What Is Narrative Therapy?

There is a difference between having a problem and being a problem. Narrative Therapy is built on that distinction; and for many clients, simply hearing it named for the first time is the beginning of real change.

Narrative Therapy was developed in Australia by Michael White, alongside David Epston in New Zealand, in the 1980s. Its central idea is that we all live our lives according to the stories we tell about ourselves; and that when those stories become dominated by a problem, the problem starts to feel like the whole of a person’s identity, rather than one part of a much larger life.

At Cadence Psychology, Narrative Therapy is part of the work we do with adults, adolescents, and families at both our North Sydney and Pymble clinics particularly where identity, self-worth, or a difficult life story sit at the centre of what someone is carrying.

What Is Narrative Therapy?

Narrative Therapy treats problems as separate from people. Rather than saying “you are anxious” or “you are a difficult teenager,” Narrative Therapy asks how anxiety, or conflict, or shame, has come to have influence in a person’s life and what that influence has cost them.

This shift, called externalising, is more than a technique. It reflects a genuine belief that people are not defined by their difficulties. A person is not “an anxious person” — they are a person who anxiety has, at times, taken hold of. That distinction opens up questions that a purely symptom-focused approach doesn’t: When does the problem have less influence? What does that tell us about who you are underneath it?

Narrative Therapy also pays close attention to the broader cultural, family, and social stories that shape how a person understands themselves, recognising that problems don’t form in a vacuum.

Core Ideas in Narrative Therapy

Externalising the Problem Separating the person from the problem through language — “the anxiety” rather than “your anxiety,” “the pattern” rather than “your failure.” This is not a linguistic trick; it genuinely changes how a problem can be examined and addressed.

Unique Outcomes Moments when the problem’s influence was less powerful, or absent altogether. These moments are often dismissed as unimportant by the person experiencing them, but they are evidence of skills, values, and strengths that the dominant problem story has obscured.

Re-Authoring Building a richer, more accurate story of a person’s life; one that includes the unique outcomes, the values, and the capabilities that a problem-saturated story leaves out. This is not about ignoring genuine difficulty; it’s about ensuring the difficulty isn’t the only chapter being told.

Identity and Values Narrative Therapy is deeply concerned with who a person wants to be, and what they stand for, rather than only what is wrong. This makes it a particularly natural fit for adolescents actively forming their sense of identity.

What Does Narrative Therapy Help With?

• Identity-related difficulties: including adolescents navigating who they are, and adults facing identity disruption after major life change
• Shame and self-esteem: particularly where a person’s sense of self has become fused with a diagnosis, a mistake, or a difficult period in their life
• Grief and loss: helping people find a way to carry a relationship with what or who has been lost, rather than being told to “move on”
• Life transitions: separation, career change, parenthood, and other points where the story a person has told about themselves no longer fits
• Chronic illness and health conditions: supporting people to relate to a diagnosis without it consuming their entire identity
• Family and relationship difficulties: externalising the problem (for example, “the conflict”) rather than positioning one family member as the problem

Narrative Therapy is often used alongside ACT, particularly where values work is central, and can complement Mindfulness-based approaches in building the reflective distance needed to examine a problem’s influence.

What Does a Narrative Therapy Session Look Like?

Listening for the story, not just the symptom Your psychologist listens for how you talk about your situation – the language you use, what you take for granted, what gets left out.

Externalising conversations Together, you name and explore the problem as something separate from you, examining its tactics, its history, and its effects on your life.

Searching for unique outcomes Your psychologist will ask about times the problem had less influence – often revealing values, skills, and resilience the dominant story had obscured.

Re-authoring and thickening the story Over time, sessions build a fuller, richer account of who you are; one that includes the difficulty without being defined by it.

Documentation (where useful) Some clients find it valuable to put insights or progress into writing that reinforce the emerging, preferred story. This is optional and tailored to what feels genuinely useful, not a formulaic requirement.

Who Is Narrative Therapy For?

Narrative Therapy suits people who feel reduced to a single problem or label – “the anxious one,” “the difficult teenager,” “the failure” – and who want to reconnect with a fuller sense of who they are. It is particularly well-suited to adolescents forming their identity, adults navigating significant life transitions, and anyone for whom shame or a difficult diagnosis has become central to how they see themselves.

It is often used in combination with other approaches rather than as a stand-alone treatment for acute symptoms. If you are managing a specific, time-limited difficulty like a phobia or recent-onset anxiety, CBT may be a more direct starting point.

Narrative Therapy at Cadence Psychology

Narrative Therapy is offered at our North Sydney psychologist clinic and our Pymble psychologist clinic, integrated into our adult and child and adolescent services at both the North Sydney and Pymble practices, and available via telehealth across NSW.

Medicare rebates are available with a Mental Health Care Plan. A referral is not required to book directly.

Frequently Asked Questions