Narrative Therapy
Counselling in Victoria, BC
What is Narrative Therapy?
Narrative therapy is a therapy of appreciation for the times people have stood up to the problems in their lives. Narrative therapy is a recognition of a person resisting the problem’s voice and refusing to go along with it.
Narrative therapy understands that our lives are made up of stories. Stories are performed live through us. We carry our stories as a way to understand our history, our relationships, our family dynamics, our present lives and our preferred futures.
Stories can restrain or liberate us depending on the meanings we give to them or how other people interpret them. These meanings are often seen as “truth” and are usually shaped by our dominant family or societal culture. We are born into an ongoing story of culture, race, gender, social position, economic status, family structures of power, love or neglect and sometimes grief, loss and suffering. The stories of our lives and the stories of our families shape our understanding of how we view the world and our place in it.
Narrative therapy is concerned with actions, not behaviour, and is curious about how people comprehend these actions. Narrative therapy does not seek to know the psychological or emotional ‘truths’ about a person. Instead, it strives to understand the diverse nature surrounding how people think and make sense out of their world. Concepts of normativity are challenged, as well as practices of interpretation. Together with the client, narrative practitioners trace the histories of a person’s life by exploring their personal values, ideas, beliefs and ethics.
Narrative therapy never blames people for the problems that they face. It is a non-medicalized, non-pathologizing practice that positions the client as the expert of their lives. People are invited to draw upon their own experiences, skills and knowledges to make informed decisions how they want to live their lives.
Lives are multistoried
The stories of our lives are meaningful and the ways we share them are important. Often the stories we tell shape how we view ourselves and can powerfully influence the choices that we make. Although people are multistoried, it is often the troublesome narratives that are prioritized.
These narratives that problems tell become weak descriptions of peoples’ lives and leave little space for stories where the problem does not dominate.
Narrative therapists create space for the problem to be heard, while giving equal opportunity to explore the underrepresented stories that often dwell on the periphery.
What’s in a question?
Narrative therapy is firmly rooted in the art of questioning. The main purpose of asking narrative questions is to learn about a person’s experience and to try to fill in the gaps of a storyline.
Through questions, a narrative therapist encourages a person to reach their own decisions about their intentions, desires, hopes and dreams.
Questions help build a scaffold to story the unexplored areas of a person’s life.
Examples of Narrative Questions Include:
- What has anxiety/depression been up to in your life?
- What effect has sadness or despair been having on you?
- What does the problem have you saying to yourself? Is it trying to convince you of something?
- Have there been times when you have been able to resist the voice of depression? How were you able to do this?
- Where do you stand on this development? What possibilities does this bring to your life and to your relationships?
The problem is the problem, the person is not the problem
Narrative therapy engages in conversations that externalize problems. This allows the problem to be the problem, instead of the person being the problem. If a person addresses their problem as anxiety, they often say “I have anxiety.” By externalizing anxiety, a narrative therapist views the person as being in a relationship with anxiety, in order to provide some distance from anxiety being a defining feature of their character.
Externalizing problems is a gateway to stories that demonstrate a person’s skills and knowledges. Alternative stories can be found by exploring the history of the problem, when it started showing up, where it showed up, who was around and the context that it grew in. Externalizing a problem is effective in richly describing the alternative story where the problem does not monopolize.
Conversations that do not blame people for their problems
Psychology and personality theories have been fairly successful in positioning social issues within a person and blaming individuals for any negative outcomes. This means that psychological and scientific theories start with assessing behaviour, believing that the person is the problem. Narrative therapy acknowledges the role society plays in affecting behaviour and, by doing so, asks questions that relate to culture, family, or power institutions in order to fully understand what a person is up against. These kinds of conversations encourage people to move away from blaming themselves for a problem and explore the effects a problem has on their emotional, physical, cognitive and spiritual selves. This process creates space for stories of resilience and help people to reclaim their lives from situations that are debilitating.
Narrative therapy is continually checking in with a person to ensure the conversation is going in their preferred direction. In the narrative world, this is known as “consulting your consultant.” At the end of each session, a narrative therapist consults with the client, asking what stood out for them, if there was anything they wished they had spoken about, or any other feedback that may be helpful for future conversations.
Your Stories Matter
As a narrative therapist, Karen honours each and every person who comes to her for counselling. It takes courage to seek help and Karen does not take this step lightly. No problem is too great or too small to share in narrative therapy counselling.
Karen is dedicated to listening with empathy and compassion. She is committed to helping people reimagine their lives in a way that aligns with their preferred ways of being. Karen’s approach is warm and inviting and she creates an environment of calm and safety.
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Victoria BC Counselling Services
Narrative therapy helps people to feel safe enough to tell their stories. People can share as much or as little as they feel comfortable. It is important that they tell their story in their own way, on their own terms, using words that are relevant to their experience.
These letters highlight a person’s stories, skills, understandings, hopes, and preferred outcomes.They also ask questions that Karen may not have thought about during the conversation, creating space for what might be possible.
Modern, western culture, closely influenced by capitalist thought and productivity, has centered the conversation around death, grief and loss as an individual endeavour that requires a desired outcome - closure.
The narrative practice of externalization assists people to explore the history and context of the arrival of the problem, investigating when and where it started to gain control.
Communication
Sessions can be over Zoom, the telephone or in person in my home office.
Insurance
Insurance coverage is not available.
Intake Form
Fees
Sliding Scale $50 - $100 per hour.
Ask about student rates or hardship circumstances.
It is important to me that everyone has access to the help that they need for as long as they need it, so please contact me to discuss a sliding scale. Counselling should be available to all individuals seeking it and not only to those who can afford it.