CON 610 Final – Narrative Therapy – Flashcards

-founders of narrative therapy -trained as social workers -mutual interest in anthropology as a basis for family therapy -influenced by the cultural transformation of the 1960s, which questioned everything

-rooted in social constructivist theory: no objective social reality, -analysis of power important (rooted in Foucault's ideas) - power is seen as determining the truths by which society operates, -power and knowledge are inseparable -because therapy is part of the domains of knowledge/power, possible for it to become a form of social control - a critical evaluation of our actions as counselors in terms of power is in order -Narrative counselor is aware that therapy is a form of social/political action because NT supports and encourages clients to question the dominant stories of their cultures -emphasizes health and strengths -leads to questioning of traditional psychological perspectives -reject terms like client, patient, counseling, therapy, and treatment

-don't spend a lot of time talking about what motivates people -might be seen as limited the possibilities of persons to create their own versions of a meaningful life -would view the tendency to create meaning as a central feature of human existence

-human life is a series of stories created over time through our attempts to connect events in our experiences and derive meaning from them -process starts when we connect a number of events into a plot or the beginnings of a story - becomes easy to gather more events that are consistent with the story line; events become "privileged"over other events and are included in what becomes the dominant story -alternate stories - aspects of our experience that do not get included in or are hidden by dominant stories - often important in helping our clients -stories are not created in isolation - are created through the interactions we have with others -also heavily influenced by the culture in which the person participates -cultural discourse and dominant discourse - refer to culturally based "truths" that influence our lives -those who don't comply are marginalized -problem-saturated story - what people bring to counseling

-refers to the qualities of the stories people tell -think stories contain few events and are relatively sparse in details -thick stories are very elaborate and rich in nature -stories get thick because they are told again and again and are usually embellished with each telling - more detail and description are added each time -dominant stories are rich and thick; alternative stories tend to be sparse and thin -how the problem-saturated story is viewed is a matter of perspective -from the perspective of the dominant culture, forms of "psychopathology" carry rich, detailed stories that serve to reinforce the existing power structure -however, when thinking about the individual who is burdened by the "psychopathology" one can also see the problem-saturated story as relatively think and unitary because it contains a label and cultural discourse and tends to obscure the uniqueness of the individual and the power politics inherent in the label -problem-saturated stories also very restricted views of the person that don't include details about her strengths and competence

-events that are not part of the dominant, problem-saturated story -they are the exceptions to the problem's rule and are very important in helping clients escape the tyranny of the problem -often found in alternate stories -usually become part of the preferred story (therapy goals) -therapist is very interested in these and spends a lot of time asking questions about them, getting the client to expand on her description -5 different types of unique outcomes: action, reflection, protest, reconceptualization, and new experiences

-dont' have much use for traditional, stage-oriented theories of development -usually more interested in the client's unique trajectory through life, her cultural context, and her personal understanding of the current situation -White had begun to explore the usefulness of Vygotsky's developmental theory, which emphasizes that development occurs in relation to others -White drew from this the concept of scaffolding - the process by which adults help children distance from their lived experience so that they can learn the relationship between events and behaviors thereby developing a more sophisticated sense of self. Involves asking lots of questions (e.g. "what happens if you remove that block from your block sculpture?"). Often people who come for counseling have had little of this kind of experience, which leads to deficits in knowledge of the self -we are all multistoried - how we behave in a given situation depends on which story has the most influence at that point in time. -however, mainstream western society is so individualistic, we cling to the idea that we have one self and experience others in the same way - these understandings are heavily influenced by dominant cultural discourses operating around individuals

-individuals come to therapy because the stories by which they are living do not sufficiently represent their life experiences; or doesn't fit their view of how things are or should be -some have attempted to identify commonalities across clients in terms of problem stories - e.g. Ongoing conflict, Not Being Appreciated, A Continual Lack of Trust -another suggested two central narratives - Fear and Love -preferred narrative - closest thing to a "healthy person" - the client presents with a problem-saturated story that she experiences as not fitting her life experience, the therapist then helps the client find the preferred story

-place where client tells the therapist a story, therapist listens, and the two make what they can out of it -discussions also called re-authoring conversations, which are those that help clients find stories that have been obscured by the problem-saturated

-not very likely to use formal assessment because traditional models of assessment assume a single reality to which the therapist has access and they tend to be pathology-oriented and may ignore cultural or other contextual factors -assessment is seen as a continuous process focused on understanding clients' perspectives on their lives -particular attention paid to cultural and other contexts of the client's experiences -multiple perspectives are honored -a thorough explanation of the problem is critical in the NT approach - examining the problems tricks, intentions, plans, motives, and deceits and lies- externalizing it

-therapeutic process that proceeds at the pace of the client -client's language is privileged rather than the therapist's -common for therapist to overtly check with the client to see if it's ok to proceed and to see if the counselor understands her story accurately and is on the right track

-therapist is a collaborator and a consultant -clients are the true experts on their lives -challenges the idea that expert knowledge belongs to the world of therapists and the medical model -White adopted the metaphor of investigative reporter for both client and counselor, particularly when they are collaborating on externalizing conversations -reporter doesn't try to engage the problem, but rather conducts an expose of its character, operations, and motives -the investigative reporter/client can then "transcend the playing field" of the problem- address the problem in a territory that is not the home territory of the problem

-wants new, more satisfying stories for their clients -goal is to deconstruct problem-saturated stories and to re-author narratives that support preferred outcomes

