ABSTRACT
Goal setting is recognised as the crux of effective recovery, adjustment, and adaptation during the multi-disciplinary rehabilitation process. This chapter explains the contribution narrative approaches that have made to conceptualising goal setting, and describes goal-setting activities consistent with narrative practice. It also describes goal setting across the pathway of rehabilitation services following brain injury; this includes working in a variety of settings with a range of clinical professionals, addressing biological, neurological, and physiological signs of injury, in addition to facilitating psychological, behavioural, and existential change. Based on meta-analytic reviews of goal setting and its application, goal commitment has been found to be a moderator of goal achievement, and it has been argued that the easiest way to ensure a person is committed to a goal is for them to have participated in setting that goal. The chapter seeks to outline how narrative approaches can be practically useful in informing and guiding the structure, process, and implementation of goal-setting interventions.
