Narrative Therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston in the 1980s and 1990s, offers a fundamentally different approach to psychological difficulties. Rather than locating problems within you or viewing your identity as fixed, Narrative Therapy sees your life as a story being authored — a story that can be examined, questioned, and re-written to better reflect who you are and who you want to become. At London Trusted Therapy, we recognise that the stories you tell about yourself — about your identity, your past, your relationships, your problems — profoundly shape your experience and possibilities.
Narrative Therapy is built on the premise that “the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem.” This externalising stance challenges problem-saturated identities where you’ve become fused with difficulties. Rather than being “an anxious person” or “a depressive,” you’re a person who has a relationship with anxiety or depression — a subtle but powerful shift that creates space for different possibilities and rediscovers your strengths and values.
Our narrative approach also recognises that dominant cultural stories — about success, gender, relationships, mental health — can constrain how you see yourself and live your life. Narrative Therapy helps you identify these dominant discourses, examine whose interests they serve, and author alternative stories that better honour your values, knowledge, and preferred ways of being.
4.86 rating based on Google and Trustpilot reviews
Narrative Therapy is particularly valuable for individuals who feel defined by their problems — when difficulties have become totalising identities that obscure other aspects of who you are. If you struggle with shame, internalised oppression, or feeling like you don't measure up to societal expectations, narrative work helps you rediscover the fuller, more complex story of your life.
Narrative Therapy's critical awareness of dominant cultural stories helps you recognise when you're judging yourself by standards that don't reflect your values. This approach is valuable if you feel stuck in a particular narrative about your past — perhaps a story of victimhood, failure, or unworthiness — and want to discover alternative stories that acknowledge your strengths and resilience.
Narrative Therapy doesn't deny painful experiences but helps you not be defined solely by them. You might also benefit if you're navigating identity questions, particularly if dominant cultural stories conflict with your actual experience. This is especially relevant for people with marginalised identities — LGBTQ+ individuals, people from minority ethnic backgrounds, neurodivergent people.
Narrative work is also valuable if you appreciate creativity, storytelling, and meaning-making. If rigid diagnostic frameworks or problem-focused approaches feel alienating, narrative therapy's focus on authoring preferred life stories may resonate deeply.
Narrative couples work explores the dominant relationship stories each partner brings and how you've co-authored your relationship narrative. This is particularly valuable when problem-saturated stories dominate — when your relationship has become "the troubled relationship" or one partner has become "the problematic one."
You might benefit from this approach if you feel your relationship has been overtaken by problems, leaving little space for the connection, love, or partnership that brought you together. Narrative work helps externalise the problem, so rather than fighting each other, you join together against the problem.
This approach is valuable when cultural expectations about relationships conflict with what you actually want or value. Perhaps dominant stories about gender roles, monogamy, or "successful relationships" don't fit your actual relationship, creating shame or confusion. Narrative work helps you author relationship stories that honour your values.
Couples benefit from exploring unique outcomes — times when the problem wasn't present or wasn't as dominant. Perhaps you had moments of genuine connection despite ongoing conflict, or times when you worked together well despite anxiety threatening to overtake one partner. These exceptions provide openings for alternative relationship stories.
Narrative family therapy is particularly powerful when one family member has become identified as "the problem child," "the difficult one," or "the sick one." Externalising problems helps the whole family work together against difficulties rather than scapegoating one person.
You might benefit if your family has become organised around problems — perhaps a child's ADHD, depression, or behavioural difficulties has become the central family story, overshadowing everyone else's experiences and the family's strengths. Narrative work helps thicken alternative stories.
This approach is valuable when dominant cultural stories about families create pressure or shame. Perhaps you're a single-parent family, a same-sex-parented family, or a blended family experiencing judgment based on not fitting the "ideal family" story. Narrative therapy helps you author family stories that honour your actual values and strengths.
