Narrative Therapy

Narrative Therapy is a powerful lens for inspecting our work-lives. By viewing the problem as outside of us (“The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem” Michael White), we can find ways to be curious, play and experiment, and maybe even live alongside a work problem while being the kind of person we want to be.

I think when we honour that innate knowledge in ourselves, that we’re not actually something to be broken or fixed – and that we are actually just here experiencing whatever terrain our water is going through – it’s a really freeing space.

Traditional ways of figuring out who we want to be, and how we want to fit into this world, is usually done through drilling down – looking at the patterns of what’s happened, including multigenerational patterns. And while some of that can be really useful context, I also love how narrative therapy is actually about looking out towards what we want to be in spite of all of that. Even if our water is flowing through the rockiest, harshest, driest, hottest terrain, how do we want to hold ourselves in that space? What kind of person do we want to bring into that?