Narrative Counseling and the Role of the SLP

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Narrative therapy has grown out of the developing constructivist movement in psychology and is based on the idea that people understand their lives through their "storying" of lived experience. In other words, we use stories to narrate our lives, linking events in meaningful sequences that help provide a sense of organization, meaning, and significance. As might be expected, our personal narratives are always changing, although the "core" aspects of the story tend to be consistent across time. Anytime an individual is faced with changing some fundamental aspect of his/her being (such as the way he/she communicates), however, changes to the "core" story will be required. This is often difficult for individuals to accomplish alone. Consequently, if the change is due to a communication problem, the responsibility for assisting this individual lies squarely with the speech-language pathologist. By including counseling in our treatment programs, we can facilitate the process of change for clients who may be struggling with fundamental changes to their self narrative. Counseling without a framework, however, is difficult at best and this is where using a narrative therapy framework may be useful for speech-language pathologists who, typically, have limited specific training in counseling. Narrative therapy is based on the counselor relinquishing the "expert" role and taking on the role of an interested conversational partner. By simply encouraging the client to tell his/her story and listening for potential alternative story-lines embedded within the dominant narrative, speech-language pathologists can play a significant role in co-authoring change in their clients. By applying this framework to all clients, speech-language pathologists can have a stable approach from which to "conceptualize" clients' needs, behaviors, and attitudes, thereby facilitating counseling as may be needed on a case-by-case basis.

This Ask the Expert was taken from the course entitled: Re-Storying Communication: Narrative Counseling in Speech-Language Pathology.

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Anthony DiLollo, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Wichita State University and is a member of the International Fluency Association, ASHA's Special Interest Division 4, and the Constructivist Psychology Network. He has published articles and presented seminars and workshops on fluency disorders, counseling, qualitative research, and narrative therapy.