Vromans and Schweitzer identified 5 stages: 1. establishing relationship 2. eliciting problem stories 3. deconstructing dominant stories 4. embracing preferred stories 5. living enriched stories -stages are overlapping and probably should be thought of as principles Beels identified 3 stages: 1. through listening to the story of the problem, it is recast as an affliction of the client - therapist and client focus on the effects rather than the causes of the problem (helps with externalizing 2. alternatives to the problem are explored, and an alternate story is created through focusing on unique outcomes; elaborate on these -client is asked to decide if the story of the unique outcome is the preferred story; preferred story characterizes the client as capable, able to stand up to the problem (process sometimes called re-authoring or re-storying or remembering) 3. (most important) the therapist and client build a support group to help the client continue the new story - support group is chosen by the client and can include friends, family, or entire communities (support group believes in the preferred story)

-important part of the process of therapy -narrative therapist helps the client recast the problem as something outside of her by carefully listening to the client's story and asking a lot of questions about it , particularly about the effects of the problem on the client and people around her (relative influence questioning) -problem becomes the problem and then the person's relationship with the problem becomes the problem -thought to help the client take a stand against the problem -often considered a political activity in which client and therapist expose the problem as the oppressive agent of the power structure of the dominant culture -does not mean the person escapes responsibility

-the examination of the influences of cultural truths in the genesis of the problem

1. negotiating a particular experience-near definition of the problem (couched in the client's life and culture) 2. mapping the effects of the problem (asking a lot of questions about what it does) 3. evaluating the effects of the problem's activities (asking a lot of questions about what it does) 4. justifying the evaluation (asking the client why she evaluates the problem and its operations in the way she does - perhaps the most complicated and confusing part if the inquiry)

-dominant stories are often supported by lots of plot and don't go away easily - are therefore difficult to deconstruct -this perspective is one way in which narrative counselors view "resistance" -in social constructivist approaches, client resistance is also seen as the client's attempt to protect the view of self and world if these are threatened by the prospect of change -White also noted that "resistance" resulted when the therapist did not provide the right relationship - one that was collaborative and that offered the scaffolding the client needed to step beyond old ways of thinking

-the major technique used in NT -critical in helping the client deconstruct the dominant story and a major vehicle in the process of externalizing the problem -believe that the questions asked of clients generate experience; can bring about new ways of seeing things

-important kind of questioning -help the client explore two critical sets of information: a0the influence of the problem in her life, and most importantly, in her relationships with others, and b) her influence on the problem 1st set of questions: Who was in charge at that moment, you or the problem? Who sides with the problem? What has Trouble tried to get you to do lately that you didn't want to do? How does Guilt get between you and your husband 2nd set of questions: This is a pretty powerful problem. How have you managed to keep it from getting even more difficult? How did you avoid Trouble when it wanted you to come out and play?

-another way of categorizing questions -used in examining both the dominant and the alternate (preferred) stories -landscape of action: require the client to situate outcomes in a sequence across time -landscape of identity: used to help the client reflect on the material gleaned from actions questions and give it meaning, including implications of re-storying for the client's identity

-practice adopted by narrative counselors to help clients explore unverbalized values and meanings -basis is White's notion of the absent but implicit - the notion that we know about something only by contrasting it with something else (e.g. we can only know loneliness if one has some experience with being connected with others) -helps clients explore the unspoken and also develop alternate stories that challenge the negative stories about identity that result from oppression or marginalization

-one way to help clients externalize is to use mental imagery -ex. of a African-American woman who was struggling with issues of racism 0 client eventually constructed a series of mental images in which racist messages became bricks tossed in her path - she would visualize herself picking up the bricks and giving them back to the individuals who tossed them

-involves inviting a special person or group of persons to participate in therapy conversations -also sometimes called definitional ceremony -rooted in the tradition of acknowledgment -primary purpose is to develop a rich, thick story line for the client, most often about the preferred story -witness should not in any way evaluate, interpret of judge the client's telling -the best outsider witnesses describe the impact of the client's telling on themselves -also to assist the client in firmly establishing the preferred story; people who are identified by the client as the most likely to believe in the client's ability to change can be invited to hear the client tell the preferred story and react to it -the witnesses can be the other partner in a couple, family member, friends... -beings with the client telling a story of her choosing and the witnesses listening carefully -at some point the witnesses are invited to recount what was most salient for them in the client's story -4 areas of inquiry used with outsider witnesses: expression, image, resonance and transport -witnesses are asked to identify the elements in the client's story to which they were most drawn (expression), to describe any images that emerged as they listened, and to explain why they were most engaged by these elements of the client's story, locating this last part in the witnesses' personal history (resonance). Lastly, witnesses are asked to describe how they are personally transformed through listening -how their life has been touched in ways that have contributed to your becoming someone other than who you were before you witnessed the person's expressions (kartharsis) -therapist interviews the client, asking some of the same questions (what stood out in the witnesses' retelling? what images emerged for the client about her life in this process?..

-sometimes counselors turn the tables on clients and ask them to interview the therapists on how they are conducting the counseling

-applies to both therapists and clients in NT -for therapists, the philosophy of NT suggests that the therapist tell the client how she/they have been influenced by the client (seen as positive) -NT counselors acknowledge that therapy changes both client and counselor -also seen when clients are given the opportunity to share their experiences with others, such as when they help other clients by revealing their struggles and triumphs with similar problems (often happens in the context of outsider witness practice)

-counselors often use written documents as a way of thickening preferred stories, both for the client and for important others in her life -written word is considered more powerful than the spoken, these artifacts are important evidence for the client and others of the client's new story -can be letter, certificates, memos, lists - anything that is dreamed up by the therapist and client -therapists sometimes send clients letters in between sessions - used to reinforce events in therapy, sometimes summarize session content and are often used to comment on unique outcomes or offer new perspectives on the problem-saturated stories of clients -"readiness letters" can be composed for clients who are reluctant about therapy to acknowledge the client's choice and control in her life