• Mental Health

Narrative Therapy: Rewriting Your Life Story

With how fast life moves, it can sometimes feel as if everything is happening too fast and out of your control. It can be difficult to find the time to truly reflect on everyday life. Narrative therapy is there for people to write their story the way they want.

How you talk about your experiences in your life can tell a lot about your perspective on the world around you. Instead of focusing on one particular diagnosis, narrative therapy takes a more holistic approach that separates the person from their problems.

How Does Narrative Therapy Work?

One goal of narrative therapy is to understand why you tell your life stories the way that you do. When meeting with a therapist specializing in narrative therapy, they will ask questions to get you thinking more deeply about how you see your life. 

In this form of therapy, you are always treated as the main expert on your life. Once a narrative therapist understands the problems in your life, they may offer suggestions that work for you. Your therapist will encourage you to share both positive and negative experiences. 

Who Does Narrative Therapy Benefit?

While narrative therapy doesn’t focus on one particular diagnosis, it can be a helpful treatment for those with:

• Depression

• Anxiety

• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

• Eating disorders

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Narrative therapy can help someone who has had a traumatic experience in life to talk through those events. It’s easy to assume that hardships in your life are your responsibility. Narrative therapy slightly challenges this concept that everything that happens to you is the result of your actions alone.

Common Narrative Therapy Techniques 

The techniques used in narrative therapy include asking intentional questions that make you think more deeply about your life. Some techniques focus more on relationships with others or the perceptions you have of the world around you. The following techniques can be used in any order depending on the therapist.

Externalization

Your therapist will ask you questions that help you to separate your problems from how you feel about yourself. They may ask you to reframe the thoughts and perceptions you have. For example, a therapist may ask you “How do your feelings of anxiousness make you feel about yourself?”. This step is intended to help you feel more open to change.

Deconstruction

This process works well for someone who may be able to talk about their life fully but has trouble identifying the problems. A therapist can help you know what the main problem is based on the conversation you have with them.

Naming

Discussing the different parts of your life is not always super clear. From relationships and new experiences to work-life balance, it can be hard to keep up with everything. A narrative therapist works with you to name your problems. This makes it easier to strategically address them.

Reauthoring/ unique outcomes

Therapy does not always center around negative experiences in your life. Reauthoring is the process of prioritizing more than just negative experiences. It can be a good opportunity for you to address lighter problems in your life or just moments of misunderstanding. This prevents a person from feeling trapped by one narrative.

Remembering

It can be easy to forget to be grateful for those who keep us encouraged in life. Remembering is talking about and prioritizing important relationships in your life.

What are the Benefits of Narrative Therapy?

Narrative therapy can help you find shifts in your relationships and other parts of your life that you may have not noticed before. Engaging in narrative therapy helps people to see themselves differently. This type of therapy teaches new words and phrases for telling your life story.

A focus on positivity

Therapy can feel daunting because of the need to sit down and discuss hardships in your life. However, narrative therapy focuses on both positive and negative parts of your life. There’s a special emphasis on not placing judgment on yourself.

In narrative therapy, the therapist places you in charge of telling your own story. It’s the job of the therapist to never assume what your path should be or who you are. It is up to you in narrative therapy to decide how you want to transform your life.

Group therapy benefits

Families or couples that do narrative therapy together may see improvements in how they handle their problems. Narrative therapy can help you understand the opposing perspective in an argument.

How to Find a Therapist

You can check with your insurance company for in-network therapists that specialize in narrative therapy. If you don’t have health insurance, many community spaces like schools, health clinics, and community organizations offer opportunities to connect with licensed therapists.

You can schedule a free consultation with many therapists to talk about your goals and background to see if they are a good match for you. Finding a therapist that you feel comfortable with can be a long process. Don’t be afraid to try out multiple therapists before settling on the one you want to continue treatment with.

Where Can You Learn More About Your Mental Health?

While learning more about your mental health can feel overwhelming, LifeMD wants to help you find resources and tips to help you care for yourself better. 

LifeMD works with insurance plans that cover mental health services for at least 95% of our patients. Still, there are tips and alternate options for care for people without health insurance.

Get started today with improving how you care for yourself.

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