Chapter 15: Narrative Therapy

   Narrative therapy is most commontly associated with the work of Michael White and David Epston. This method vies life to be a process of story telling, where our views of self and others are created or constructed through our interactions and social processes. In this therapy method human life is a series of stories fed by events and our experiences an the meanings we connect to each individual tell various types of stories such as the Dominant story , which is the main life story. Another type are the Alternate stories or stories that are hiddne yor do not fit with thee Dominant story. Problem-saturated stories are often the stories brought to counseling and will exist as an individual's Dominant story during their time. These stories are intensely influenced by the culture an individual is a part of and described using words like Thickness (for rich, elaborate stories) and Thinness (for sparsely detailed stories with few events).
   Given the importance of culture, and its influence on the ways in which an individual creates their own story, I am likely to encounter problem incidences in my future career. Such incidences may be times where cultural discourse will lead to a problem-saturated story. This therapy method places great stress on how cultural discourse, the 'truths' that influence our lives shape an individuals actions and how what they perceive as appropriate for others actions. When new cultures are introduced an individual may be forced into a position where they may question their cultural discourse, or judge another wrongly because of the differences in their cultural discourse. Either event may result in a problem-saturated story, in the form of culture shock, which then consumes their normal life.