Do you know what narrative therapy consists of?

We are narrative organisms. People use language constantly: when communicating, thinking, categorizing and remembering ourselves in terms of the past and future goals.. In this way, causal connections between different events are vital to maintaining the relationship, both of discourse and of one’s own identity.

For this therapy, “language” has a very important role. It is the thread that allows us to give coherence and meaning to the events we remember, the experiences we had and the emotions and sensations we experience and that build our past. That is, they are the elements that configure us as unrepeatable organisms in the present moment.

narrative therapy

This approach uses storytelling with the goal ofand rewrite people’s life stories, based on the interpretations they make. To do this, it uses different points of view and the resource of narration to present a literary or theatrical story, among others.

What are the main objectives of narrative therapy?

Well, narrative therapy has as its main objective offer the person the space to define their own life according to an adaptive narrative mode (that is good for them). The secondary objectives would be the following:

Incorporate new elements into people’s narrative. Enable the person to build a project for a better future. Be able to share these new meanings with our environment, thus facilitating a new relational dimension.

The world is a network of stories united in a temporal sequence.

People are storytellers

It may seem curious to you, but we are all storytellers. Stories that we tell others and that we also tell ourselves. Furthermore, there is usually a good part of truth in them, as well as another invented part.

We are born with a narrative impulse. Thus, we socialize and create the self, and establish an autobiographical memory that gives us meaning. The personal narrative is what we explain (and ourselves) about our own life. We are the ones who create our world and, therefore, we are responsible for the reading we make of it.

This offers us the opportunity to make the first difference between the problem and the person. From this difference arises a great opportunity, that of valuing our resources and analyze the problem from another perspective.

The story will then be presented through chained events with the corresponding interpretation that we make. From there, a narrative voice and a plot thread will be established on which you can intervene.

Likewise, the narrative itself decides what we consider and what we discard in our story. This way, Our personal history will be influenced by sociocultural factors, as well as by other more individual factors, such as our genetics.

Language is more important than you think

Language is the medium we use to create (or re-create ourselves) and present ourselves. It is also useful for managing our inner world of thoughts and feelings. Hence the importance of analyzing this language.

If we constitute our reality based on the explanations we give ourselves about it, this narrative will define what are called “effects of dominant history.” These effects are those that derive, for example, from the tone or voice of our more global or general story. Thus, if ours is a story of abandonment and loss, the effect will be melancholy.

Narrative therapy: the art of healing through words

The relevance given to language from this therapy is notable. Thanks to our abilities to make use of the linguistic universe, in addition to building our own reality, we provide meaning to the environment. Language is the vehicle that gives us the ability to see, understand and relate to everything that happens to us.

For narrative therapy, The more causal links are established between episodes, the lower the probability of falling into the clutches of mental illness.. That is, the greater the number of stories, the greater the range of coping strategies.

For example, a restrictive causal connection could be: “Since in my childhood, my parents gave little value and credit to everything I did and felt, now it is not worth trusting anyone. I’m a bad person”. The objective of establishing alternative connections is to give other explanations to past events in a kinder, more functional and more adaptive way.

Causal connections: the threads that intertwine the episodes of our lives

In order for our memories to be coherent with each other, instead of fragmented and disorganized, we unconsciously apply causal links between the events that constitute them. For example, there are people who remember a happy childhood because their parents were affectionate with them; that is, they establish “a cause” and “an effect.”

In this sense, “Causal connections” are the elements that allow us to remember the past, with the aim of organizing our present, to establish goals that lead us to our future.. In therapy, we seek to promote them. One way to do this is to invite the patient to give a name to her problem.

As a result of the intervention, the explanations that the person constructs or assumes as true for the events that happened to them in the past have the potential to increase. In other words, the number of connections increases, as a result of the verbalizations shared between the therapist and the patient.

In this way, the person has a greater number of stories and connections that link them. His autobiographical memories increase in detail and richness and this has the potential to restructure certain beliefs.

The therapeutic process of narrative therapy

The therapist’s position changes from expert to companion, while the consultant becomes a co-author of the process. This is what White points out in his book The Narrative Approach to Therapists’ Experience.

The idea of ​​the therapeutic process using narrative techniques is basically be able to find an alternative storya deconstruction of the dominant narrative, in favor of a renewed and different one.

Reflection is put in favor of this new narrative by looking for what we call isolated achievements, which are those that give us the opportunity to introduce new information and/or approach. Therefore, They give us the opportunity to build a new history and/or identity.

Therapeutic exercise seeks to help the patient find other ways to tell their story.

This technique is at the same time very simple and extremely complicated. It is simple in the sense that it represents a linguistic separation of the problem from the patient’s personal identity. What is complicated and difficult is the delicate way in which it is achieved. It is through careful use of language in the therapeutic conversation that the person’s healing is initiated and ultimately achieved.

What is new about the narrative approach is that it provides a series of questions that produce a liberating effect for people. Following this therapeutic sequence is like building an arch brick by brick. If you try to get to the last step without having laid the first bricks, your arch will not hold.

Technical description of narrative therapy

We assume that our life is the way it is, but we can always reframe it in a different way. In the background, each person can rewrite their story as they wish. exist three dimensions around the narrative matrix that enable a coherent, complex and multiple narrative:

Narrative structure: construction of meaning from one’s own experiences through a process of connection through the different narrative episodes of our lives. The structure is made up of: A beginning, which is the point from where we begin our story. We can take the example of a client who comes to the consultation for the first time and points out that he does not know where to start. One of the therapist’s answers could be “from the beginning” or “wherever it is easiest for you to start explaining your story” (this will be the beginning). A development of the story. It includes those specific events, the internal responses, the objectives of the protagonists, the actions that become, the cause and the effect and, finally, the context. An ending, which is considered when obtaining certain results and/or closure of the narrative.narrative process: It has to do with the way we explain our lives, that is, what tone we put on it (for example, dramatic commitment).Narrative content: It refers to the diversity and multiplicity of narrative production, the themes or plots that we tell, sometimes falling into the “broken record” or the rumination of old unresolved issues.

Each person builds their own life and the story they tell the world.

Narrative technique exercises

First steps to change our internal dialogue:

The internal dialogue is interrupted, as it has begun, by an act of will. You are what you say you are, however, you could change yourself if you start talking to yourself differently., to tell you that you are different. Below I present one…