Please listen to the voice thread, which is a brief summary of the tenets and assumptions of narrative therapy, and the read the assigned materials (therapy process) from pages 71 to 85 and Carr’s article

· Interview anybody you have access to but maintaining social distance. The person may be successful in certain areas of his or her life or may be struggling/has concerns. State the person’s success or struggles.

· Identify in person’s narrative 3 critical life events or experiences.

· Identify meanings the persons attach to these life events and draw connections between the 3 events and state how they influence person’s success or struggle.

· You may quote aspects of the person’s narrative to support events and meaning, and how they impact his or her success or struggles. Please be brief. Half a page will suffice.

Example 1:

For this exercise I interviewed a friend who narrates three events/experiences he attributes to his success in triumphing through dark moments in his life. The first critical event he describes was being sent as a child to live with his aunt and uncle in another country. The second critical event was falling ill to pancreatitis. The last was the traumatic loss of a close cousin to gun/gang violence. In his narrative of these experiences/events all are connected and are associated to trauma and loss. Sent to live with his aunt and uncle in another country while his siblings stayed with his parents made him resentful of his mom. He felt because he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle while the rest of his siblings were not, he was not a good son and was not wanted by his mom. He resented his aunt and uncle because they weren’t his biological parents and felt they kept him from having a relationship with his mom and siblings. When sent back to live with his family he was diagnosed with pancreatitis. Physically in pain he was unable to do what peers his age was doing. Pancreatitis kept him from engaging socially with others and disrupted activities with his cousin. This cousin was the first relative he connected with once he returned from living with his aunt and uncle and cherished their relationship. Before diagnosed with pancreatitis he expressed he and his cousin were close. Now physically limited in his abilities he and his cousins became distant. His cousin then joined a gang and was killed. Ridden with survivors’ guilt, depression and attempts of self-harm he expressed this was a particularly difficult time for his and was around the same time he started college. Impacted tremendously by his loss he viewed himself and the world negatively during this time and no longer felt hopeful about his future. Having overcome these obstacles through the support of psychotherapy, family and friends his relationship with others have strengthened, he is no longer confronted with thoughts of self-harm, is better able to cope with grief and loss and has regain hope for his future.

Example 2:

I found the Madigan article extremely helpful in facilitating my understanding of narrative therapy. I enjoyed the examples of specific questions a narrative therapist would ask clients.

In the spirit of social distancing, I decided to interview my mom because I live with her. I wanted to focus on success rather than challenges, and so I began the interview by asking her what is one thing that she feels prideful of. She stated that she is proud of herself for becoming a successful cake decorator, explaining how hard of a worker she is and how long it has taken her to get to the point of actually feeling proud of her craft. I asked her to tell me the story of three separate events that stand out as landmarks of her career, and following the guidance from the Madigan article, asked her to describe these events in two ways: landscape of action (what she perceived happened in real life) and landscape of identity (what was going on in her inner thoughts when these events happened, what these events mean to her personally). The first event consisted of my mom sitting at the kitchen table with her parents, having a discussion about how she didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life, considering she did not succeed in high school and traditional academics were never her strength. Her parents pointed out an ad in the newspaper, a job offer at a local bakery. “Why don’t you go for that?,” her parents stated. So she did. Her inner thoughts at the time were those of confusion and nervousness, as she knew nothing about the bakery industry or cake decorating. Reflecting back, however, she ascribes great meaning to this event, as it shaped the direction her life took. The second event was attending culinary school. This event was meaningful as it not only allowed her to learn in a structured environment, but allowed her to feel as if she was successful and she was taking control of her life. At this time in her life, she compared herself heavily to her brother, who was going to college to become a chiropractor. Going to culinary school made her feel as if she was just as good and talented and smart as her brother, just in a different way. Finally, the third meaningful event is where she is with her career currently. Even though she does not make a lot of money as a cake decorator, she explained to me that she finds meaning in her work because she is confident in it. The bakery she works at has seen a significant increase in business since she has started there, and customers often return asking specifically for the seasonal cakes that she makes yearly. The landscape of action does not hold much weight; as on the surface, she goes to work and then comes home each day just like everyone else. However, the landscape of identity that this holds is that it provides my mom with a sense of confidence and purpose.