Narrative Theory

• All personal experience is fundamentally ambiguous 

  • We must rearrange our lives to give story meaning and make coherence 

• Existentialism 

  • Not a coherent philosophical system 

  • People discover their uniqueness in the way they relate to life experiences 

  • Should be careful to identify too close with people and groups – can cause people to accept stereotypes and limit their potential 

  • Choice is everywhere: all people's actions imply choice 

    • Always free to make choices 

    • No "rational grounds" for choice because the criteria we use to make choices is chosen 

  • Existential thinkers remind us that client's views of themselves and their problems may be contaminated by an acceptance of external standards are arbitrary 

    • Task of existential social workers is to create or discover new purposes for living that may be more suitable to the client's unique nature 

• Postmodernism 

  • It is impossible to fine road, rational solutions to society's probs 

  • Any generalizations abt people and societies are to reinforce positions of power rather than represent objective truth 

  • Knowledge is beliefs rooted in social contexts (time, place, and culture) and influence what people understand, see, and say 

    • Not objective, but reflects values of certain people at a certain place in time 

  • Social workers help clients understand how their narratives or beliefs abt themselves may be rooted in societal oppression 

• Social Construction 

  • No objective reality that all people understand and agree on 

  • "bottom-up" perspective  - how indivd and groups create social worlds 

    • All of us experience an objective physical reality (bodies, and material world) but what the reality means to use is a mental creation 

• Stories are unique, but can be shared when they reflect community values 

  • Cultural values influence one's narrative and how they contribute to prob bx 

Deconstruction 

• Exploring ingrained cultural assumptions that contribute to the occurrence of a prob.  uncover challenging assumptions about the way things should be and open up possibilities about how it can be 

Reconstruction or reauthoring 

• Process to dev narrative that is consistent with personal goals 

• Sparkling moments – awareness of new personal truths that highlight strengths 

Nature of Probs and Change 

• Many problems that clients face are concrete and have to be dealt with concrete action realize such as a client with insufficient money to support themselves but narratives always influence the experiences that clients label as challenges and how to address them 

• practitioner can ensure that the client understands that he or she is not the problem the problem is the problem poisonous tree and as a result  

• goals of narrative therapy are not so much to problem solve but to late because i was watching that said yeah 

  • Awaken client from a problematic pattern of living 

  • Liberate client from imposed constraints 

  • Help client author stories with dignity and competence 

  • Recruit others to support client 

• Clients who are appropriate for narrative therapy 

  • Survivors of trauma 

  • LGBTQIA+ who struggle with identity issues 

  • Members of oppressed groups 

  • People who carry label (diagnoses) 

  • Immigrant and migrants adjusting to new culture 

  • Anyone going through any life transition and decision making about life goals 

  • Juvenile sex offenders 

  • Client with troubled sense of self 

  • People with low self-esteem 

  • Older adults who look to engage in life review 

  • Those with terminal or long-term illnesses 

  • Children in foster care 

  • People with behavioral controls 

  • Single-issue clients (who need help with time-management, budgeting, etc) 

Assessment 

• Use externalizing conversation (person is not the problem) 

• Map effects of problem on person 

• Map effects of the person on problem (strengths, exceptions, competence) 

• Determine whether the client favors the present situation 

Normalizing and Strengthening 

• Social worker helps the client externalize the problem 

• Practitioner invites client to describe other related challenges in their life and they managed it 

• Ask about most important life priorities and values 

• Encourage the client to conceptualize the problem as one part of life, one that is contingent on external and internal factors that may not be known to the client 

Reflecting (Deconstruction) 

• Help client challenge assumptions abt the world should be to open up new possibilities 

• Help client identify values and biases that underlie construction of the problem 

Enhancing Changes (Reauthoring and reconstructing) 

• social worker help the client to recognize resources that he or she can utilize to promote her new ways of thinking about her situation.  

  • resources (such as people, events, and practices) may exist in the client’s environment  

  • may also be recognized by watching videos or movies of persons who have faced similar challenges, personal journaling, and letter writing to significant others who might add to the client’s self-understanding. 

Ending 

• No definitive ending, leave the door open for consultations 

Attention to Social Justice 

• The social worker always considers how the client system may be vulnerable to cultural narratives that include forces of oppression, such as racism, ageism, and sexism.  

• encourage the client to address social conditions and change through access to new information, services, resources, equal opportunities, and greater participation in collective decision making. 

Effectiveness 

• theory’s applicability to persons who experience attachment disorders, eating disorders, body image disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, stuttering, substance abuse, panic disorder, adolescent behavior problems, childhood adjustment issues (as a component of play therapy), 

Criticisms 

• Narrative theory’s relative lack of structure and emphasis on subjective impressions may not be helpful with clients who face, for example, problems related to unemployment, lack of health care, or inadequate housing. 

• The therapeutic neutrality of any practitioner may not be possible, and the narrative practitioner risks imposing his or her own values, perhaps unwittingly, to influence how the client shapes his or her story