Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT focuses on identifying thinking that gives rise to feelings and behaviors that create mental illness. This requires the therapist impress on the client that their thinking needs to change. CBT has a huge body of literature that demonstrates its effectiveness; however, I find that it frequently (thought not always) sets up a dynamic of the therapist as the “expert” and the client as the recipient what the therapist as does or says. I prefer to take a strengths based approach to therapy that blends the concepts of cognitive behavioral therapy with a person’s own experience, Narrative Therapy.
One aspect of Narrative therapy that I find compelling is that the patient is the one who discovers his or her own strength. People, when telling stories about what happened today, over the course of a relationship, or their own autobiography, tend to simplify the story to make it memorable and compelling. That isn’t to say they lie; however, information is always left out. How one chooses to leave information out is based on many factors including making a
Sometimes those “scripts,” become worn, rigid and self-fulfilling. When repeating a story of being a born loser, victim, hopeless, or worthless, people start to look for evidence that support that script. Further interactions from others in life can amplify those story lines. Have you ever avoided someone who always had a complaining born loser story to tell? That person is further isolating themselves, reinforcing the idea that they are alone and no one likes them. Narrative therapy works to re-write that script by finding the information that was omitted.
No one has only loser scripts! What are the success scripts that are being edited out? Who has observed those success scripts? Narrative therapy isn’t about putting on rose colored glasses and ignoring problems. It is about identifying the entire complexity of human individuality and bringing the whole person, strengths and all, into the problem solving process. In that process Cognitive Behavior Therapy is happening, but rather than accepting the therapist’s “expert” opinion that the client’s thinking is wrong, the client discovers from their own experience that their thinking has been limiting their life.
Your therapist may ask you to keep a journal of stories that happen on a daily basis to discuss in therapy. Consider exploring what stories are you leaving out of your autobiography? Are you embracing the entire spectrum of your complex character or are you limiting yourself based on a scripted character of who you are?
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J. Kipp Lanning, LIMHP