Families benefit from exploring preferred stories — how family members want to be known to each other, what values they want to live by, what kind of family relationships they want to create. This future-oriented, hope-filled approach contrasts with problem-focused narratives that can feel overwhelming and hopeless.
Narrative therapy begins differently from many approaches. Rather than diagnostic assessment, we're interested in the stories you're living and telling about your life, your problems, and yourself. We listen for dominant problem-saturated narratives whilst also listening for alternative stories and unique outcomes that might have been overlooked.
We use externalising conversations to separate you from problems. Instead of "you are depressed," we explore your relationship with depression. We might ask: "When depression visits, what does it tell you?" "How does anxiety try to isolate you from others?" "What tactics does perfectionism use to convince you you're not good enough?" This linguistic separation creates space for different possibilities.
We explore the history and effects of problems through mapping their influence. We ask about the problem's effects on your life, relationships, work, sense of yourself. This thorough exploration ensures problems are taken seriously whilst also creating opportunities to identify areas where the problem hasn't completely dominated.
Crucially, we explore unique outcomes — times when you influenced the problem rather than it influencing you. Perhaps you resisted anxiety's invitation to cancel plans, stood up to depression's insistence you're worthless, or refused perfectionism's demands. These exceptions, however small, become openings for alternative stories.
We engage in re-authoring conversations, helping you develop richer, preferred stories about your life. We explore what these unique outcomes reveal about your skills, knowledge, values, and commitments. We trace their history: "Has this capacity to resist depression been part of you long? Who in your life would least be surprised you have this resilience?"
We also invite outsider witnesses — sometimes literally bringing in people who can reflect back the alternative stories they witness in you, or imaginatively considering whose eyes you'd like to see yourself through. These practices help thicken preferred stories and make them more sustainable.
Linguistic practice of separating people from problems, so problems become external entities you have a relationship with rather than internal deficits defining you.
Dominant stories about your life that focus heavily on problems and difficulties, obscuring strengths, skills, values, and alternative possibilities.
Exceptions to problem-dominated stories — times when you influenced the problem, when problems were less dominant, or when alternative stories were visible.
Process of developing richer, preferred stories about your life that better reflect your values, skills, knowledge, and preferred ways of being.
Culturally powerful stories about how people should be, what's normal, what constitutes success — stories that may constrain how you see yourself and live.
How you want to be known, what matters to you, what values you want to live by — discovered through exploring unique outcomes and alternative stories.
People (present or imagined) who reflect back the alternative stories they witness in you, helping thicken and sustain preferred narratives.
Structured practice where outsider witnesses reflect back what they've heard in your story, supporting alternative identity claims.
Problem stories often become thin, leaving out complexity. Alternative stories need thick, rich description to become sustainable.
Questions building upon each other to develop rich alternative stories, tracing history, exploring meaning, and connecting with values.
Simultaneously acknowledging painful problem stories whilst developing alternative stories, ensuring alternative narratives don't dismiss real difficulties.
What your actions reveal about what matters to you — values implicit in your resistance to problems even when not explicitly stated.
Individual and Couples Psychotherapist
Individual and Couples Psychotherapist
Individual Couples and Family Psychotherapist
Individual and Couples Psychotherapist
Individual Couples Family Psychotherapist
Individual Couples and Family Psychotherapist
Clinical Psychologist Individual Couples and Family Psychotherapist
Counselling Psychologist Individual and Couples Psychotherapist EMDR
Individual Couples Family and Group Psychotherapist EMDR
Clinical Psychologist Individual and Family Psychotherapist
It’s natural to wonder whether changing language really matters. Many people discover that externalising problems such as anxiety or depression creates genuine psychological space — helping them feel less controlled by difficulties and more able to respond with agency and choice.
Should you feel that your first session did not meet your expectations or that your therapist wasn’t a good fit, we will provide another session completely free of charge with a different practitioner.
We are proud to work in partnership with major UK and global insurers, as an approved mental health provider, supporting various clients in their therapy journey around the globe.
