Author: Mona Klausing
Many new therapists join the field because they enjoy listening to others and helping them solve problems. This is part of what prompted me to leave my twenty-year career in international marketing over a decade ago to return to grad school and become a therapist. It can feel both rewarding and empowering to be able to offer insights, practical advice and be a resource to others. Many clients also place high expectations on their therapist to provide counsel and tangible strategies for overcoming challenges.
As a Narrative Therapist, my interest lies in centering the knowledge that my clients have rather than centering my own. This doesn’t mean that I don’t bring any skills or insights to the conversation, but that I see my role as facilitating a context in which clients can learn more about their own values, hopes, expectations, and lived experiences. In these conversations we can collaborate and build upon the client’s knowledge of what has and has not worked for them in the past when confronted with challenges.
This therapeutic posture is what Michael White (2005) – one of the early architects of Narrative Therapy – called “de-centered and influential”. This posture is collaborative and acknowledges the client as the expert of their own life, rather than the therapist. Remaining “de-centered and influential” grants more autonomy to the client while positioning the therapist as someone who is walking alongside the client to support new understandings and a movement towards preferred changes. This therapeutic approach is not always easy to achieve and there are times when the therapist feels they are working harder than the client. This might require a revisiting of goals in therapy or checking in about the therapeutic alliance between the client and therapist.
To learn more about Narrative Therapy, read this brief overview or visit the Dulwich Centre for a deeper dive.
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