Telling and hearing our own stories in therapy can be an effective way of identifying our thought patterns, seeing how we act upon our thoughts and finally realizing the impact our behaviors have on us.
The re-telling of our stories in therapy focuses on understanding the central themes in our life story and makes a deliberate effort to consider the role of society and the dominant culture in how we view our lives and ourselves. This type of therapy is called narrative therapy.
The primary goal of narrative therapy is to help individuals and families construct more satisfying and authentic stories. Narrative therapy rejects the notion of a universal truth in favor of multiple realities and perspectives. Each person is regarded as the expert on his or her story.
People are not their problems. Therapy is an opportunity to reflect on experiences that provide people exceptions to their problems, encourage clients to label, objectify or even personify problems to allow them to be separate entities (people are not anxious, but taken over by anxiety). This decreases helplessness and opens up new avenues for change. (Coulehan et al, 1998).
The ultimate goal of therapy is to reconstruct life experiences and create an avenue for families to explore how their past has contributed to their current situation, but stay in the present.
We have the power to control our own destiny. The individual, and only the individual, can make this choice to expand or restrict their level of awareness. A fundamental element of human growth is this choice to become aware. With that awareness will come a sense of authenticity, significance, as we begin to feel a greater sense of self-acceptance of our stories and our contributions to the world whether large or small.
Each month a local mental health therapist will discuss an area of mental health. This week’s contributor is Sherri Moe, MS Psychotherapist.
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