NARRATIVE THERAPY 

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Narrative therapy is a relatively new treatment that is evidenced to be helpful to a variety of conditions such as Anxiety, Depression, Attachment Issues, ADHD, Eating Disorders, Grief and PTSD. The approach has been found useful for those that feel overwhelmed by negative experiences, thoughts or emotions and can be beneficial to individuals, couples and families. The therapy allows the you to feel respected and listened to, it has a non-blaming structure that encourages you to not blame yourself or blame others. You are seen as an 'expert' of your own narrative and thus by exploring this narrative you can change how you perceive your stories. 

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Narrative therapy allows you to become more familiar with your own experience, the emphasis of the therapy is on the stories that you develop and carry with you.  Our interactions with experiences and events influence our self-image. We carry multiple narratives at once such as self-esteem, relationships, work, abilities etc. Narrative therapy employs a variety of techniques and exercises to help you move past problematic events, including ‘putting together our narrative’, ‘externalisation’, ‘deconstruction’ and ‘alternative or unique outcomes’. 

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Things to consider about narrative therapy:

- it can be very in-depth and explores a wide range of factors that may have influenced your story,

- it explores both your strengths and weaknesses,

- narrative therapy encourages you to re-evaluate judgements about yourself and replace them with more positive, realistic ones and

- it challenges you to separate yourself from your problems and learn to give yourself credit for positive behaviour and decisions.