“Every time we ask a question, we generate a possible version of a life.” David Epston
What Is Narrative Therapy?
People have a natural tendency for storytelling. Narrative therapists harness that to foster a sense of agency and reconstruct self-identity.
People choose certain experiences over others for their stories through an unconscious process. And process events through existing stories they tell themselves to identify meaning. Stories form from selecting experiences and linking them together. Stories influence people’s perspectives on viewing the world and the past.
Narrative therapy focuses on the way people construct meaning in their lives. People have a variety of experiences in their lives (stories). These stories that they hold provide them with a specific perspective and identity.
There are many alternative perspectives that the individual can take. The person can replace certain dominant narratives with another alternative through narrative therapy. Building alternative stories beyond the problem story can help see new meanings. People can create alternative stories by rearranging the sequence of linked events.
Externalize the Problem
A principle in narrative therapy is that the problem is the problem, and the problem is not in the person.
Problems arise when a person subscribes to negative self-defeat stories. The problem stories linking negative events result in the pain that the client has.
A narrative therapist helps clients feel empowered to succeed in their goals. A step is to help clients objectify the problem. The focus of viewing the problem as external contrasts with traditional psychology. In conventional psychology, the belief is that the problem resides inside the person.
Narrative therapy seeks to help clients externalize the problem in their life. By doing so, the client has separated himself from the problem they have. Externalizing the problem can help clients see the situation from a new perspective. It will also help them reduce resistance to addressing issues.
Client as the Expert
Narrative therapists create a curiosity about the issue and how it presents itself. They are not focusing on the cause of the problem.
There is no one correct direction that a therapy conversation can take. The therapist gives a self-compassionate approach and an open environment for discussions.
Narrative therapists believe the client is the expert in their own life. And hopes that the client can rediscover their strengths by removing self-defeating views. And after exploring the problem’s influence, they externalize and objectify the situation.
Some moments are outside the problem story where the issue was absent. The therapist can find those strengths by exploring cracks in the narrative. Another path is to explore the knowledge in other areas that can apply to the problem.
What Is Narrative Therapy Good For?
Narrative therapy helps deal with negative thoughts or emotions. It allows people to find their voice to uncover new meanings. Through narrative therapy, clients can find a more positive self-identity.
They can also transform hindering narratives into stories that lead to greater self-compassion. And it takes bravery to work through the problem narratives. Hence, therapists encourage individuals not to blame themselves for the problem.
It focuses on changing unhelpful stories so people can live in a way that reflects their goals. Narrative therapy helps people be more open to new ways of living. And remove the idea that they are ‘broken’ and feelings of powerlessness.
Goals of Narrative Therapy
It all starts with the belief that people can change their lives. Change happens when there is an internal shift in the person’s perspective (source). Narrative therapy has the goal of empowering clients by rewriting the problem-saturated story.
Therapy looks into the past to explore untold experiences in the life narrative. And the uncovering of events will create an emerging story for the client. The emerging stories will help construct new meanings for the clients. Also, it gives a different perspective for looking at the future in the face of circumstances.
It furthers the discovery of hope for themselves and towards the problem (source). Of course, the narrative therapist can’t create the story for the client. But the narrative therapist can help the client find his voice and retell the story in their own words.
There are faulty assumptions that the client has about life. And alternative events outside the problem that they overlooked. The collaboration is to question the problem story and add contrasting details. Contrasting details help the client know about the positive aspects they forgot (source).
Who Can Benefit from Narrative Therapy?
Anyone can use the principles of narrative therapy: telling and retelling stories. It is for people that want to replace negative stories with more positive alternatives. Storytelling has the power to connect people with unexplored parts of themselves.
Often, people ignore certain aspects of their experiences to create a ‘fitting’ narrative. The cultural element or upbringing influences their narrative. A frozen narrative places a rigid meaning on life and hides aspects of experience.
