CRM 3303 Lecture 17: Narrative therapy 4
Document Summary
Re-authoring lives: it is collaborative and requires therapists to engage in particular practices. Table 1 in this reading on page 488 summarizes the practices. The position of the therapist: takes on the role of a consultant. They are deconstructionist because they empower clients to subvert taken-for-granted mental-health definitions and practices. Therapists need to use the client"s language rather than their own. It isn"t about finding facts rather it is about conversations aiming to explore multiple constructions of reality. How they saw it, how they interpreted it. Insurrection of subjugated knowledges: an opening that will allow the person to select to construct the story of their lives in terms other than those dictated by the dominant narrative which feeds their problem. This requires the therapist to privilege listening over questioning, and to question in a way that helps clients to see that the stories of their lives are actively constructed, rather than passively recounted and given.