ABSTRACT
Michael White (1991) has suggested that the stories we have about our lives extend across time. For example, stories provide a map of the world that shapes beliefs about gender and culture; values about family, marriage, and work; and views of self. People make meaning out of life by organizing significant life experiences into stories which are then incorporated into a larger life narrative (E. Bruner, 1986; J. Bruner, 1986; Combs and Freedman, 1994; Hoyt, 1994; White and Epston, 1990). The dominant stories in which one is living may be restrictive, painful, shortsighted, negatively biased, debilitating, and the like. Other stories remain unexpressed or tacitly held (Guidano, 1988); stories that reveal strengths, resources, and competencies. The goal in constructive therapy is to guide the client's generation of new stories in which current dominant themes are abandoned for (hose that are more empowering, sensitive to, and consistent with desirable life goals, and more aligned with one's “preferred self.”
