[[Marriage & Family Therapy]] Everything is based in "story" - narrative therapy helps us decide what we put into our stories First phase, meeting the person apart from the problem (hobbies, work, strengths, etc) - Listen for dominant discourses, family narratives, society, etc - Listen for problem saturated stories Then identify the preferred narrative. Narrative therapy is not about replacing a story. It's about helping the client create a ore balanced, rich, and layered story. - Thickening of descriptions Unexpected outcomes / Sparkling events - Exception moments to the problem story **The goal of narrative therapy is to increase a sense of agency and preferred narrative.** ## Interventions of Narrative Therapy Externalization Mapping influence of problem + persons - How does the problem affect lives of client and significant others? - How does the client affected the problem? How have they managed it? Strengths. Avoiding totalizing or dualistic thinking. Turn problem into a noun (externalization). - Depressed - Depression - Anxious - anxiety Intentional vs Internal state questions - What were your intentions? - What were you feeling? Permission questions - Asking for permission to continue with a ceertain line of questioning and respecting their answer.