Narrative Therapy

I am excited to be a participant in the 2023-2024 certificate program in Narrative Therapy through the Narrative Therapy Initiative (NTI)! I have been studying narrative therapy practices and find them to be a gentle and healing practice! As they say in Narrative Therapy, "The person is not the problem. The PROBLEM is the problem." This resonates with my whole-person view of therapy and the systems and environments that impact us, both negatively and positively.

Narrative therapy is an open and creative perspective on healing and growth. 'People aren't problems, problems are problems' is a classic one-liner. I've been practicing narrative since I was first trained in it nine years ago, and I have five years experience training other clinicians in it as well.

I have always been a fan of storytelling, whether it be through word of mouth, or through different forms of entertainment like tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), movies, video games, etc. Although everyone may not be a writer in their spare time, I do believe that everyone has a story to tell. I utilized narrative therapy in a collaborative group setting where we worked on self-esteem and learning new social skills.

Sometimes a little perspective helps. It is easy to get wrapped up in your experiences & feelings. Narrative therapy encourages folx to examine their stories & effect change when the story does not match goals or desires. Part of this is externalizing things like Anxiety, so it feels less like a character flaw & more like what it is - an emotion that can be a jerk sometimes. It isn't you as a person that is causing all these problems, it is the Anxiety, so what can we do to kick its butt?

I believe in the power of story in healing and connecting us all.

I encounter most concepts in life through a narrative lens and this has informed my work and study. I have pursued various opportunities to work under and research various Narrative Therapy practitioners and techniques. It is a goal of mine to continue to do this moving forward.

We are constantly re-telling the story of our lives, often anchored on particular events and micro-stories that helps us form meaning. But the story of our lives is almost always more intricate and complex than the truncated versions that we develop over time. And somehow other people's stories can come to dominate our own - telling us who we are, who we should be, and what is important. Narrative Therapy gives us the valuable tools separate our stories from ones we don't want told anymore.

I like to allow my sessions to flow freely like a conversation led by the client, with occasional interjections/comments from me in order to guide the client into telling their "story" or their personal reasons for coming to therapy, using additional and varying interventions/methods as they become appropriate in session.

Completed 3 day training on topic of narrative therapy and implements narrative therapy skills and tools into work with clients on a regular basis

I use a narrative approach to help you explore stories you tell themselves about your life, where those stories come from, and whether they are serving you. Our work may also include journaling, tracking expereinces, reading, and other ways of exploring narrative if those seem like a good fit for you.

I use Narrative Therapy to learn about the stories that a client tells about their life. Throughout the therapeutic process, we will "thicken the narrative" and discuss the ways that we may "re-story" our lives.

My training at the Ackerman Institute included a focus on social constructionism and narrative therapy. My practice has focused on distinguishing people from their problems, exploring the relationship between the individual and their problems, understanding that systems of power influence our lived experience, supporting people to cultivate life affirming, empowering narratives about their lives.

With narrative therapy, clients have the opportunity to explore difficult situations and trauma through stories. It allows clients to explore the narrative through which they view what has occurred. Narrative therapy aids clients with rewriting their story in a way that allows them to externalize issues instead of internalizing them.

I love Narrative Therapy because it can help you to explore the stories you have about yourself, others, relationships, food, your body, etc. I will support you in exploring where these stories come from and if they really serve you. Sometimes the stories we've internalized come from unhelpful family messaging and societal oppression. When you can deconstruct those stories, you get to have the power to decide what is right for you & live from that place of empowerment.