Journal December 2025 Release - Flipbook - Page 50
48
whether multi-vocal, lived, or musical – woven from words rescued from the
conversation (Denborough, 2008, 2018; Müller, 2012, 2013, 2015; Newman,
2008).
In all these instances, words are chosen with attentive affection, as though the
therapeutic process helps people reclaim the grace of their words and the power
of their voices. As Queirós (1986) suggests, we must help awaken certain words,
so they live and breathe in daily experience. Words steer every moment of the
therapeutic encounter. After all, as White (1988) writes: “… we could investigate
the benefit of defining a therapy of literary ‘merit’ in which the therapist’s
greatest gift to persons seeking therapy is to help them become their own
writers.” (p. 10). He continues: “This approach establishes therapy as a context of
curiosity and takes the form of a collaborative endeavour and an enquiry into new
possibilities” (p. 13).
An enquiry in which questions are doors to alternative stories – or, as David
Epston says, an invitation to “go down the rabbit-hole” (Marsten, Epston &
Markham, 2016). According to White (1988), there are two main conversational
perspectives: asking about people’s experience and producing new knowledge –
which appears through stories that fascinate both teller and listener. Paying
attention to conversation, we may realize that most of our questions arise from
resonance with the stories we listen to. They are a way to broaden our
understanding about some aspects of the narrative that touched us in some way.
Therefore, it is important that questions arise from genuine curiosity, a wish to
broaden the narratives beyond what is expected or already known, and a search
for versions that reveal the preferred identity of the person before us.
The metaphor of building alternative stories, seeking the preferred story, helps
therapists contribute to a storytelling that reveals the person’s best version. It is
not about replacing a problem-saturated story with another deemed ‘better’ – a
common misconception and an unfounded critique of narrative therapy. Rather,
it’s about finding ways to storylive (Müller, 2024) what happened; to understand
the stances the person stands for and against; to make clear the person’s life
aims; and to highlight each one’s aspired legacies. It is about narractivating 7 a
7
I use this play-with-words to highlight the narrative possibility to activate preferred storylines through storytelling
and storyliving.
Narractivating Conversations with the Internalised-Other: A Therapy with a Little Bit of Fairy Dust.
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, December 2025 Release, p. 45-65.
www.journalnft.com
