ABSTRACT
Psychotherapists who write about neurobiology maintain that narrative helps integrate clients’ neural networks both horizontally – between the left- and right-brain hemispheres – and vertically – up and down within the right brain. Daniel Siegel describes how the left brain provides linear organization, logical interpretation, and the drive to show cause and effect, while the right brain provides the true, wholistic, emotional meaning of a story. Cozolino notes that parents who have trouble linking events and emotions will not be able to help their children create a coherent, integrative self-narrative. Different attachment styles produce different ways of narrating stories. Attachment theory describes in detail how relational trauma affects a person’s narrative ability. From the stories clients tell, therapists mentalize the storytellers’ attachment needs and defences, and help them tell a story that will give them a fuller, more coherent sense of self. Co-creating stories means that therapists encourage their clients’ self-reflection, opening space for them to play with what they know, space where new self-coherence may coalesce on its own.
