“A narrative or story is anything told or related; more strictly, something told or told in the form of a set of causally related events; account; tale, the account of an event or a connected series of events, whether true or fictitious”. (Denning, 2006).
Your life is a narrative, told and told from many different perspectives, and by diverse people. There are settings, themes, characters and plots, just like in any movie, book, historical tale or legendary fable.
In this article we review the Narrative Therapy approach and how coaches can use it effectively to help people improve their lives.
Fundamentals of Narrative Therapy
Narrative Therapy is a coaching approach that centers people as experts in their own lives. This approach is intended to view problems as separate entities from people, assuming that the individual’s skill set, experience, and mindset will help reduce the influence of problems throughout life. This approach aims to place the individual in both the role of protagonist and author: changing the vision from a narrow perspective to a more flexible and systemic position.
Systemic and flexible position? Yes. The goal is to help coachees realize what forces are influencing their lives and focus on the positive aspects of the “game.” In many events in our lives, we tend to focus on particular things and ignore others. Analyzing our lives as a game or a system helps us understand the different forces and roles that influence our behavior. This in turn gives us flexibility to invoke the changes needed to improve.
“The products of our narrative schemas are omnipresent in our lives: they fill our cultural and social environment. We create narrative descriptions for ourselves and others about our own past actions, and we develop accounts that make sense of the behavior of others. We also use the narrative scheme to inform our decisions by constructing imaginative “what if” scenarios. On the receiving end, we are constantly confronted with stories during our conversations and encounters with print and visual media. As children we are told fairy tales, and reading and discussing stories at school”. (Polkinghorne, 1988)
Fusing a familiar set of events (one’s life) with a familiar structure (a narrative story) is a useful strategy. A person’s emotional, cognitive, and spiritual perspectives are often combined to derive meaning from an event. In many cases, one or two perspectives will prevail over the other(s), and this will depend on the particular setting and the individual’s personality traits.
As an example, we can compare the perspective of two people who have different levels of emotional intelligence. According to Coleman (1998) “intellectual and emotional intelligence expresses the activity of different parts of the brain. The intellect is based solely on the functioning of the neocortex, the most recently evolved layers in the upper part of the brain. The emotional centers are lower in the brain, in the oldest subcortex”. Therefore, people who are more ’emotionally intelligent’ will draw different conclusions and behave differently in certain situations.
This is just one example of the possible disparities in perception and decision making. It is the protagonist responding to the setting, the characters, the theme and the plot.
Techniques and Objectives*
Step 1: Name the problem and ask questions about outsourcing
Coaches who work from a narrative perspective are attuned to the language they use to represent an issue or problem in their coachees’ lives. They assume that the issue or problem “has an effect on the person” rather than that the issue or problem is an intrinsic part of who the person is.
Step 2: Map the effects of the problem
Mapping the effects of the problem on the person is a narrative process that invites coaches to examine the influence of the problem on various dimensions of life.
Step 3: Ask deconstruction questions
Deconstruction questions are designed to help the coachee challenge some of the narratives, assumptions, or collective values that may hold or support the problem story.
Step 4: Re-story
Identifying unique events that stand out from the story of the problem starts the process of retelling the story. Coaches who are new to the narrative approach often attest that it is easier to find a unique result in the client’s distant history than in their immediate past.
Step 5: Name the alternative history and thicken its plot
To help the coachee name the alternate story, the coach can approach naming the alternate story in the same way they approached naming the problem story: by offering tentative suggestions and using the words the coachees have used in their descriptions. of unique results.
A number of guiding assumptions underlie narrative practice. These assumptions are listed below and provide an important overview for advanced study of narrative concepts.
Assumptions underlying narrative forms of work:
– The problem is the problem (the person is not the problem).
– People have experience in their own lives.
– People can become the first authors of the stories of their own lives.
– When a person consults a professional, they will have already made many attempts to reduce the influence of the problem in their life and in their relationships.
– Problems are constructed in cultural contexts. These contexts include power relations of race, class, sexual orientation, gender, and disadvantage.
– The problems that people consult about often cause them to reach weak conclusions about their lives and relationships. Many times these conclusions have encouraged them to consider themselves deficient in some way and this makes it difficult for them to access their knowledge, skills, abilities and abilities.
– These skills, competencies and knowledge can be made available to help them reclaim their lives from the influence of the problem for which they are seeking help.
– There are always times in people’s lives when they have escaped the influence of a problem. Problems never successfully claim 100% of people’s lives or relationships.
– Guaranteeing an environment of curiosity, respect and transparency is the responsibility of the professional.
*Source: Morgan, A. (2000). What is narrative therapy? An easy to read introduction. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre, pp. 129-130.
The lead role
The most important aspect of Narrative Coaching is empowering the client. Positioning the coachee as an expert and understanding her story rather than trying to predict it indicates the coach’s mindset. The idea is to emphasize the coaching relationship. This point of view encompasses many of the important aspects of good interpersonal communication, such as: caring, caring, respectful curiosity, openness, empathy, and fascination.
Once this collaborative relationship has been established, the coach and coachee can move on and work on how to improve the narrative outcomes:
“Once upon a time… there was an optimistic, content and productive person…”