What is narrative therapy?
Narrative therapy recognizes people’s virtues as potential platforms for action in addressing the problems that enter their lives. Rather than casting problems in leading roles, it is people’s hopes and dreams that are given marquee status. Many conventional therapies locate problems in people (e.g., You have ADHD; You are an Anorexic; You have Borderline Personality Disorder), rendering them passive recipients of treatment. In such instances it is problems that are made prominent and “patients” who are made subordinate, less than inspiring, and even disordered.
Narrative therapy is known for the adage, “The person is not the problem. The problem is the problem.” This shift in perspective is central to our practice. Locating problems outside of people and situating them in broader social/relational/political contexts can serve to preserve people’s sense of dignity and hope. With breathing room from problems people can find their moral footing, reclaim the direction of their lives, and take decisive action.
Narrative therapy is known for the adage, “The person is not the problem. The problem is the problem.” This shift in perspective is central to our practice. Locating problems outside of people and situating them in broader social/relational/political contexts can serve to preserve people’s sense of dignity and hope. With breathing room from problems people can find their moral footing, reclaim the direction of their lives, and take decisive action.
Where can I learn more about narrative therapy?
Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, Australia (on Kaurna Land), is one of the key ‘homes’ of narrative practice. They are involved in narrative therapy, community work, training, publishing, supporting practitioners in different parts of the world, and co-hosting international conferences.
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Narrative Approaches is an online community, resource and an archive of Narrative Therapy conversations, ideas, inspiration, papers, art-work, poetry, stories, scholarship, and solidarity. It is also home to the Archive of Resistance, a lifesaving armory of words – fired at anorexia, bulimia, and negative body image in the battle for the sovereignty of mind, body and spirit.
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Re-authoring Teaching, Inc. is a consortium of narrative practice teachers, practitioners and enthusiasts from around the world who seek to promote training and professional development in a narrative approach to therapy, organizational, and community work. The term, “Re-authoring Teaching” is a play on the term “Re-authoring Conversations” that Michael White and David Epston coined in their original description of narrative therapy.
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Since its inception, the Kenwood Therapy Center's mission has been to provide individual, couple and family consultation for children, adolescents and adults on a broad range of issues. The Center’s goal is to help clients re-author life’s narratives through an array of services that address specific needs. The center is dedicated to offering help and hope, through a variety of methodologies, for the difficult periods and myriad of transitions we all experience.
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The Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy was the first Narrative Therapy training centre opened in the Northern Hemisphere. The VSNT goal is to provide a home for newly inspired Narrative Therapy training - brought to you through the politic and practice of our 25 year apprenticeship with David Epston, Michael White and the Just Therapy Team. The VSNT faculty stand in a variety of diverse social locations and - each member is respected internationally for their longstanding therapeutic and teaching know how. Their intensive Narrative theory and practice certificate courses are taught at the novice, intermediate and advanced levels.
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Remembering practices are a narrative approach to grief psychology that emphasize the ongoing story of relationship. Drawing on practices of story telling, narrative legacy and rituals, these practices aim to keep relationships alive. Using the flexibility of stories, relationships can even develop new qualities and enhanced dimensions following death. From this perspective, grief becomes an evolving and creative opportunity for story development and change, rather than an unpleasant task to be worked through as quickly possible. Remembering practices provide people who are dying and people living with grief hope that the dead will not be forgotten.
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Established in 1991, Bay Area Family Therapy Training Associates (BAFTTA) was the first Narrative Therapy Training Center in North America. Director and Co-Founder, Jeff Zimmerman, is internationally recognized as a therapist, teacher, and writer of Narrative Therapy ideas. They have always had an active practice serving adults, children, adolescents, couples and families. Additionally, BAFTTA assists local schools by providing trained and supervised therapists and consults with school administrators and teachers.
Affordable online therapy, anytime, anywhere. Sustainabletherapy.com is the creation of narrative therapist, Jane Chiu.
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