This paper was originally published by Dulwich Centre Publications,…

This paper was originally published by Dulwich Centre Publications, a small independent publishing house based in Adelaide Australia. You can do us a big favour by respecting the copyright of this article and any article or publication of ours. The article you have read is copyright © Dulwich Centre Publications Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968, no part of this article may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission. All enquiries should be made to the copyright owner at: Dulwich Centre Publications, Hutt St PO Box 7192, Adelaide, SA, Australia, 5000; email
[email protected]
We really appreciate it. You can find out more about us at: www.dulwichcentre.com.au You can find a range of on-line resources at: www.narrativetherapyonline.com And you can find more of our publications at: www.narrativetherapylibrary.com DEAR READER thank you! Beginning to use a narrative approach in therapy Alice Morgan1 We invited Alice Morgan to write the following article for this first edition of our new journal. Over the years we have had many requests for writings that describe the process of beginning to engage with narrative ideas and practices. Within the following paper Alice describes some of the ways in which she began to engage with narrative ideas and what she found helpful in the process. We believe that this piece will be of interest to those who are new to narrative ideas, and also to those who are teachers and trainers. Alice is the author of the very popular book ‘What is Narrative Therapy? An easy-to-read introduction’ (2000) and editor of ‘Once Upon a Time … Narrative therapy with children and their families’ (1999). When I first became interested in trying to use narrative ideas in my counselling practice, I faced the challenge of trying to relate them to my own context. At times I found it tricky to know where to begin, how to make a start and then what to do next. This paper hopes to offer some reflections on this process. At various points throughout this paper I have included a number of questions for reflection. These are questions that I have personally found useful and which I have also used in training groups2 and in consultations with colleagues. Ideally, these questions are designed for use in conversations, that is, in an interview situation so that the person responding to the questions has opportunities to elaborate and explore the territories that most interest them. I hope that these questions, and the conversations they scaffold, might enable readers to further enrich and strengthen their narrative practice and offer ways to further explore narrative ideas in the near future.3 Intentions, Commitments and Purposes When I first heard people speak about narrative ideas, when I watched videotapes of interviews and read various articles, I remember feeling a sense of excitement. In reflecting upon this, I realise that this was because I felt a strong connection between some of the commitments and purposes that were important to me as a counsellor, and the practices that I was witnessing in other people’s work4 . This excitement meant that I was eager to ‘try out’ narrative practices in my own work, but I also felt pretty daunted about what to do first and confused about where to start. When ‘Excitement’ was most powerful, sometimes it tried to convince me that I’d never be able to do it ‘properly’. In hindsight, I realise that I managed to find a way for Excitement to contribute to my initial explorations by particularly focussing on two of the narrative ideas that stood out for me5 . These were: 1. the position of the therapist, and 2. externalising conversations. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work 2002 No.1 www.dulwichcentre.com.au 85 These were the aspects of the work I initially tended to notice most when I saw other practitioners interviewing or talking about their work. These were also the two practices that frequently moved me. Again, I believe this was due to the fact that these practices resonated with my own commitments and intentions for my work. The position of the therapist The decentred and yet influential position of the therapist in narrative conversations (White 1997 ) was one of the first things I noticed about narrative practices. I noticed that narrative conversations were not about giving advice, solutions or opinions. They were not about normative judgements or evaluations or positions of authority. I was intrigued by practices that held the person’s ideas and resources at the fore and ways in which those using narrative practices declined invitations to be the expert in people’s lives. It seemed to me as though the influence of the therapist had to do with their skills in consultation and asking questions in particular ways. I noticed that holding this consultative stance invited people to become the primary authors of their lives. Narrative questions put people’s views, preferences, desires, hopes, dreams and purposes in the centre of the conversation. Having identified that this is what I wanted to do more of in my own practice, I also tried to appreciate and notice those ways in which I had already found to be decentred and yet influential in my work as a therapist. I reflected on the times and ways in which I had positioned those consulting me at the centre of the conversation, times when I had managed to decline invitations to be the expert. Remembering these times helped me to overcome the sense of trepidation I initially felt about trying something seemingly new. I also tried to think about why this idea of being decentred and yet influential was significant to me. Why was this so important to me? Holding a non-expert position had been something I had believed in as a teacher for many years. I had thoroughly enjoyed working in collaborative ways with children where the power relation was minimised as much as possible between adult and child. I also thought about what a difference it meant when people consulted me about my understandings and meanings of events in my life rather than making assumptions about this. As I thought this through, I came to a much richer understanding of why collaborative practice was significant to me and the history that informed this. Reflection Think about just one thing that has particularly resonated for you about narrative ideas and practices that you have been trying to apply more in your work. What would you call the principle or idea? Give it a name. Say something about it – describe what it is about, your understandings of it, in your own words. Give some more details about it, e.g.: When did you first notice this idea or principle in the work? What told you that it was important to you? What are you currently doing that you would say is a reflection of this particular idea, practice or principle? Say a little bit about the times you thought you had managed to apply the idea or principle to your own practice. When you did it, what did you notice? How did it affect, for example: • The conversation you were engaging in at the time? • Your thoughts about yourself as a therapist? • The other people who were with you? • Your hopes or plans? • Your feelings? What was this like for you? Did you like it or not? Did it suit you or not? Or something in between? Why is it that you give this evaluation? What did it seem to fit with? The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community W