ABSTRACT
Over the last few years we have become interested in trying to use various types of narrative therapy to work with early trauma in the lives of clients with psychosis. There are several reasons for the growth of this interest. In our clinical work we have been struck by how often clients with psychosis presented their dif®culties as overwhelming in the present yet often made no or little reference to various events at the beginning of their dif®culties and very rarely to events in childhood. However, when clients were asked about these times in their lives, then often clients would describe enormous dif®- culties involving the full range of con¯icts, rejections, loss, trauma, and abuse. From our therapeutic perspective, we consider that many of these early traumatic events might well have contributed to the meaning and themes of present symptoms. They may also have had a role in causing the psychosis. Given the potential for exploring the connection of present meaning and past events, we began to wonder if a speci®c exploration of the past as a contribution to the present might help to `contextualise' clients' dif®culties, thus providing opportunities for building new perspectives and new initiatives in their lives. In this chapter we will outline an approach we have developed for working in the areas of psychosis and narration.
