Narrative therapy continues to evolve as a meaning-making, storying modality, with focus on power, culture, and social context as ever more central to narrative practice.
Related articles: Revisiting Freud: The Evolution of Psychodynamic Therapy, Motivational Interviewing: Update Your Understanding.
Jump to section
Introduction
Narrative therapy is a well-established approach to counselling and psychotherapy that invites people to explore the ways they make meaning of their lives through stories. Developed in the late 20th century by Michael White and David Epston, Narrative therapy draws on a range of disciplines, including poststructuralist philosophy, interpretive anthropology, and social constructionist thought (White & Epston, 1990).
At its heart, Narrative therapy is based on the understanding that people are not the problems they experience. Rather, problems are viewed as separate from persons, even though they may have very real and sometimes devastating effects on people’s lives (White & Epston, 1990). This distinction opens space for curiosity, dignity, and new possibilities for action.
Stories, meaning, and lived experience
Narrative therapy does not deny reality or suggest that events “are not real.” Difficult events happen. Trauma, loss, discrimination, illness, and hardship have tangible effects on people’s bodies, relationships, emotions, and opportunities.
What Narrative Therapy attends to is how people make meaning of these events, and how particular interpretations can come to dominate a person’s sense of identity or future. Experiences of life are inevitably shaped and shared through language and story. Any account of experience includes some elements and leaves others out. Narrative practice is deeply interested in why certain meanings are foregrounded, whose voices are amplified, and what social and cultural ideas influence these interpretations (White & Epston, 1990).
Importantly, no single story can fully capture the richness or complexity of a person’s life.
Problems as influential – but not all-powerful
Narrative therapy recognises that problems can be highly persuasive and constraining. People do not simply “choose” to focus on struggle. Anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction, and other difficulties often exert powerful influence over thoughts, emotions, actions, and relationships.
Rather than framing change as a matter of shifting perspective, Narrative therapy involves a process of re-authoring lives. This includes identifying moments when the problem’s influence was lessened, naming skills, intentions, values, and knowledges people already use, and acknowledging efforts people have made – even small ones – to respond to hardship (White & Epston, 1990).
Change emerges through lived action and meaning-making, not simply through positive thinking.
Power, culture, and social context
Narrative therapy is fundamentally relational, contextual, and political in its understanding of human experience. Influenced strongly by poststructuralist ideas – particularly Michel Foucault’s work on power and knowledge – narrative practice pays close attention to how social, cultural, and historical forces shape people’s lives (White & Epston, 1990).
This includes examining dominant cultural narratives about gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, and mental health; the effects of colonisation, marginalisation, and systemic inequality; and how these forces influence both personal identity and available life choices.
Far from ignoring power structures, narrative therapy explicitly invites their examination. Narrative conversations aim to make visible the broader contexts in which problems arise, while supporting people to resist oppressive narratives and author alternative, more life-giving stories (Devence-Taliaferro et al., 2013; Haskins et al., 2023).
Working with marginalised communities
Narrative therapy has a strong history of work with Indigenous peoples, refugees and asylum seekers, and other marginalised groups. Its emphasis on honouring lived experience, local knowledge, and cultural context has made it particularly valuable in settings affected by social injustice and historical trauma (Devence-Taliaferro et al., 2013).
Narrative work may support people not only in reshaping their internal relationship with problems, but also in taking action within families, communities, and wider social spheres. This can include advocacy, collective action, and participation in communities of shared concern (Haskins et al., 2023).
The therapeutic relationship
Narrative therapy also pays careful attention to power relations within therapy itself. Practitioners strive to avoid positioning themselves as experts on clients’ lives. Instead, therapy is approached as a collaborative process in which the person seeking support is recognised as the primary author and expert on their own experience (White & Epston, 1990).
This ethical stance reflects narrative therapy’s broader commitment to respect, transparency, and accountability.
An evolving and interdisciplinary approach
Narrative therapy continues to evolve and is often combined thoughtfully with other approaches, such as mindfulness-based practices and anti-oppressive frameworks. When integrated carefully, these combinations can enrich therapeutic work while remaining consistent with narrative principles (Haskins et al., 2023).
As with any modality, accurate understanding of its theoretical foundations is essential for ethical and effective practice.
Key takeaways
- Narrative therapy separates people from problems while recognising that problems have real effects.
- It focuses on meaning-making and storying, not on denying lived experience or reality.
- Change involves re-authoring lives through actions, values, skills, and intentions – not simply changing perspective.
- Power, culture, and social context are central to narrative practice, not optional considerations.
- Narrative therapy has a strong history of work with marginalised and oppressed communities.
Questions therapists often ask
Q: Does narrative therapy deny objective reality?
A: No. Narrative Therapy recognises that events happen and that problems have real effects on people’s lives. What it questions is the idea that there is only one fixed or inevitable interpretation of those events (White & Epston, 1990).
Q: Is narrative therapy just about changing how people think?
A: No. Narrative therapy is not simply a cognitive or reframing approach. It focuses on re-authoring lives through lived action, recognition of skills and intentions, and the development of preferred ways of responding to problems (White & Epston, 1990).
Q: How does narrative therapy address power and oppression?
A: Narrative Therapy draws on poststructuralist ideas about power and knowledge and actively examines how social, cultural, and historical forces shape people’s lives. This includes attention to racism, colonisation, gendered expectations, and other forms of structural inequality (Devence-Taliaferro et al., 2013; Haskins et al., 2023).
Q: Is narrative therapy appropriate for working with marginalised groups?
A: Yes. Narrative Therapy has been widely used with Indigenous peoples, refugees, and other marginalised communities because of its emphasis on context, collaboration, and respect for local knowledge and lived experience (Devence-Taliaferro et al., 2013).
Q: What is the therapist’s role in narrative therapy?
A: The therapist aims to work collaboratively, avoiding an expert stance over the person’s life. The person seeking support is viewed as the expert on their own experience, with therapy creating space for reflection, exploration, and preferred ways forward (White & Epston, 1990).
References
- White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York, NY: Norton.
- Devence-Taliaferro, J., Casstevens, W. J., & DeCuir-Gunby, J. T. (2013). Working with African American clients using narrative therapy. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 1, 34–45.
- Haskins, N. H., Harris, J. A., Parker, J., Nambiar, A., & Chin, P. (2023). Teaching anti-racist counseling theories: Black liberation narrative therapy. Counselor Education and Supervision, 62(4), 355–367.
Narrative therapy training
More training in narrative therapy? Here are some narrative therapy training courses you may be interested in:
- Narrative Therapy in the Face of Grief
- Solution-Focused Narrative Therapy with an Adolescent
- Solution-Focused Narrative Therapy with a Mother and Daughter
- A Narrative Approach to Working with Sobriety and Life Transitions
- Therapies In-Action: Narrative Practice with Couples (Collection)
Note: Mental Health Academy members can access 600+ CPD/OPD courses, including those listed above, for less than $1/day. If you are not currently a member, click here to learn more and join.