Narrative Therapy was developed to help people separate themselves from their problems. The idea is that this will help the person use the skills that they already possess to minimize the problems that exist in their everyday lives. The Narrative Therapy approach was developed by Social Workers Michael White (Australia) and David Epston (New Zealand) during the 1970s-1980s. “White proclaimed is work to be exclusively that of ‘rich story development’ “(Gallant).
Narrative therapy is a form of Gestalt therapy because it focuses on the clients’ personal responsibility. Narrative therapy helps the client’ navigate their own issue and come up with solution that they will be able to honor and stick with. They are both a form of psychotherapy and
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The provider is strictly there to ask questions in an almost investigative fashion to aid the client in their thoughts. The questions that are asked are important because they are supposed to help the client in identifying what steps that can take to remedy their problem. “White believed the dominant problem story, brought to therapy, blinded people to the preferred and alternative stories of their lives and relationships. It is through that particular way White asked questions and listened doubly that he was able to facilitate contexts in which the rich descriptions of alternative stories were made possible”(Gallant).
Narrative therapy is evidence based because the provider is using an intervention that has been about for 15+ years. It has also been widely used and can be used with a number or populations. There is ample amount of research done on narrative therapy and it falls in line with being tailored to the clients’ needs along with clinical practice and
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I came across many articles where the narrative approach was used on children with many types of problems ranging from something like having problems sleeping at night to eating disorders. “A recent study suggests extreme worry in children in associated with negative beliefs about problem-solving, specifically poor problem-solving confidence and low perceived problem-solving control”(Gallant, 2013). Children who possess poor problem-solving skills will benefit greatly from Narrative therapy because they are given the opportunity to work through their problems and eventually will realize that they created their
Overall this genre of conversational narrative is useful to those who need to “reconstruct and make sense of actual and possible life experiences” (7). There are pieces to a story that may not come as clear to a person who has been through traumatic situations, and storytelling is used to help not only with getting the story straight, but for healing as well.
The theory that I chose to analyze in this paper is the constructivist approach with a dual use of both the Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT) and Narrative Therapy. In my worldview change happens when an individual is motivated to persist and accomplish their goals. In my own personal philosophy, I am optimistic that every student is capable of discovering a solution that best fits in solving their problem and that everything we do in life is interconnected to helping us accomplish our ideal goals. I plan to work with first generation college students after completing the Educational Counseling program at USC and see the Constructivist approach to best accommodate the needs of first generation college student population. I see every
Healing occurs when students are able to externalize their relationship with their factors that are creating problems for them both in and out of the classroom. In Sharf’s (2015) “Theories of Psychotherapy and Counseling: Concepts and Cases” book, she explains how a constructivist does not focus on the origin of the problem, but centers on the external factors in place that stimulate how the student views and approach their problems (p.457). From an SFT perspective, s student had the resources to solve their own problems and the counselor has a role in bringing students in realizing it in solving their problems (p. 457). From a narrative therapy perspective views people’s lives being consumed through narratives that are greatly influenced by culture, environment etc. Changing a narrative via different points of view assist the students to work through their problems (p.466).
Frequently, adoptive families are struggling with issues of attachment, intimacy, and fear of abandonment (Suddeath, Kerwin, & Dugger, 2017). In fact, “Deep seated cultural beliefs in the values of kinship and maternal instinct cause us to view child relinquishment in terms of rejection and abandonment. Adoptees for which the adoption experience is a salient concern [may] tend to attribute relationship difficulties to that experience” (Feeney, Passmore, & Peterson, p. 141, 2007). Clearly, establishing a new family unit may be difficult due to unrealistic expectations, individual perceptions and social constructs (Shalay & Brownlee, 2007). As a result, adoptive families are at high risk for experiencing stress, relationship issues, and stigma
Another systemic family therapy approach is the narrative perspective, which assumes that social systems are constituted by narratives that characterize the behavior of the participants. It draws attention to communicative, linguistic, and language-philosophical identity construction processes. By deconstructing previous self-narratives, the view is directed to alternative stories. Therapeutically, they are brought forth through practices of “solution talk” (de Shazer), the “deconstruction of dominant narratives” (White), and in reflecting teams (Andersen) (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013).