The dominant story imprisons their ability to feel empowered and see new angles. In narrative therapy, a therapist looks into experiences for an alternative narrative. And delving into experiences to find what they can add to change the narrative.
Different Uses of Narrative Therapy
Many adolescents have trouble in a new stage in life trying to explore purpose for the future. There may also be problems navigating the challenges at school. Narrative therapy can help explore this new challenge and create meaningful stories.
Exploring a new story that can help give them direction on this crossroad. Changing stories can also provide alternative perspectives and meaning to guide the future. It gives a new context to look at issues and develop self-compassion for the past.
For example, narrative therapy can re-contextualize issues that are causing anxiety. Sometimes anxiety can restrain a person from their highest potential and their interactions. A problem may cause anxiety from one angle but is insignificant from another.
Narrative therapy may also help with troubled relationships with significant others. Retelling stories can bring couples together and help to understand each other. It allows couples to appreciate their significant other. And it creates bonding again by seeing how the problem has hurt their relationship.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Narrative Therapy
Pros of narrative therapy:
- Externalize problems to give space to see the circumstances from a different perspective.
- Discover valuable lessons, hidden strengths, and potential goals through new storylines.
- Encourage people to see life with a positive outlook on their problems.
Cons of narrative therapy:
- Narrative therapists assume that there are only different interpretations of reality. There are critiques about the assumption that there is no truth.
- Clients need to be transparent and narrate the problem to the therapist. It will need recall of the details occurrence and with emotional accuracy.
- The pace may seem slow and requires a time investment from the individual or family.
- It may be uncomfortable for specific clients because of the lack of structure. Families might need to lead the sessions by detailing their problems.
- Not helpful for those who have intellectual disabilities or language issues. The therapy sessions will need communication and discussion of problem stories.
Assumptions of Narrative Therapy
- The problem is the problem, and the person is not the problem. Issues are separate from the individual.
- People create meaning and difficulties through the narratives that they tell. Personal stories affect the lenses for viewing the world.
- There are only different interpretations of reality and without a singular truth.
- People construct meaning through the different contexts of race, gender, and other things. The context influence the individual, and the individual can influence the context.
- People live their lives through stories. Hence, there are many ways to map out experiences and create meaning.
- Problems never affect 100% of an individual’s life or relationships. There will be occasions when the issue is absent, or the person escapes its influence.
- People have skills and knowledge that they can use to overcome the impact of a problem. Self-sabotaging beliefs make it hard for people to access these skills or ideas.
- Individuals are experts in their lives. They are the best judge of what would be helpful for their lives.
- People who seek help have already tried to reduce the influence of a problem.
How Does Change Occur in Narrative Therapy?
There are moments when the problem doesn’t present itself. Change happens in narrative therapy by identifying unique outcomes or sparkling moments. It can also be intentions, actions, or qualities contradicting the problem story.
Identifying unique outcomes is like discovering a black swan (source). For centuries before, people in Europe have never seen a black swan. The finding is against the previous 1,500 years of western knowledge. Bringing to light exceptions to a story will also create a significant change in perspective.
The therapist would invite the client to identify and acknowledge these contradictions. Then, through these contradictions, see beyond the problem-saturated story. Clients will realize vital aspects of their lives that they ignored.
A new storyline began as the story integrated with exceptions to the problem. Finding out the anomalies is like discovering a source of hope. From one perspective, what seems like a problem is insignificant in another.
How Does Narrative Family Therapy Conceptualize Addictions?
Narrative therapy helps people with addictions to see that the addiction is not who they are. Narrative therapist would suggest that the individual not label themselves as an addict. But as an individual having a problem with addiction (source).
People with addictions have negative beliefs that induce feelings of shame and guilt. Therapy can encourage individuals with the courage to say no to the addiction. Reimagining themselves not as the victim of the problem. But as a hero of their story and the problem as the enemy.
Yet, self-blame and negative self-identity from the old stories is a problem. It stops individuals from being able to have room to find alternative stories. Addiction is the enemy that doesn’t want the person to have self-respect or compassion.
