FRHD 3400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Narrative Therapy

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Family Relations and Human Development
• Course: FRHD 3400
• Professor: Carol Anne Hendry

Document Summary

All people are engaged in an ongoing process of constructing a life story, or personal narrative, that determines their self-understanding. The words and stories we learn/tell about ourselves and others, and help create our psychological and social realities. Co-constructed with the narratives of significant other people in our family, community, and culture. The way we speak, and the things we speak about, are determined (and limited) by our cultural heritage. Problems, or emotional or material suffering, result from personal narratives that keep the person stuck or getting the way of possibilities for future action. The goal of therapy is to help clients identify problematic patterns of living, liberate them from externally imposed constraints, and help them author new stories of dignity and competence. Knowledge represents socially situated beliefs that influence what people understand, see, and say. It"s not objective but reflects the values of certain people at a certain place in time. It"s embedded in all cultural institutions and relationships.