Narrative Therapy
What’s in a story? Perhaps the better question is what does a story take out of us?
Since humans first learned to communicate, we’ve been telling each other stories; stories about things that have actually happened, things that might happen in the future, or stories that are completely made up. Regardless of the type or nature of the story, there is something that tends to go unnoticed unless you look for it. That unnoticed something is the storyteller's contribution to the story.
To better appreciate this contribution, it’s important to differentiate between the storyteller's role in the story (as the subject, witness, etc.) and the storyteller's role in the communicating of the story—the story about the story. In making this distinction, our understanding of the events and their meaning is richer. We can analyze not only what happened, but also the effects the ‘what’ has on the story itself as it is being told. This thing that happened to the storyteller was bad because... The storyteller is concerned about this other thing because... We begin to understand that there is a difference between the events and the meaning.
In applying this type of thinking to therapy, we can accomplish several things. For starters, the very process of telling the story is a catalyst for processing. We may remember things that we missed before—little, powerful details. We may understand the story differently now than we did back then, perhaps giving or taking away the story’s power over our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Another benefit to this story telling process is the framing: when we tell a story, we are able to adjust the dial to how externalized we are from it. We can adjust how immersed we are in the events, and how distant we are. If we find that this dial is stuck or hard to adjust, then we can focus our therapeutic work there, loosening it and regaining control.
Once we have control over the story, we can begin to look at the bigger picture. In many ways, this may feel like doing a book report on ourself:
What did it mean to the character (us) when 'x’ happened?
What lessons did the character learn from ‘x’?
Where are some potential directions the narrative might go now? Where would we like for the story to go?
What is the significance of ‘y’ in the character’s life?
How did the character’s past affect the events of the story? How might they continue to affect the character’s present?
We can also analyze the stories we tell about the stories, making correlations and ironing out chronology.
About the Author
Jared Montague Associate Licensed Counselor; Under the Supervision of Dr. Daniel Birdsong, LPC-S
Jared holds a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He specializes in anxiety, depression, and trauma, using Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and a solutions-focused, systems-informed approach. Jared enjoys working with individuals 19+ and has a special interest in chronic illness and helping professionals.
