Separating your identity from your problems, and reauthoring the story of your life.
Narrative Therapy helps you step back from the stories that define you, especially the ones that say you are the problem. Instead, it separates you from the problem and explores how it has influenced your life. From there, we look for moments when the problem had less power, and use those to build a stronger, more accurate story about who you really are and what you are capable of.
In narrative therapy, the problem is externalised, it is given a name and treated as a separate entity from you. This creates space to examine the influence of the problem on your life, and equally, your own influence over the problem. Unique outcomes, moments when the problem had less power, are explored and used to thicken an alternative, preferred story about who you are and who you want to become.
Narrative therapy is a deeply collaborative and creative process. Your therapist will be genuinely curious about your experience and work to understand the full context of your life, not just the presenting problem. You may be invited to write letters, create documents, or reflect on moments that contradict the dominant problem story.