Narrative therapy what is and what techniques use

¿You have ever imagined being the narrator of your own life story? ¿You have thought about the possibility of displaying the most important events with luxury detail? Life is full of moments that are part of the person's own story. Sometimes, when a situation is remembered, only the most relevant factors are available, but the details that enrich a plot are not taken into account.

In fact, when we consulted a mental health specialist, it is usually frequent that what we talk in a session lies in what we have considered as most important to us. With a different approach, it is possible that the therapist addresses a problem from another perspective and generates another type of participation by the patient. If this data is interesting, this article may be useful. ¿You want to know more about this? In this Psychology-online article, we will give you information about the Narrative therapy: What is and what techniques use.

1. What is narrative therapy
2. Objectives of narrative therapy
3. Role of the professional in narrative therapy
4. When to apply narrative therapy
5. What techniques use narrative therapy

What is narrative therapy

Narrative therapy is a Psychological therapy developed in the 1970s by social workers Michael White and David Epston, which consists of Relate in the third person the history of our life. Thanks to narrative therapy, it is possible that the patient can better understand their problems and thus look for new strategies to face them.

Fundamentals of narrative therapy

When we talk about narrative therapy, certain curiosity can arise to know what its main foundations are. So, then, we show you the main aspects on which this therapeutic approach is based:

• Allows the patient to provide a a lot of details referred to your life.
• Allows the patient to actively participate.
• Allows problems acquire a new meaning From the story of life history.
• Avoid guilt of the patient. In this article you will find information will show you how to stop feeling guilty for everything.
• Allows the patient to separate from their problems.
• Look for identity according to each person in particular.

Objectives of narrative therapy

The main purpose of narrative therapy lies in the fact that the patient can realize the moments in which he is not immersed in his problems. This allows you focus on the most positive and beneficial aspects for your life. In this article more information about how to always have a positive thought.

Following this fact, the patient can adopt another type of perspective that allows him to change his way of acting when obstacles are presented in his daily life.

Role of the professional in narrative therapy

¿How the therapist is positioned from narrative therapies? One of the most important aspects that must be taken into account of this psychological therapy is the role acquired by the professional. On the one hand, the narrative therapist is in charge of Help the patient build their history through concrete questions that allow building scenes of life.

On the other hand, the role of the professional in narrative therapy also implies, not only maintaining a state of curiosity that helps the patient to display the most important moments of his life, but also to point him out and help certain problems have a lower consistency in its history.

When to apply narrative therapy

There are some moments in which it is necessary to apply narrative therapy. Next, we show you when to apply narrative therapy with examples that allow more precision to understand its use as the therapeutic approach:

• Identity crisis. If you want to know what it is, we recommend this article about identity crises: causes, symptoms and treatment.
• Unleashed situations of stress, anguish, anxiety and/or depression.
• Family problems.
• Addictions.
• Emotional disorders.
• School orientation.
• Social works.
• Labor orientation.

It should be noted that the decision to apply or not this therapy must be taken by a health professional, given that narrative therapy is applied according to the characteristics that the person manifests.

What techniques use narrative therapy

There are some techniques that are frequently used in psychological treatments that are carried out through narrative therapy. Next, we will see what are the main techniques of narrative therapy:

• Narrative construction: The therapist has an active role, because he guides the patient through questions to build the story on which he will work. The purpose of this technique of narrative therapy is to seek a new meaning to the patient's narrative.
• Outsourcing: When the construction of the patient's life is performed, it is tried to modify the perception that he or she has about the problems. In this way, the objective is for the person to stop seeing these obstacles.
• Of construction: One of the narrative therapy techniques that seeks to specify what is the origin of the patient's problem. To achieve this, the therapist tries to separate different situations in which a problem manifests itself with the objective of finding some type of solution.
• Unique results: The objective of this technique lies in building a new narrative in which situations occur that can benefit the person, instead of harming it. In other words, we try to change the patient's perspective in a problematic situation.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Narrative therapy: What is and what techniques use, We recommend that you enter our clinical psychology category.