Naming the Problem
Narrative therapists believe that candid conversations about problems can shape new realities. Naming the addiction helps with recognizing its toxic influence and destructive patterns.
Problems with addictions lead people to feel hopeless because they can’t stop. Thoughts will also center on the many failures of the past to put an end to the problem. Separating the addiction as external to the personality will ease self-judgment.
By looking at the addiction as the problem, the person will see things from a new perspective. They will see that the addiction feeds on fear and hopelessness. Reclaiming power through choosing alternative stories will break the influence of the habit.
Discovering New Perspective
Weakening the chains of negative emotions will create a way forward for new meaning. A more congruent map can give them a renewed purpose for their journey.
When a traumatic problem occurs, it disrupts an individual’s sense of purpose (source). The development of stories in their lives will push them to look at the past in a new light. The past in a new light rebuilds self-identity and helps makes sense of what happened.
Recounting stories and crafting new narratives for what happened will create coherence. Memories connect to help individuals construct meaningful narratives (source). Addictions disrupt the person from their process of finding meaning and coherence. But the continuity of meaning and purpose is essential for having a stable identity.
Patterns in Narratives
People with addictions repeat behaviors that produce the same destructive results. Therapists help clients identify these fruitless behaviors, feelings, and thoughts patterns.
The patterns result from problems stemming from the dominant narratives (source). Holding to rigid narratives prevents knowing other possibilities of experiences and meaning.
Since rigid narratives become a restriction, the individual must engage with new ideas. New ideas, in this case, are the person’s alternative experiences. Experiences that they have ignored in the past. Exploring new ideas creates perspectives that can allow the disengagement of past patterns.
Immobilizing Effects of Dominant Narratives
Novel perspectives can help replace despair with hope. Despair is the absence of hope. Hope is important since chronic addictions come from hopelessness (source). Dominant stories of despair shape the experiences in a way that prevents recovery.
Clients need to replace these dominant stories with stories that support recovery. Yet, it is hard to escape the stranglehold when the stories create a fixed perspective. The rigidity prevents identifying exceptions, seeking only confirmations of the beliefs (source).
There is the error of believing that the problem speaks of their identity (source). In this way, individuals view issues as speaking certain defining truths of themselves. The power of labeling has an overarching effect that affects self-identity and recovery.
How Is Narrative Therapy Used in Family Therapy?
Family narrative therapy provides a safe space for families to collaborate. It provides a safe space where everyone can explore old and new stories together. Externalizing and joining forces against the problem creates bonding (source).
Therapists work with a family with respectful curiosity about their experiences and problems. Respectful curiosity is, in this sense, listening and asking non-invasive questions (source). The approach removes negative labeling and allows an outside view of their experiences.
The members can tell their perspective of the problem and how it has affected them. Sharing each of their views provides different interpretations and encourages different meanings. Then, the therapist asks questions about these different interpretations to find unique outcomes.
The unique outcomes will show the family moments when the problem was not in the foreground. These alternative events that they ignored encourage positive alternative narratives. Highlighting the absence of the problem empowers the family and fosters change.
The Goals for Family Therapy
In family therapy, members can witness the stories of other members. The therapist uses non-imposing questions to deconstruct problems to create alternative narratives.
The focus is not eliminating specific stories. Instead, the goal is to provide a multi-faceted perspective on experiences. Various angles on an experience foster different choices to relate to what happened.
A lot of times, members of a family may only have a narrow view of a problem. Yet, there are many experiences a person can choose from to create a story for meaning. But, only a selected few become part of shaping the story of a person’s life (source).
When individuals come for family therapy, they may already have prominent narratives. And share specific stories or have found different meanings in them. Narrative therapists focus on collaborating with these stories to create a richer storyline.
Process of Narrative Therapy in the Family Setting
Yet, using narrative principles in a family context is difficult. Family members must listen to each other instead of focusing on their own stories. They need to take the witness position, which eases the process.
