Narrative Therapy : Original Design

This paper will recount the development and history of narrative therapy and provide a brief background assessment on the founders and significant contributors to the postmodern approach of Narrative Therapy. The role of the therapist, the theory of change, the target of intervention, the assessment from this approach, and what the approach says about normalcy, health, and pathology will be presented. It will also discuss how narrative therapy might work with and be sensitive to the cultural and diversity factors and give some examples of intervention from this approach. It will then discus the case using concepts and ideas from narrative therapy and the application of the essential ideas of the narrative therapy in the case and, where appropriate,

The goal of narrative therapy is to change the impact that the problem or issue has on one’s life (Shapiro & Ross, 2002, hence changing the individual. The individual narrates their life story as the clinician strives to assist the client’s in identifying with their experience and to address concerns in their life after a social, political and/or cultural lifestyle. (Shapiro & Ross, 2002).

Gladding, S. T. (2010). Family therapy: History, theory, and practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.

Narrative therapy is guided by the idea that people’s lives have dominant storylines and people get stuck in problem-saturated stories (Morgan, 2000). When these dominant storylines begin to emerge, individuals will remember events that support the storyline, and forget events that don’t (Kelley, 2011, p. 317). The Brice family’s problem-saturated story when they presented to therapy

Narrative therapy is way in which a therapist can help externalize sensitive issues, by allowing the client to take the reigns by talking through it outload with the therapist as the active listener. This objectification dissolves struggle and resistances and allows the client to address this issue in a more productive manner.

A trauma narrative is a narrative that describes an experience or experiences that cause someone to be destressed and cannot be incorporated into their memory easily. Throughout her own traumatic narrative, Jeannette Wall’s describes different aspects of her everyday life that showcase various levels of significance. She is able to show how certain life events impact her plans for escaping her current socioeconomic status and her plans for the future. The text is also able to tell us about trauma, poverty, ourselves, and our society. Furthermore, the text demonstrates the impact that trauma and poverty can have and how they can have lasting effects. These concepts help us to think about our own life experiences and situations and they also show us how to be analytical about our society. Lastly, this narrative is able to reveal to us the different aspects of a traumatic childhood and how important and impactful this type of upbringing can be. Jeannette Walls uses her own traumatic autobiography to show that despite her adverse upbringing in poverty and passive and unattached parenting she was able to become successful. The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, shows the benefits and the value that can come from having a traumatic narrative. This is significant because it shows that an experience can shape a person, but a person can also shape the experience.

My first assumption of family therapy was to involve the parents and the individual that had the problem. This book explored further what it

Family therapy is a technique that has many alternative approaches to every aspect of treatment which Nichols (2014), states may present a challenge when describing a basic technique. The two models of family therapy in which I feel that I would be most effective and comfortable with would be, experiential family therapy and solution-focused brief therapy. I feel most comfortable with these models because, I adapt to the role of the therapist of both therapies naturally. According to Nichols (2014), when families seek therapy they are stuck in a life-cycle transition, sometimes they are obvious and sometimes they are not obvious. I’ve found that during the first session an excellent question is to ask the client why now so that they can

The family is made up of five people: Claudia, the IP; Carolyn, mother; Laura, the sister; Don, the brother; and David, the father. The family is coming into therapy because there have been mounting concerns about Claudia and her behavior—acting out, staying out late, some fairly typical teenage stuff. For the purpose of this paper, I will be starting at the beginning where the family is first coming into therapy. I will first school that I will apply is Structural Family Therapy and the second school is Bowen Family Therapy.

therapy aims to improve family relations, and the family is encouraged to become a type of

Brown, A., J., Garzarek, E., J., & Donegan, L., K, (2014). Effects of a narrative intervention

Becvar, D. & Becvar R. (2009). Family therapy: a systemic integration. (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

This paper is going to look into two models of intervention that Ben and I think might help him cope with things going on in his every day life. The two that we have chosen are Cognitive-behavioral therapy and Narrative therapy. We will look into both of these and also as we do that we will find out what the role of the social worker is in both cases.

Approaches to Family Therapy: Minuchin, Haley, Bowen, & Whitaker Treating families in therapy can be a complex undertaking for a therapist, as they are dealing not only with a group of individuals but also with an overall system. Throughout history several key theorists have attempted to demystify the challenges families face and construct approaches to treatment. However, there have been key similarities and differences among the theoretical orientations along the way. While some have simply broadened or expanded from existing theories, others have stood in stark

Narrative Therapy Narrative therapy was introduced to the therapy world by Michael White and David Epson who are from Australia and New Zealand (Gehart, 2014). This type of therapy is different than other therapies in that it uses cultural issues and societal issues in its conceptualization of problems and resolutions. By helping clients redefying the role of how they view respond, and