ABSTRACT
Spanning the cultural-linguistic, dyadic-relational, and personal-agentic levels of the epigenetic model, narrative therapy seeks to reveal the narrow societal prescriptions and assumptions that constrain people's ability to recognize the options open to them (Winslade & Monk, 2001). Because problematic identities are inevitably constructed in social contexts and sustained in repetitive interactions between people, it is these very patterns or dominant narratives that become the initial focus of therapeutic attention in this approach, as the therapist works with the client to make more visible the in¯uence of the problem-saturated story in his or her life. Using curious questions, the therapist then helps the client ``deconstruct'' the dominant account of his or her problem and begin to recognize his or her in¯uence on the problem itself. By gradually noticing, historicizing, documenting, and circulating the client's steps toward a preferred story of life and relationships, the therapist helps him or her consolidate an alternative self-narrative, one more rich in possibility (White & Epston, 1990).
