Narrative Therapy vs. Solution-Focused Therapy for Crisis

Introduction

This paper explores two similar approaches to therapy for clients in crisis: narrative therapy and solution-focused therapy. Both therapeutic techniques evolved as a way of helping clients deal with problems proactively, rather than focusing on delving into the individual's past history or attempting to reform the individual's character. Although they share many similarities, solution-focused brief therapy has increasingly found favor with both therapists and clients as a way of developing positive cognitive approaches to managing difficulties. This paper explores possible reasons why this is so and whether solution-focused therapy is indeed superior to narrative therapy. It concludes with a discussion of reality therapy — another approach offered as an alternative to narrative-based therapy — which similarly offers clients a grounded way to perceive their problems anew, rather than simply developing new stories with which to frame their current struggles.

Narrative therapy makes use of the individual's ability to craft his or her own story as a way to facilitate self-empowerment. "This therapy intends to view problems as separate entities to people, assuming that the individual's set of skills, experience, and mindset will assist him or her in reducing the influence of problems throughout life" ("Narrative therapy," 2010). Rather than viewing someone as a passive recipient of events, this form of therapy casts the client as the actor and director of his or her own life story. The therapist serves as a guide, not a director of what the client should do.

Narrative Therapy

Narrative therapy is designed to give clients tools to empower themselves: "Placing the client as an expert, and understanding his or her story instead of attempting to predict it, indicates the therapist's mindset" ("Narrative therapy," 2010). The client gains a sense of direction over his or her own life and is not dependent upon the therapist. "The problem becomes the antagonist of the story," not the client, and "certain behaviours are based on particular 'unhealthy' or 'undesired' characteristics — such as lack of patience, aggressiveness, etc." — which must be defeated, with an alternative ending suggested in their place ("Narrative therapy," 2010).

The separation of the person from the problem encourages the individual not to fall into self-defeating cognitive patterns, such as identifying him or herself as inherently "broken" by thinking, "this always happens to me because I am a bad person." Such self-defeating beliefs make it difficult to adopt a new way of being in the world or a positive approach to finding a solution. "Narrative therapy was created as a non-pathologizing, empowering, and collaborative form of therapy that recognizes that people possess natural competencies, skills, and expertise that can help guide change in their lives" ("Narrative therapy," 2015). It is ultimately the client who decides which narrative is most effective in addressing the focus of the therapeutic relationship.

Although the therapist's role is relatively non-directive in narrative therapy, he or she still plays an important part. The therapist has the critical task of helping the client identify unproductive storylines he or she has been telling about him or herself and finding more productive ways to view the conflict. "The therapist also helps people to see what is 'absent but implicit'... By exploring the impact of the problem, it is possible to identify what is truly important and valuable to a person in a broader context, beyond the problem" ("Narrative therapy," 2015). In distinct contrast to psychoanalysis, the focus is on dealing with current problems and ultimately transforming the problem rather than the person, without explicating deep-seated issues in the client's psyche.

Narrative therapy can take many years to implement and arose out of the humanist school of psychology associated with Carl Rogers in the 1960s. Solution-focused therapy, by contrast, has a very different history. Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), also called solution-focused therapy, "was developed inductively in an inner-city outpatient mental health service setting in which clients were accepted without previous screening" — in short, among clients with severe problems who did not have extensive time to devote to therapy ("What is solution-focused therapy," 2016). "The SFBT approach assumes that all clients have some knowledge of what would make their life better, even though they may need some (at times, considerable) help describing the details of their better life" ("What is solution-focused therapy," 2016). Like narrative therapy, it starts from the assumption that the client is inherently competent and knows what to do, but may simply need some assistance figuring out what that is.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

While narrative therapy operates on the premise that clients have deployed unproductive narratives or approaches to dealing with problems in the past, solution-focused therapy emphasizes approaches that were fruitful and productive in previous struggles and seeks to apply them to current difficulties. "SF therapists have learned that most people have previously solved many, many problems and probably have some ideas of how to solve the current problem" ("What is solution-focused therapy," 2016). Common questions from solution-focused therapists include: "Are there times when this has been less of a problem?" or "What did you — or others — do that was helpful?" ("What is solution-focused therapy," 2016).

A skilled solution-focused therapist will also help clients identify differences between past and current problems, and ensure that clients are able to put issues in perspective when past problems were not as severe as present ones. "SF therapists may help clients identify these exceptions by asking, 'What is different about the times when this is less of a problem?'" ("What is solution-focused therapy," 2016).

Conclusion

In all three therapies, the emphasis is on the client making choices to see his or her problems in a different light. Narrative therapy, despite its many strengths, lacks the focus and goal-oriented approach of solution-focused therapy. For clients who have only a limited amount of time to spend in therapy, focusing on concrete actions rather than reframing the problem is ultimately more useful.