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Toward a Developmentally Informed Narrative Therapy
Author(s) -
STRAND PAUL S.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1997.00325.x
Subject(s) - narrative , narrative therapy , psychology , meaning (existential) , construct (python library) , meaning making , psychotherapist , epistemology , developmental psychology , computer science , philosophy , linguistics , programming language
Narrative approaches to psychotherapy emphasize the impact of the stories or narratives we construct on our reality and behavior. However, little effort has been made to elucidate how individuals' differential capacities for meaning‐making influence the process of re‐storying lives. The present article introduces to family therapy a model of the changing nature of individuals' ability to create meaning. The model, referred to as developmental‐constructivism (Kegan, 1994), suggests that, in addition to contextual factors, individual differences in the capacity for organizing experience will influence therapeutic efforts to generate new and more adaptive narratives. The model is also presented as a heuristic for comparing and integrating two influential approaches to narrative therapy: the externalizing approach of Michael White and the solution‐focused approach of Steve de Shazer.