Narrative practice: externalizing & re-authoring

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The essential idea

Study narrative practice through a model-specific formulation, an evolving fictional case, and applied decisions. Use the worked example before attempting the original practice task and separate case quiz.

BUILD THE REASONING · 01

Identity stories select some events and silence others

Narrative therapy examines how dominant stories organize experience and identity within relationships and wider discourses. A problem-saturated account such as “I am a failure” can select confirming events and overlook actions that express other commitments. The therapist takes a decentered but influential stance: the client is the authority on meaning, while questions deliberately open neglected possibilities.

Externalizing separates the person from the problem without denying its effects or the person’s responsibility for action. Use language the client accepts; an elaborate problem name is not required. Map how the problem influences life and how the person has influenced it, then explore the client’s evaluation of those effects and reasons for that position.

BUILD THE REASONING · 02

Thicken the alternative instead of offering a compliment

A unique outcome contradicts or complicates the dominant story. Explore what happened, how it became possible, what the action stood for, when that commitment appeared before, and who might recognize it. Link events across time into a preferred account with enough detail to be believable.

Re-authoring is not replacing “bad person” with “good person.” It develops a richer story grounded in actions, relationships, and values. Letters, documents, or an invited witness can support continuity when the client wants them and consent/privacy are addressed. Accountability for harm remains concrete: effects, responsibility, repair, and future choices.

BUILD THE REASONING · 03

Stories have material conditions

Narrative work attends to gender, culture, racism, disability, class, and institutional authority without assuming one discourse explains every person. A story about failure may be reinforced by actual exclusion; changing language cannot alone remove that barrier. Ask what practical resources or collective responses are wanted.

Dulwich Centre sources are substantive developer/training accounts, not a uniform body of randomized evidence. The approach can generate useful questions, but its effects must be evaluated for the specific practice and context. Do not substitute a pleasing identity label for the client’s own meaning or assume one unique outcome disproves all difficulty.

FROM CONCEPT TO DECISION

Rin and the “unreliable” story

1. 1

   Externalize and map

   Rin chooses “the never-enough story.” Explore its influence and the organization’s narrow contribution standard.

   “When never-enough judges the remote work, whose definition of contribution is it using?”

2. 2

   Develop the unique outcome

   The coordination expressed care and ingenuity, with a history of similar acts. Ask rather than assign those values.

   “What mattered enough that you found another way to help, and who has seen that commitment before?”

3. 3

   Link identity and action

   Rin names dependable care as a value and chooses to negotiate an accessible role. A brief self-authored note records examples and intentions.

   “How would a role built around that commitment differ from proving you can always attend?”

MAKE THE REASONING YOURS

Work through a new situation

READ WITH A PURPOSE

Best references

These readings deepen the specific models, evidence, and decisions in this lesson.

1. 01
   Carey & Russell: Externalising—commonly asked questions

   Study externalizing as a contextual stance and a route toward preferred identity stories, not merely changing pronouns.

2. 02
   Dulwich Centre: About narrative approaches

   Connect identity, power, collective work, and the person’s relationship to a problem.

3. 03
   Michael White: Externalising conversations transcript

   Read the originator’s separate teaching discussion; link for study without reproducing its training material.