Meaning & Narrative
Narrative Therapy as an Integration within the ShiftGrit Core Method™
Overview
Narrative therapy is a collaborative, non-pathologizing approach to psychotherapy that treats the stories people construct about their lives as the central material of change, working from the premise that identity is shaped through narrative and that a person is distinct from their problems. It positions the client as the expert on their own life and the therapist as a co-investigator who helps re-author dominant, problem-saturated accounts into preferred ones.
How it works
The therapist and client examine the stories through which the client interprets their experience, identifying the dominant narratives that sustain distress and the social and cultural assumptions that reinforce them. A defining technique is externalization, in which the problem is spoken about as separate from the person ("the problem is the problem, not the person"), alongside mapping the problem's influence, searching for "unique outcomes" or exceptions that contradict the problem story, and re-authoring those exceptions into a more agentic, preferred narrative. Practices such as documenting letters, deconstructing questions, and recruiting an "outsider witness" group are used to thicken and stabilize the alternative account.
What it is used for
Narrative therapy is applied across individual, couples, family, and group work and with children, and has been used for presentations including depression, anxiety, trauma, grief and loss, eating disorders, relationship and family conflict, and behavioural difficulties. It is also used in community work and with populations affected by marginalization or oppression, where its attention to cultural and social context is considered well suited.
Origins and evidence base
It was developed through the 1970s and 1980s by Australian social worker Michael White and New Zealand therapist David Epston, drawing on social constructionism and the ideas of Michel Foucault, Jerome Bruner, and Lev Vygotsky, and was set out in their 1990 book Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. Much of its support comes from a substantial practice-based and qualitative literature with detailed case material; the body of controlled outcome research is comparatively smaller and still developing, with a growing number of trials reporting positive results for conditions such as depression.
Within the ShiftGrit Core Method™
Every client we work with is moving through the ShiftGrit Core Method™, and that work holds steady from one session to the next: Pattern Theory™, the way it is delivered, and the work to loosen the limiting belief all advance together as the consistent through-line of treatment. Narrative Therapy is not part of that constant. It is one evidence-based approach our clinicians may draw on when the shape of a person's situation calls for it, brought in alongside the Core Method™ as a complementary way of working. When a belief like "I am flawed" has been carried so long that it begins to read like the whole account of who someone is, our clinicians can draw on narrative tools to help name that account as something a person has been living inside of, so it can be looked at as a told story rather than a settled fact. Treating it as one telling among possible others is intended to open a little authorial distance, and that space is designed to sit comfortably beside the Method™ as it works to reach the belief underneath the pattern. Later, we may help a client notice and collect the moments their earlier account tended to leave out of the record, so a steadier outlook has lived experiences to be written from. Brought in this way, Narrative Therapy is meant to complement the Core Method™ where it fits. It is an integration option a clinician may bring, drawn on in concert with the work the Method™ carries through treatment.
Illustrative example
A client carries the belief "I am flawed", and over the years it has been written into an account where each setback reads like one more line of proof. Our clinicians can help name that account as a told story set apart from the person, while the Core Method™ works to reach the belief underneath, with the aim that it carry less weight over time. As that work continues, we may help the client gather moments of steadiness and connection the earlier account had left off the page, so a fuller picture is there for a steadier outlook to be written from.
Based on: White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393700985.
Clinicians who integrate Narrative Therapy
If Narrative Therapy is specifically what you are looking for, tell us during matching and we will pair you with a clinician who carries that training. See how we integrate evidence-based modalities within the ShiftGrit Core Method™.
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Find Your PatternTrusted by Leading Psychology & Mental Health Organizations Across Canada
ShiftGrit Psychology & Counselling is professionally regulated, certified, and recognized by leading psychology and mental-health organizations across Canada. These associations reflect our commitment to ethical practice, clinical standards, and evidence-informed therapy through Identity-Level Therapy and Reconditioning.
Trusted By Alberta’s Leading Psychology & Mental Health Organizations
ShiftGrit Psychology & Counselling is professionally regulated, certified, and recognized by leading psychology and mental-health organizations across Alberta and Canada. These associations reflect our commitment to ethical practice, clinical standards, and evidence-informed therapy through Identity-Level Therapy and Reconditioning.
Regulated and affiliated across Alberta’s leading psychology, counselling, and mental-health organizations.
Regulated and affiliated across Canada’s leading psychology, counselling, and mental-health organizations.
The descriptions and examples on this page are provided for general educational and illustrative purposes only. They explain how this approach may be integrated within the ShiftGrit Core Method™ and do not describe a specific client, represent a testimonial, or promise any particular result. Integrated modalities are offered at the discretion of individual clinicians, and whether any approach is appropriate for you is determined together with your clinician, within their professional judgement and scope of practice.
