What is narrative therapy?
Sharing stories in ways that make us stronger
Narrative approaches to therapy and community work are vitally interested in the stories of people’s lives, and how stories can be told in ways that make people stronger.
It is possible for counsellors to invite people to tell and re-tell stories in ways that can offer hope and healing. With the use of narrative practices, we seek to honour and acknowledge the stories of hardship and loss that people have experienced. And at the same time, we make it possible for people to tell other stories of their lives as well, stories that bring strength and possibilities.
As Kaurna Elder and narrative therapist Aunty Barbara Wingard describes, ‘We assist people to tell our stories in ways that make us stronger’.
Aunty Barbara Wingard
Aunty Barbara describes how stories are so important and people are the experts of their own lives.
What is narrative therapy?
Here is a very quick response to the question: What is narrative therapy?
The danger of a single story
Novelist Chimamanda Adichie warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Listening for more than one story: Strengthening resistance
As Chimimanda Adichie describes, it’s important to move beyond the single story. This is what narrative therapists and community workers do in our work. We listen for more than one story.
This extract is from a workshop held in Rwanda with counsellors who are all themselves survivors of the 1994 genocide.
Aunty Barbara Wingard
Telling stories in ways that make us stronger.
Monica A. Garcia
May 10, 2023I really enjoyed hearing Chimamanda Adichi, and pieces of her story. I have always been drawn to Narrative practice approach, because storytelling has always been in me. I didn’t know why, but as I began to reconnect with my indigenous roots 7 years ago, I understood why. Storytelling is part of our way of life. Even the weavings and colors in our Húipils (indigenous traditional clothing), they tell a story.
cycshane
April 19, 2023I loved the story of Chimamanda. It illustrated how if we listen to the same single narrative enough times that we can begin to believe it as fact, which can lead us to having preconceived ideas about others and even ourselves. I also liked the concept of depersonalising the problem, thus encouraging others to let go of or stop self-blame.
Liz Evans
March 7, 2023thank you for this course; it reminds me that the choice to listen to only one story is taken by the listener and reflects our biases, we must remain more interested and curious about the bigger picture (skills and strengths not just challenges) then we have more respect…
crockett.brisbane
January 17, 2023Having only listened this far in the course, it strikes me that Narrative therapy with its focus on stories is wonderfully universal yet at the same time each person’s story is only theirs to tell. I also love the idea that “the person is not the problem, the problem is the problem”.
May
January 13, 2023I love the concept of people being the experts of their own lives and owners of their own stories. It’s very empowering to view stories in that frame regardless of the nature of the story.
Deborah Flower
January 13, 2023Listening to Chimimanda Adichie reminds me of the unconscious biases we carry with us. If we could change at least one of our unconscious biases by changing the story we tell ourselves through hearing others’ stories – we would be bale to have more acceptance and inclusivity..
Deborah Flower
January 13, 2023Listening to Chimimanda Adichie’s story and Aunty Barb reminds me of the unconscious biases we can live through. Having more than one side of a story I believe can help break unconscious biases – which will and can help us to be more accepting of others – and therefore change our own internal story of biases.
tina.stasuik
November 29, 2022I appreciate the statement by Barbara Wingard that there is a trust that must come with the sharing of stories. I think that this brings to mind the importance of what we are engaging in when we work with those who share their stories and the importance of valuing that trust and the importance of their stories.
Lesley
November 24, 2022Thank you Chimamanda…great storyteller.
And thank you for your wisdom, Aunty Barbara
linda.gilbert6
July 25, 2022It was so interesting to think about the power that can be in a story in all sorts of ways – that a single story can rob people of their dignity, but a complete story can repair this, and that dispossession can be enacted by starting a story with “secondly” and neglecting what happened first. Most of all I liked that stories can make us stronger, and that the person is not the problem. the problem is the problem.
lucas
July 5, 2022Loved listening to the story by Chimamanda, Listening for more than one story: Strengthening resistance. makes you really look at it in different ways.
brighdecampbell
June 23, 2022I love the double listening and listening for what’s implicit when something else is stated. This adds a whole extra dimension along with listening for tiny sections or openings to new stories