ABSTRACT
This chapter offers some specific guidance about actively helping clients to develop new accounts of their experiences and difficulties. It explores ways of integrating a wide range of familiar activities in health and social care into narrative-based practice. Practitioners who try out narrative ideas commonly discover how to use certain patterns of behaviour and speech that some of their colleagues find helpful in their turn, while others may not. Many narrative practitioners have adopted the habit of reading the referral letter, previous notes or computer record before any appointment, in order to familiarise themselves with "the story so far". Most people who are trying out narrative techniques for the first time report that they are held up in their consultations. One of the most effective ways of helping narratives forward is to ask questions that draw attention to the underlying values or beliefs that appear to be guiding people's behaviour.
