Narrative Therapy Flashcards
How does Narrative Therapy explain how and why people develop psychopathology or problems of life?
Narrative therapy’s theory of psychopathology is that client has gotten stuck using ineffective solutions or the client believes in an unhealthy, pathology-based self, couple, or family narrative.
How does Narrative Therapy explain the role of the therapist and their primary tasks in helping the client?
Therapists see themselves as “participant observers” who “act with” clients collaboratively rather than “acting on” clients. Primary tool is questioning. They view resistance as natural and as the responsibility of the therapist, not the fault of the client. They see diagnoses as unhelpful.
What are some of the specific therapy techniques or skills used in Narrative Therapy?
- primary tool is questioning
- externalizing conversations
- unique account and re-description questions: invite actions that contradict the problem story
- Carl Rogers with a twist: reflecting back what the client said, but shifting present to past, global to partial, factual to perceptual- directing clients toward the positive.
- Letter writing
- Exception questions
- The “Do Something Different” task
Exception questions
Solicit minor evidence that the client’s problem is not always present. Ex: When does the problem appear to happen less?
Used in Narrative Therapy and Solution Focused Brief Therapy
Externalizing conversations
Designed to help clients push their problems outside the intrapsychic realm. Through problem externalization, clients can dissociate from problems, look at them from greater distances, and develop strategies for eliminating them. Ex: How long have you been working against this opiate problem?
Narrative Exposure Therapy
An evidence-based treatment approach that integrates traditional exposure therapy principles with narrative storytelling to help individuals who have experienced repeated traumatic events. Originally developed for use in refugee camps and sometimes implemented by nonmetal health providers.
Narrative Therapy
A respectful approach that empowers clients to be experts in their own lives; it separates the person from the problems and helps individuals break free from internalized social, cultural, and political oppression and rewrite their life stories as adaptive themes.
Re-authoring/Re-remembering:
The process in Narrative Therapy of crafting a different narrative for past experiences
Unique outcomes or sparkling moments
Glimmers of hope that indicate progress. Therapists will take note of these with questions like, “How did you manage that?” Used in Narrative Therapy and SFBT
Carl Rogers with a twist
Reflecting back what the client said, but shifting present to past, global to partial, factual to perceptual- directing clients toward the positive.
