Narrative Therapy

Narrative therapy is a form of psychotherapy that supports individuals in exploring, externalising, and reshaping the difficult or traumatic experiences they have faced. Narrative therapy is grounded on the notion that we make sense of our lives by organising our memories into narratives, and that these stories help shape our identity.

This therapeutic approach can be effective in addressing a wide range of issues, including:

  • complex post-traumatic stress disorder (Complex PTSD)

  • post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

  • developmental trauma

  • anxiety

  • relationship difficulties

  • the effects of domestic abuse

  • displacement

Narrative therapy is suitable for both children and adults.

How Does It Work?

When a traumatic event occurs, the brain prioritises survival. The amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for detecting threats, is activated, triggering what’s commonly known as ‘survival mode’. In this state, the prefrontal cortex, which helps with reasoning and processing, becomes less active. This imbalance can result in fragmented memories that lack clear connections to time or place.

You may find that emotional or physical sensations, such as panic, fear, or pain, are easily recalled, sometimes as if they’re happening all over again. Meanwhile, the broader context of the memory may remain unclear, leaving the event feeling unresolved or ever-present, as though it’s waiting to resurface at any moment.

Narrative therapy addresses this by helping you build the wider story first, rather than diving straight into the trauma. Instead of focusing immediately on the distressing event, you begin by telling the story of your life, creating a structured narrative that gives context to your experiences. From there, the traumatic events can be placed more meaningfully within the timeline, like puzzle pieces slotting into place. In this way, experiences of trauma can be restructured at bodily, affective and cognitive levels of functioning.

This process helps the brain anchor traumatic memories to specific moments in the past. What once felt like an overwhelming and timeless threat can begin to feel like something that happened, rather than something that is still happening. In this way, the memories often lose some of their emotional intensity and power.

By organising your life experiences into a coherent narrative, you can also begin to see the trauma from a new perspective. The context you build around those moments may lead to new understandings, and possibly, a different relationship to the memories themselves.

In Summary

Narrative therapy won’t change what has happened, but it can help you see the past more clearly and feel less haunted by it.

Processing the story of your trauma within the wider context of your life, you may find that the way those memories affect you begins to shift and become lighter. The trauma doesn’t disappear, but it becomes part of your story, rather than the whole of it. You are able to think about what happened without feeling so alarmed, and are able to think about what happened more coherently.

Ultimately, narrative therapy gives you the chance to reclaim authorship of your life. The past remains, but you decide how the story is told and more importantly, what happens next.