Ideas behind narrative therapy

  • We think and behave based on the ideas/stories that we believe about ourselves and the world around us.
  • These ideas/stories may be helpful and unhelpful
  • We all have some key stories about ourselves that we hang onto quite tightly and this might become a "problem story."
  • These ideas/stories developed over time because of the influence of people who were important to us and also the influence of society.
  • It is difficult when our experience does not fit easily into the stories that have been most important to us.
  • Our stories are always based on SELECTED events—they are never complete.
  • We don’t have to passively accept the stories we have lived with, or which are imposed upon us.
  • In our past and in our present lives (and in the futures we shape for ourselves) there is always material for new stories that we have not yet told ourselves or other people.
  • In counselling, the aim is to help you look at your life in ways that help you “author” new stories and  “re-author” old ones - in other words, to offer you more choices.
  • Recognising that there are often more choices than we realised can have remarkably healing effects. (www.narrativeapproaches.com/)