Narrative based therapy is a method of therapy that separates the person from the problem and encourages people to rely on their own skill sets to minimize the problems that exist in their everyday lives. Throughout life, personal experiences are transformed into personal stories that are given meaning and help shape a person’s identity, and narrative therapy utilizes the power of people’s personal stories to discover the life purpose of the narrator.

Narrative therapy was created as a nonpathologizing, empowering, and collaborative form of therapy that recognizes that people possess natural competencies, skills, and expertise that can help guide change in their lives. People are viewed as separate from their problems, and in this way, a therapist can help externalize sensitive issues. Rather than transforming the person, we, at The Couch, use narrative therapy to transform the effects of the problem. The objective is to get some distance from the issue and thus making it possible to see how a particular concern is serving a person, rather than harming him or her. Narrative based therapy can be used for individuals, couples or families.