When one member tells the story, the other members should take on the witnessing position. As a witness, their job is listening and understand the story the other member tells. Afterward, they can contribute their ideas to enrich and add to the story.
Therapists may encourage members to avoid taking a neutral position on the problem. The members are not supposed to be judging the correctness of the interpretations. It is a collective discussion to contribute greater understanding (source).
How Long Does Narrative Therapy Take?
There is no predetermined length to how long narrative therapy sessions will be. The time necessary depends on the trauma and the effectiveness of the treatment.
The recommendation is for four twelve-hour sessions that are 90 minutes each. A source shows improvements in the clients after three to six sessions.
What Are the Steps in Narrative Therapy?
There are three major steps for narrative therapy:
- Map out the influence of the problem.
- Externalize the problem.
- Find unique outcomes.
In these three key steps are other stages. But narrative therapy is less like a structured course. Instead, narrative therapy is like an exploratory conversation about a problem.
Discovering the Problem’s Influence
The first step is to discuss what the issue is for the client. At this step, the therapist will focus on the language of the description. And questions the history and context of the problem or its effects on the client’s life.
Externalize the Problem
Externalizing the problem is giving a name reflective of the problem (source). Objectifying with a name helps make the issue more precise and allows a feeling of control. And it helps create a mindset where the problem is separate from the client.
Externalizing conversations by objectifying the problem lessens the problem’s influence. It makes it easier for the client to discuss the possibility of a problem-free storyline.
Externalizing conversations removes the feeling of a problem dominating present experiences. It lessens the fixation of the client’s perspective on the problem experiences alone. And it allows the exploration of other parts of their experiences in their life.
Search for Unique Outcomes
The search for ‘unique outcomes’ is to look for times when the problem is not dominant in its influence. Accessing the uniques outcomes is like finding the cracks in a story. It removes the stronghold of a dominant story and brings an alternative narrative. It disproves the dominant story and adds details of when the problem didn’t exist.
The therapist asks questions about actions or intentions that contradict the dominant story. And breaking the dominant story shifts the client’s perspective in a different direction. But from a different angle, a person might see a problem with a more positive outlook.
Unique outcomes deny the possibility of only a problem-saturated story for the client. And adds a more detailed description to a story with clarifying questions.
What Is Deconstruction Technique in Narrative Therapy?
Deconstruction in narrative therapy is reducing a problem. The process helps to understand a problem’s larger context better. It is to find the root of the problem by making the issue more specific.
Clients often come with a problem that requires the therapist to uncover. Deconstruction reduces the generalization of the problem. The therapist can use the deconstruction technique to find the core issues.
Problems are not unsolvable, even if it is confusing or overwhelming. A general statement does not help describe or resolve the issue. So, the therapist would deconstruct the problem by asking specific questions.
Examples of Narrative Therapy Questions
“Effective therapy is about engaging people in the re-authoring of the compelling plights of their lives in ways that arouse curiosity about human possibility and in ways that invoke the play of imaginations” — Michael White.
For example, let’s put narrative therapy in a setting with a client with depression. The client might have depressive thoughts and emotions that are troubling. The client says it is impossible to find any meaning in life anymore.
In this situation, the therapist can ask more specific questions. The therapist can use questions to delve deeper into what is bothering the client. Overgeneralized statements don’t state what the core issue or problem is.
The therapist can ask specific questions to figure out the situation:
- How long has this problem bothered you?
- When did you first have this problem of meaninglessness or emptiness?
- Are there general themes to the problem, like a specific emotion?
- How long have you been noticing this pattern?
The therapist can try to externalize the problem by giving it a name. Clients often believe the problem tells something about their personality. Externalizing the problem frees the client to see a new life without the issue:
- What would be an appropriate way to describe the situation that you are having?
- Can we call this problem that you are facing ‘emptiness’ or ‘loneliness’?
- Would that be an appropriate name to describe the issue?
