PROCESS OF THERAPY
Beels identifies three stages of narrative therapy. First, through listening to the story of the problem, it is recast as an affliction of the client. To do this, the therapist and client concentrate on the effects rather than the causes of the problem. These efforts help in the process of externalizing the problem. Next, alternatives to the problem are explored, and an alternate story is created through focusing on unique outcomes or times when the problem was not manifest. The client is asked to decide if this story is the preferred story, if her actions or situation are more consistent with her experiences and more acceptable to her than was the problem-saturated story. As it begins to develop, this story will include …show more content…
The support group is chosen by the client and can be family, friends, or entire communities. Supporters can be imaginary, too . . . think of the cartoon characters Calvin and Hobbes. Hobbes is recruited to deal with all kinds of problems that Calvin externalizes. The support group believes in the preferred story and helps to create this “new” reality for the client. An important process in narrative therapy is externalizing. In externalizing, the narrative therapy therapist helps the client to recast the problem as something outside of her by carefully listening to the client’s story and asking a lot of questions about it, particularly about the effects of the problem on the client Narrative therapy and people around her. This kind of questioning is called relative influence questioning (more on this follows). In effect, the “problem becomes the problem, and then the person’s relationship with the problem becomes the problem (White & Epston, 1990). Usually, but not always, the problem is given a name to emphasize its separateness from the person (Beels, 2001). Some examples include Trouble, Misery, Tantrums, Guilt, and Bad Habits. Externalizing the problem is thought to help client take a stand …show more content…
They are therefore sometimes difficult to deconstruct. This perspective is one way in which narrative therapy counselors would view “resistance” on the part of the client. In social constructivist approaches, client resistance is also seen as the client’s attempt to protect the view of self and world if these are threatened by the prospect of change (Richert,
Beels identifies three stages of narrative therapy. First, through listening to the story of the problem, it is recast as an affliction of the client. To do this, the therapist and client concentrate on the effects rather than the causes of the problem. These efforts help in the process of externalizing the problem. Next, alternatives to the problem are explored, and an alternate story is created through focusing on unique outcomes or times when the problem was not manifest. The client is asked to decide if this story is the preferred story, if her actions or situation are more consistent with her experiences and more acceptable to her than was the problem-saturated story. As it begins to develop, this story will include …show more content…
The support group is chosen by the client and can be family, friends, or entire communities. Supporters can be imaginary, too . . . think of the cartoon characters Calvin and Hobbes. Hobbes is recruited to deal with all kinds of problems that Calvin externalizes. The support group believes in the preferred story and helps to create this “new” reality for the client. An important process in narrative therapy is externalizing. In externalizing, the narrative therapy therapist helps the client to recast the problem as something outside of her by carefully listening to the client’s story and asking a lot of questions about it, particularly about the effects of the problem on the client Narrative therapy and people around her. This kind of questioning is called relative influence questioning (more on this follows). In effect, the “problem becomes the problem, and then the person’s relationship with the problem becomes the problem (White & Epston, 1990). Usually, but not always, the problem is given a name to emphasize its separateness from the person (Beels, 2001). Some examples include Trouble, Misery, Tantrums, Guilt, and Bad Habits. Externalizing the problem is thought to help client take a stand …show more content…
They are therefore sometimes difficult to deconstruct. This perspective is one way in which narrative therapy counselors would view “resistance” on the part of the client. In social constructivist approaches, client resistance is also seen as the client’s attempt to protect the view of self and world if these are threatened by the prospect of change (Richert,