Narrative provides purpose and structure to life-"it is the primary scheme by means of which human existence is rendered meaningful" (Polkinghorne, 1988, p. 11). In the narrative view, people enter counseling when they are unable to revise restrictive personal narratives (Combs & Freedman, 1994;Parry & Doan, 1994). Narrative therapy is collaborative, hopeful, and solution-focused (Hoyt, 1994). The counselor redirects the problem-saturated story to a new story about client assets and growth. By externalizing the problem, listening, and asking questions, the counselor deconstructs the burdensome narrative; that is, they stop the movie and alter such compelling scripts (Rambo, Heath, & Chenail, 1993, p. 30). They then invite the client to author a new narrative, one that is more fulfilling, empowering, and hopeful. Clients title their new and old stories. Letters and rituals are used to document change (Parry & Doan, 1994). The narrative approach has been applied across treatment modalities (family, individual, and group formats) and with diverse client problems, from depression (Hoyt, 1994) to Alzheimer's disease (Ganzer & England, 1994).
As a third-year graduate student in counseling psychology, I agreed with narrative therapy's focus on client narratives, yet I felt something was missing from this definition. After reading recent applications of the narrative approach to helper populations (see Ganzer & England, 1994; Parry & Doan, 1994), I contemplated how the narrative literature might apply to me, to my work, to my personal narrative. In short, I suspected that my narrative as counselor was also part of the therapy story.