Narrative Therapy

There are many therapy models that therapist study and get trained on. In my case, when I discovered Narrative Therapy I felt this model concurred with the way I see the world and people.

You are the expert in your life

Narrative therapy is a therapy model developed by Michael White and David Epston. This therapy model considers that the client/consultant is the expert, not the therapist. This makes sense to me because you are the expert in your life, not me.

The therapist role is one of an expert in making questions, the therapist is someone trained in formulating questions that lead the client to new perspectives and new understandings that probably the client/consultant has not consider.

Considering different perspectives

Narrative therapy allows you to see different perspectives. I imagine it this way: if I am trying on a dress and I am looking at myself in a single mirror, I only get to see one perspective of myself; however, if I am looking at myself in a mirror that offers multiples views, like those mirrors where you can see the sides of you, the back, I could see multiple perspectives of myself that I could not see if I was in a single mirror.

Seeing us from multiple perspectives helps us to arrive to new understandings.

You are not the problem

Another important point in narrative therapy is that the problem is the problem and the person is the person. For example, if I live with anxiety and I say: "I am anxious". This is a totalizing identity, a single and problematic identity, I am saying "I am the problem". However, if I say: "I live with anxiety", then I have more possibilities, I am many more things than my problem, I am many more things than "anxiety". Then I have the possibility of exploring stories of moments where I have defeated anxiety, where I have been able to control "anxiety".

If I say "I am anxious", this is a totalizing story that does not help. However, if I say "I live with anxiety", then as a therapist I would ask you: how is your relationship with anxiety, when did this relationship started, at what moments do you keep anxiety under control, at what moments in your life anxiety comes to visit, in what circumstances does anxiety takes advantage and becomes more powerful, what relationship do you want to have with anxiety.

These questions could help us to understand how the problem operates and could help us to discover stories where you have been able to control the problem. I am sure there are small stories of success in which you have defeated your problem; narrative therapy helps to make those stories bigger. When we thicken those chapters of success, you will start seeing yourself in a different way.

Notice how I talk about problems as something external. We have many more possibilities when we talk about problems as something external vs when we talk about problems as us being the problem.

Understanding your context

In narrative therapy it is important to understand the client's context. I am interested in knowing about your particular circumstances, about what values are important to you, what obstacles and barriers that others don't face you have to deal with. I want to know how is it to be you in this world.

Dominant ideas

Narrative therapy also helps us to question ideas and dominant discourses that we consider truths. Rarely we question where do we learn, where did we hear how success, masculinity, beauty, forgiveness, etc. look like. Therapists refer to the process of questioning where these ideas come from as deconstruction.

I am sure that inside you there is a lot of wisdom. Some refer to this knowledge as intuition. I can assure you that many times I have witness how my clients know how to solve their problems. However, when we are overwhelmed it is difficult to connect with that knowledge. Therapy can be an opportunity to connect with that internal wisdom that has always been there.