Narrative therapy is a form of psychotherapy using narrative developed by Michael White and David Epston. It includes a discussion of how a problem has been disrupting, dominating, or discouraging the person. 

The therapist attempts to separate clients from their problems so that they do not adopt a fixed view of their identities. Gaps, incompleteness, and incoherence in the client’s life story may indicate struggles in creating an integrated experience of self-in the-world. Clients are invited to view their stories from different perspectives and eventually to co-create an alternative life story. Clients are asked to find evidence to support a new view of themselves as being competent enough to escape the dominance of a problem and are encouraged to consider what kind of future could be expected from the competent person that is emerging.

Because people intimately create meanings to understand their experiences, the experience of reviewing the abuse with an empathic therapist allows for new constructions to be created. These newer meanings, in turn, allow for newer experiences as clients’ lives move into the future.

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