In narrative therapy, the therapist is a collaborator or consultant; clients are the true experts on their lives (Carr, 1998). Therapists who utilize narrative therapy work with clients from all walks of life with an array of conditions. Narrative therapy can be used to help children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. It can also be a beneficial intervention for couples, families, and community settings. The problems and disorders that may benefit from this therapeutic approach include, but aren’t limited to family conflict and marital concerns, mood disorders like anxiety and depression, loss and grief, childhood conduct problems, anger management, trauma, substance abuse and addiction. Carr (1998) credits narrative therapy for covering a vast amount of areas because the main goal of this intervention is to help the client deconstruct the problem-saturated dominant story and to thereby create opportunities to choose among other, more preferred
This paper examines historical movements and theories considered in the developing the framework of narrative therapy and reduces each of them to two approaches, either an interpsychic or intrapsychic perspective. The combined use of these theories has provoked the authors to attempt to explicate the most effective and accurate method of how to encourage improvements of therapeutic observations in narrative therapy.
Weisel-Barth, J 2014 ‘Review of “The Stories We Tell”’, International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, Vol.9(2), p.162-166, DOI: 10.1080/15551024.2014.884526
In this third and final reaction paper this writer will be discussing the following therapies; Feminist therapy, Postmodern approaches including Narrative therapy and Solution-focused therapy, as well as Family systems therapy. Throughout this class we have extensively researched, analyzed and studied many different psychotherapies. In doing so this writer has been able to gain a better understanding of the therapies that work with the age group this writer has chosen to work with, and which ones are not as beneficial. Trying to figure out this writer’s own individual style has been quite the task, in writing this final paper this writer hopes to find a combination of therapies that best represents my own personal beliefs and values.
Cook-Cotton, C. (2004). Using Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development to Understand the Construction of Healing Narratives. Journal of College Counseling, 7(2), p.177-186. Retrieved from PsycINFOdatabase.
The counselor accomplishes the above by expressing empathy, developing discrepancies, going along with resistance and supporting self-efficacy. Moreover, the counselor guides the client toward a solution that will lead to permanent posi...
Motivational interviewing is an important technique and counseling style that was created by William Miller and Stephen Rollnick in the 1980’s. The brief definition of motivational interviewing (MI) that is provided by Miller and Rollnick in their influential text is “a collaborative conversation style for strengthening a person’s own motivation and commitment to change” (Miller & Rollnick, 2013). Motivational interviewing is considered to be a style that evolved from client-centered therapy. The style is considered to be empathic but requires the counselor to consciously directive so that they may help their client resolve the ambivalence they are experiencing and direct them towards change. The important thing to note is that client autonomy is key to the process (Hettema, Steele, & Miller, 2005). However, despite being able to currently give a definition of MI, one that could be considered a working definition, motivational interviewing is “a living, evolving method” (Miller & Rollnick, 2009). It will continue to evolve as times change and it is implemented in use with other maladaptive behaviors. MI is a relatively new style that it still has the ability to undergo changes to adapt to what purpose it is serving (Miller & Rollnick, 2009).
Using narratives to gain an insight into human experience is becoming an increasingly popular method of exploration. Assuming that people are in essence narrative beings that experience every emotion and state through narrative, the value of exploring these gives us a unique understanding. Narrative is thought to act as instrument to explore how an individual constructs their own identity (Czarniawska, 1997) and explain how each individual makes sense of the world around them (Gabriel, 1998). It may also give us an understanding into individual thought processes in relation to individual decision making practices (O’Connor, 1997). It is evident from studies such as Heider and Simmel (1944), that there appears to be an instinctive nature in people to introduce plots structures and narratives into all situations, with an intention to construct meaning to all aspects of life in its entirety. The value of narrative is that it is a tool that allows us to understand what it means to be human and gives us an insight into a person’s lived experience whilst still acknowledging their cultural and social contexts. Narrative is thought to be significance as it is ‘a fruitful organizing principle to help understand the complex conduct of human beings (p.49)’ (Sarbin, 1990) The construction of a person’s narrative is thought to be dependent on each person’s individual awareness of themselves and the circumstances that surround them. However, a debate to whether a person is able to formulate a valid narrative in the face of a mental illness such as schizophrenia has emerged. Sufferer’s symptoms are often thought to interfere with their abilities to perceive within a level deemed acceptable to their society’s norms and therefore the validity ...
Another noteworthy feature of this approach is the chance to empathize. In most forms of therapy, empathy is not used: why would you want to add more conflict to an already difficult situation? Well, as counterintuitive as it may seem, it does have standing. By definition empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of another person. In this context empathy serves as an indirect way for readers to relive and recall their own experiences. The power of empathy is often overlooked. “Humans and other higher primates appear to be predisposed to empathy, to respond emotionally to [a] secure sense of self . . .” (O’Conner). This is significantly better than just plunging into one’s past without buffer material. This feature is also what makes
The healing process often occurs through writing an autobiography or biography because the writer soon begins to feel that others should learn from his/her experience, which bridges self-suffering and the outside world. Pathography demonstrates that healing oneself often involves reaching out to others, which writing does.