Next, the therapist can ask more deconstructive questions after externalizing the problem. The therapist can start by understanding the extent of the problem’s influence:
- How had ‘emptiness’ affected your relationships?
- How had the ‘isolation’ affected your communication with your family?
- When did you first notice that the ‘addiction’ erodes your work and career?
- What are the effects of ‘sadness’?
- How does ‘sadness’ affect your relationships with others?
- How does ‘blame’ jeopardize your relationship with your children?
Understanding the problem’s influence, then uncover the story’s ‘black swans’. Noticing these moments helps build a positive alternative story. These questions encourage the client to step out of the past and view it from the outside:
- Were there moments the problem wasn’t present?
- Did you remember times when ‘emptiness’ was not present in your day?
- Are there other areas of your life that you don’t feel the ‘anxiety’ affecting you?
- Do you do any activities in your past where the ‘emptiness’ became absent?
- Can you describe the last time you felt free from the influence of the ‘grief’ in your life?
- Have you been able to get the upper hand against the problem in the past?
Narrative Therapy vs. Narrative Exposure Therapy
Narrative exposure therapy (NET) bases itself on the science of traumatic stress. But, narrative exposure therapy and narrative therapy are different. Unlike narrative therapy, NET is a treatment for individuals suffering from trauma.
The significant difference between narrative exposure therapy and narrative therapy is their priority. Narrative exposure therapy focuses on helping clients with trauma to reconstruct their memories. Narrative therapy helps retell and enrich a person’s life story to find more meaning.
When clients base their lives on the trauma, it leads to a feeling of constant distress. When they use narrative therapy, a story can have more positive events. Clients shouldn’t let trauma influence their perception of present experiences and well-being.
In traumatized individuals, they have fragmented biographies of their lives. There is a lack of coherence, and their memory doesn’t quite function the same (source). The problem is the loss in the connection between what people call hot memory and cold memory.
Hot memories are the emotions, sensory details, and physiological symptoms of an experience. Cold memories are the facts that a person’s memory connects with the traumatic event.
Hot Memory:
- Increased heartbeat
- Gasoline smell during the incident
- Sound of bullets
- Smell of fire
- Thoughts of helplessness
- Sweating
- Fear or panic
Cold Memory:
- Place
- Time of the Day
- The people that were there
- The surrounding
- Details of the event
- Who, What, When, Where of the event
- Facts of the event
Disconnection in Memory Context
The problem is when more hot memories become cued to sensor elements of the trauma. In that case, many things will trigger the event and activate the feelings of trauma (source). The aspect of fear triggers in the present when elements related to the trauma appear.
The lack of cold memories can cause nightmares and frequent flashbacks. It causes traumatic individuals to replay those feelings of hopelessness. Thus, NET works to reconstruct the autobiographical memory and narrative.
Sometimes there is a need to reconstruct a person’s entire biography. The client needs a therapist to help sketch together a timeline, so there is a clear narrative.
Producing a Cohesive Narrative
A coherent narrative will help clients reduce their trauma anxiety (source). Connect hot memories with the cold memories to provide the trauma with a context. A cohesive narrative is essential because an extensive trauma produces more PTSD triggers.
The therapist may ask the client questions about the context of the problem. Asking the client to describe in the past tense to prevent having flashbacks:
- What were you doing before the event happened?
- Do you remember the people that you were with at the time?
- What was the time of the event?
These questions refill the missing details and facts in the client’s memories. The fragmented memories become coherent, and the trauma becomes understood. It connects the dots and removes the triggers that belong to traumatized memories.
Narrative Therapy vs. Psychodynamic
The difference between psychodynamic therapy and narrative therapy is their approach and principles.
A psychodynamic therapist focuses more on the underlying forces and drives for patterns. But narrative therapist focuses on exploring alternative stories from experiences.
In psychodynamic therapy, there is a focus on the past and its connection to the present. Psychodynamics is about examining the past to resolve current problems and patterns.
