you?
Should be be talking about this or would you prefer…?
Is this interesting to you?
Is this what we should be spending our time talking about?
Descriptions
narrative therapists work to bring forth and thicken stories that do not support their problems
Thin descriptions allow little space for complexity
Thin descriptions often created by others
Thin descriptions lead to thin conclusions
Thick descriptions are rich
Thick descriptions are interwoven with the stories of other people and events
Externalising Conversations
Situate the problem outside the person
how is THE …….. affecting you?
personify the problem
use IT or can it be named?
seek a metaphorical description
thorough exploration and personification of the problem
The problem in Tomm’s CirclQ
Problem
Metaphorical Exploration
The problem’s:
intentions, ideas, inspirations
purpose, plans, preferences,
techniques, tactics, tricks
allies, lies and deceptions
Play the
Dumb Therapist
Never presume to know the problem or how it works
Explore the relationship between the person and the problem
Draw upon experience of other people with the problem
Re-author relationship between the person and the problem.
History Tracing
the problem
When did you first notice the problem?
What do you remember before the problem?
When was it weakest?
When was it strongest?
Relative Influence
Questioning
How much of your life was taken up with the problem - yesterday, three weeks ago, a year ago, four years ago?
Scale it 1-10
History tracing helps the therapist establish the clients thin conclusions and times of strength and resources
Problem Story
Influence?
Discover unique outcomes
How does the problem affect you?
Sense of Self?
Activities (daily)
Health, Relationships, Work/education, Play?
Coping?
Hopes?
Statement
of Position Map
Naming the problem (a defintion which fits the meaning and experience of the person)
Effects of the problem
Evaluate - invite the person to evaluate these effects
Justify - invite the person to justify their evaluation
Problem Context
Deconstruction
do not impose ideas or thoughts
remain curious - ask questions
trace the history of the ideas around the problem
Problems are maintained by thoughts, ideas and beliefs and principles
What are the background assumptions?
What are the explanatory ideas?
What are the ‘taken for granted’ ways of living
Discover Unique Outcomes
what stands out for the client?
(does that stand out to you?)
Anything that doesn’t fit with the dominant story
Plan, action, feeling, statement, quality, desire, dream
thought, belief, ability or commitment
Can be past, present and future
Dominant vs Alternative Plot Stories
Unique Outcome
History Tracing
History Trace Unique Outcomes
Enhance Visibility
Derive Alertantive Story
Trace, ground, link and give meaning
Landscape of
Action
A story of events: experiences, sequences, time, plot
Where, when how, who? (Events)
History & Meaning trace:
how did you prepare, decide, ?
what was the reaction?
Landscape of
Identity
Explore the meaning of unique outcomes
Emerges from reflection on the landscape of action
What does that say about what…
you want…is important…you hope for?
Intentions, motives, plans, purposes
Values, skills, relationships,
Alternatively Story
Naming
Create a new story : shift between landscape of action and landscape of identity
Alternative story emerges
Name the alternative story
Statement of position map with alternative story
Alternative Story Thickening
Find an audience for the new story
remembering conversations
members of elagues, netowrks, committees, groups
participants in rituals
therapeutic documentation, symbols, objects
therapeutic letters
Re-membering
Conversations
Overcoming the isolation around problems
Find people knowledgeable about a different story of the person’s identity
Find events outside the problem influence
Link them and explore history
People are invited to explore these meanings (use landscape of identity questions).
Can be people alive/dead, real or imaginary
There is an honouring which enriches the client’s life.
Therapeutic
Documentation
As peopl re-author their lives and relationships, certain knowledges about the problem and the person’s preferences for living become clearer.
Therapuetic documentation records these preferences, knowledges and commitments so they are available for people to access at any time.
Mark important commitments or achievements
Often describe how much of a person’s life has been reclaimed from a problem’s influence.
Eg family peace document
Knowledge summaries: descriptions & strategies
Declarations and certficates
