Narrative and Relational Cultural Therapy

I am a big advocate for psychoeducation, I want to equip you with the knowledge to make the best and most informed decisions for your healing journey.  There are so many kinds and styles of therapy it can feel overwhelming to find a therapeutic style that works best for you. However, not everyone has the time or resources to try out a different therapist and therapeutic style every other week. I am going to cover two “newer” approaches to therapy that emphasizes society's role in our development. 

Narrative Therapy

Narrative therapy is a strengths-based approach to therapy that views reality as “socially constructed” and that there are no essential truths (2). Narrative Therapy also recognizes how social and cultural issues affect people, meaning none of us grew up in a vacuum. One of the goals of a Narrative Therapist is to build a strong therapeutic relationship with empathy and unconditional positive regard (2). Narrative therapy encourages the exploration of a person’s stories in new detail and in different ways (2).

Telling and Retelling. This concept of Narrative therapy closely reminds me of Brené Brown’s “the story I am making up” (1). “Telling and Retelling” help a client break from a “problem-saturated” story (2). By telling it once, highlighting the suffering or hurt; then “retelling” and focusing on the resilience or the lesson learned, enforcing a strength-based identity (2). In relationship therapy, this is similar to using Brené Brown's “story I’m making up” technique as a way to retell the story, by owning one’s experiences and feelings separately from the situation (1). 

Re-Authoring. To quote part of Brené Brown’s Manifesto of the Brave and Brokenhearted “We are the authors of our own lives. We write our own daring endings…showing up is our power. Story is our way home. Truth is our song. We are the brave and brokenhearted. We are rising strong” (1). Re-authoring allows a person to “develop and tell stories about their lives” and reframe potentially traumatic or negative events with resilience or self-compassion (2). Through gentle questioning, a Narrative style counselor can help a client make exceptions to their problem-saturated stories and recognize they are a much more complex individual not defined by one event (2).

Social Activism. Another key aspect of Narrative Therapy is Social Activism. Because narrative therapists recognize how language and “dominant narratives in society” oppress and marginalize people groups, to be a narrative therapist means to be a social activist (2). Mental health professionals should never push their own values onto clients, however, this does not mean being “neutral” (2). Neutrality silently supports “the ‘isms’ of society” (2). 

Relational-Cultural Therapy

Relational- Cultural therapy is based on the idea that we are constantly affected by our culture and social experiences, those experiences are unique to the individual and healing can occur at any point in one’s life (2). The therapist's goal is to help a person understand how life experiences and sociocultural pressures impact a client’s life. RCT sees life as unique and unpredictable (2). This gives a person the power to make their own determinations about their life, rather than blaming others for causing problems or feeling like a victim to society.

Disposition Towards Connection. Relative-Cultural Therapists believe that people grow through and towards relationships throughout their lifespan; development is relative and determined by “past, present, and future” and healing is not linear (2). Moving towards connection and community is a characteristic of mature functioning and being in a relationship with others is an important part of the human experience.

Empathy. To create a therapeutic alliance built on growth, mutual empathy is essential. In the principles of RCT, therapeutic authenticity, mutual empathy, and empowerment of the client are essential (2). Mutual empathy helps build a therapeutic alliance between therapist and client, a core concept in Person-Centered counseling as well (2). All these together will create a safe and supported environment. 

Encourage Discussion About Oppression and Marginalization. In RCT counseling, one strategy to build trust, empathy, and community is by encouraging conversation around oppression and marginalization (2). This helps prevent a client from feeling isolated by their experiences, helps them move forward, and is a key element to empowerment (2). This can be beneficial for diverse populations, as it provides them with a sense of belonging by creating a space where they have an opportunity to share their lived experiences (2).

Embracing and celebrating diversity is incredibly important. I believe it is essential to recognize and validate every aspect of a person and to change the global narrative to celebrate what makes us different.

Brown, B. (2015). Rising Strong. New York, New York: Spiegel & Grau.

Neukrug, E. (2018). Counseling Theory and Practice (2nd Edition ed.). (C. Benson, B. Christian, & J. Giganti, Eds.) Cognella Academic Publishing.