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Subject: search.filters.subject.Narrative therapy

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    Deconstructing narrative therapy in practice : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1999) Nicholl, Patricia Marie
    Narrative therapists have made claims as to how a narrative interview or series of interviews should be best structured. This thesis shows, through the analysis of a narrative interview, that these claims represent the practice of narrative therapy. However, several processes that narrative therapists have not explicitly noted as being critical for the successful attainment of the goals of this approach, have emerged as being of fundamental importance. These are the use of positioning, metaphor, indirectness and scaffolding. Their importance lies in that they facilitate an alliance between therapist and client and also minimise the possibility of opposition to the therapeutic process. In addition, they maximise the potential for the development and acceptance of alternative conceptualisations of the self and reality. Furthermore, they actively engage the person in the co-construction of meaning. This increases the likelihood that the newly constructed narrative will be conceptualised as reflecting reality, and as a consequence of this, that it will be acted on as such.
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    Contextualising a problematic relationship between narrative therapy and evidence-based psychotherapy evaluation in psychology : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
    (Massey University, 2011) Busch, Robert Stephen
    This thesis problematises a conflict between two discourses: narrative therapy and evidence-based psychotherapy evaluation in psychology. To answer the research question of how narrative therapy can be evaluated, I contextualise both discourses by historically situating them in and through a genealogical examination. Narrative therapy is a postmodern therapy that draws from a diverse history of knowledge involving a range of intepretativist theoretical influences that are resistances to positivist social science. In contrast, evidence-based practice in psychology, the latest model of evidence-based psychotherapy evaluation, is modelled from evidence-based medicine. Evidence-based practice is understood as an improved evaluation model from the empirically-supported treatment movement, and operates within a positivist philosophy that privileges objective methodology over interpretative research approaches. A genealogy enables a power relationship between narrative therapy and evidence-based psychotherapy evaluation to be made visible that indicates an incommensurable conflict (a differend) due to their divergent philosophies on the formation and practice of human knowledge (epistemology). However, a genealogy also enables a fragmentation of the meaning of evaluation and narrative therapy and in doing so pluralises the meaning of evaluation, narrative therapy, and narrative therapy evaluation. I conclude by tentatively considering possibilities for the evaluation of narrative therapy while problematising them within (and reflecting on) the differend between narrative therapy and evidence-based psychotherapy evaluation in psychology.
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    Transforming evidence: A discursive evaluation of narrative therapy case studies
    (The Australian Psychological Society Limited, 2007) Busch, Robbie
    A recent shift in American Psychological Association policy for what constitutes as evidence in psychotherapy has resulted in the inclusion of qualitative methodologies. Narrative therapy is a discursive therapy that is theoretically incongruent with the prevailing gold standard of experimental methodology in psychotherapy outcome evaluation. By using a discursive evaluation methodology that is congruent with narrative therapy this study of six peer-reviewed narrative therapy case articles found shifts in client positioning in the transformation from medical pathology discourses to strength-based discourses. It is concluded that five out of six case studies coherently demonstrated the effectiveness of narrative therapy with positive outcomes for clients and that a discursive evaluation has utility in producing a thick description of therapeutic outcome.