“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 narrative of an event or a connected series of events, whether true or not. 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, as in any movie, book, historical account 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.

Foundations of Narrative Therapy

Narrative Therapy is a coaching approach that centers people as experts on 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: shifting the view from a narrow perspective to a systemic and more flexible stance.

Systemic and flexible posture? 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 the flexibility to invoke the necessary changes to improve.

“The products of our narrative schemes are ubiquitous 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 narrative accounts that make sense of the behavior of others. We also use the narrative schema 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 read and discuss stories at school. (Polkhorne, 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 usually combine 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 personality traits of the individual.

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 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 issue “has an effect on the person” rather than that the issue or issue 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 collective discourses, assumptions, or values ​​that may hold or support the problem story.

Step 4: Re-story

Identifying unique events that stand apart from the problem story starts the process of retelling the story. Coaches new to the narrative approach often attest that it is easier to find a unique outcome in the client’s distant history than in their immediate past.

Step 5: Name the alternate history and thicken its plot

To assist the coachee in naming the alternate story, the coach can approach the naming of the alternate story in the same way that they approached the naming of the problem story: by offering tentative suggestions and using the words that 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 the 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.

– By the time a person consults a professional, they will have already made many attempts to reduce the influence of the problem in their life and relationships.

– Problems are constructed in cultural contexts. These contexts include power relations of race, class, sexual orientation, gender, and disadvantage.

– The problems for which people consult usually make them reach weak conclusions about their life and their 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 capacities.

– These skills, competencies and knowledge can be put at their disposal to help them recover their lives from the influence of the problem for which they seek 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.

– Ensuring 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 to empower the client. Positioning the coachee as an expert and understanding her story rather than trying to predict it indicates the mindset of the coach. The idea is to emphasize the coaching relationship. This point of view encompasses many of the important aspects of good interpersonal communication, such as: showing care, interest, respectful curiosity, openness, empathy, and fascination.

Once this collaborative relationship has been established, the coach and coachee can move forward and work on how to improve the results of the narrative:

“Once upon a time… there was an optimistic, happy and productive person…”