In narrative therapy, there is also the attention to experiences. But, the purpose is to bring the ignored experiences to replace dominant stories.
Another difference is their view of the cause or origin of the problem. The narrative therapist doesn’t view the problem as an internal cause. And the therapist externalizes the problem to create an alternative story.
In psychodynamic therapy, the therapist might examine the unconscious motivators for beliefs. In psychodynamics, experiences are the determinant for present behaviors and actions. The therapist helps bring awareness of the unconscious to shed light on issues.
Exploring Psychodynamics
Psychodynamics is an approach to psychology (source). Psychodynamics studies the workings of conscious and unconscious motivation. It is also about how behaviors and emotions might connect to childhood experiences.
The psychodynamics approach refers to the theories of Sigmund Freud and his followers. Their theories try to explain the origin of human behavior. They theorize that the unconscious determines all behaviors.
Sigmund Freud believes that the unconscious part of our mind stores experiences. And this unconscious part of the mind influences the behavior of a person. Yet, these unconscious factors are uncontrollable.
Process of Psychodynamic
A psychodynamic therapist encourages speaking with freedom about whatever is on their mind. Successful treatment is not only relieving symptoms but increases psychological capabilities. And successful therapy should remove the bondage of the past so a client lives more in the present.
The therapist guides the clients through the examination of unresolved inner conflicts. In psychodynamics, the analysis of the past may lead to greater self-awareness. Past events foster awareness by awareness of their connection to beliefs and feelings. They assume that understanding unconscious patterns and causes can resolve chronic problems.
There is a focus on psychodynamics to notice recurring patterns or themes (source). And they may identify self-sabotaging patterns but are unable to escape them. While in other cases, the clients are unaware of patterns, so the therapist help to recognize them.
Clients may have unconscious patterns of avoidance of troubling experiences. The therapist tries to explore any patterns of avoidance towards feelings or thoughts. Helping to put words to describe disturbing feelings they may not recognize (source).
What Kind of Therapy Is Narrative Therapy?
Narrative therapy is a form of postmodern psychotherapy. It focuses on the stories and experiences of the client to help empower their lives.
Psychotherapy is a general term for therapies that try to treat mental problems. People who seek psychotherapy don’t need to have a mental illness. People that are trying to overcome stress and anxiety in their life can also seek help.
For people with challenges, psychotherapy aims to help them find better coping skills. Clients learn a sense of agency in their life as well as have a better understanding of themselves.
Psychotherapy presents a safe and confidential collaborative environment between client and therapist. There are over hundreds of psychotherapy techniques. It aims at helping clients change behaviors, increase happiness, and overcome challenges.
Why Is Narrative Therapy Considered a Postmodern Therapy?
It is a postmodern therapy because it emphasizes the client’s unique subjective experience. It doesn’t fit the client’s story into a master narrative. Instead, they assume no absolute truth. And the therapist works to create interpretations of experiences.
Contrast of Postmodernism to Modernism
Narrative therapy is a postmodern therapy. Postmodernism is a kind of therapy that is in contrast with modernism philosophy. A simplified way to view the difference between a modernist versus a postmodernist:
Modernist: Believes in the sense of absolute truth and relies on scientific fact.
Postmodernist: Believes that people or society construct their sense of reality.
In postmodernism, there is a critique of the assumptions of truths in society. Instead, it assumes a subjective reality that connects with a person’s observational process.
The perceived reality comes from language, culture, and political factors. Taking it a step further, since reality is a social construct, you can reconstruct/reframe it.
They believe one truth is not above another. And truth should not be from society and the culture’s determination. While postmodernism questions whether ‘truth’ can apply to everyone. A postmodernist believes individuals have their truths because facts are mere relative interpretations.
Postmodernism Approach In Narrative Therapy
The postmodernist approach to psychology is removing any diagnostic labeling. And prefer focusing on the client’s own subjective experience (source). In postmodern narrative therapy, the experiences have no absolute truth or meaning.
The assumption is that meaning comes from the way people link experiences together. There are no absolute truths or meanings that people can state outside of these stories. And in constructing the events, people are shaping their purpose. In its conclusion, people choose the experience to include and the meaning to give (source).
The postmodern therapist assumes a person’s identity comes from their stories. Identity, meaning, and goals result from social interactions of stories (source).
The narrative therapist puts the client’s voice before cultural or societal beliefs(source). Cultural narratives can become oppressive and affect the client’s own stories.
Comparison of Therapeutic Approach
A modernist approaches therapy by observing the client and comparing to criteria. And the observation would include the client’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Hence, the therapist would give guidance to move the client to match a set of criteria (source).
A modernist therapist would define themselves apart from their clients. It sources from the belief that the therapist and not the client have expertise on what is best(source).
In contrast, the postmodernist narrative therapist believes the expertise is in the client. And narrative therapist focuses on expanding the client’s expertise in their life. The assumption is that the client has knowledge that can use for positive change.
The postmodern therapist doesn’t compare the client’s experience to a master narrative. And there are no interactions to bring out the cause of the existing problems (source). The focus is towards the present story that occupies the client.
The postmodernist is not interested in whether the client’s story fits specific criteria. And they focus on co-constructing a story with the client to find greater empowerment.
Is Narrative Therapy a Systemic Therapy?
Narrative therapy is not a systemic therapy.
Systemic therapy is another kind of psychotherapy. It focuses on groups and individuals’ interactions within that group.
Systemic therapy examines a person’s interaction with his environment and connection with well-being. The focus could be on a person’s social interactions and behaviors. Systemic therapy assumes that psychological well-being interconnects within a system.
The Focus of Systemic Therapy
The systemic therapist starts with the assumption you cannot understand individuals in isolation. They see family as an emotional part of a larger group dynamic of a system. And they assume that groups have a prominent role in psychological recovery. They believe all behaviors are a communication, including silence.
The system is the social groups, the social role, including the communication pattern. Systemic therapist believes problems happen when there are flaws in the system. A system is like a machine. If one part doesn’t work, it affects the entire machine’s working.
A person interconnects with the group dynamic even if they are not a family. So a systemic therapist examines the system’s dynamics to fix the problem. The therapist focuses on present-day patterns rather than looking into the past. It looks at the operating beliefs or behaviors causing the dysfunction.
Differences in Therapeutic Process
Systemic therapy is like narrative therapy. The therapist views the problem as apart from the client. The systemic therapist would consider that the system is creating the problem.
The purpose of systemic therapy is to help the group resolve a problem. And it also includes improving the relationship and their communications with each other. The individual works with the therapist to understand the patterns of the system. Another motive is to help the individual better understand how they relate to others.
Systemic therapy fulfills this aim by reducing distress or conflict in the group. The problem is usually the result of deep-rooted patterns in the group’s interactions. Hence, a systemic therapist starts with understanding the system instead. A strategy that contrasts with viewing the problem in isolation on the individual.
Is Narrative Therapy Good for Depression?
Narrative therapy can help individuals that are struggling with the problem of depression. The problem lies in the client’s narrative from a narrative therapy perspective. Having a disabling narrative about depression prevents the adoption of other views.
People with the problem of depression may view the situation as internal. When the client considers the problem internal in them, it removes the power for change. The issue is that this framework prevents overcoming the feeling of hopelessness.
For people with depression, the origin of the problem may be different. For specific individuals, the cause could be the trauma of the past that they had gone through. But it could also be the anxiety of meeting particular challenges in their life.
Helping the client see themselves as individuals having a problem is the first step. The step removes the false framework of viewing themselves being the problem. The therapist would focus on the language describing the situation in their conversation.
Individuals with depression would often engage in the patterning of negative self-talk. The client must first externalize the problem. The negative self-talk prevents change to a state of empowerment.
