Narrative therapy involves exploring the shaping moments of a person's life, the turning points, the key relationships, and those particular memories not dimmed by time. Focus is drawn to the intentions, dreams, and values that have guided a person's life despite the set backs. Every type of psychotherapy designates a different aspect of life as the basic unit of experience. For example, behavioral therapy focuses on behavior, cognitive therapy focuses on accurate thinking, while systems therapy focuses on family interaction as the basic unit. In this way, narrative therapy holds up the story as the basic unit of experience.
Stories guide how people act, think, feel, and make sense of new experience.
Stories organize the information from a person's life. Narrative therapy focuses on how these important stories can get written and rewritten. Narrative therapy proposes that people use certain stories about themselves like the lens on a camera. These stories have the effect of filtering a person's experience and thereby selecting what information gets focused in or focused out. These stories shape people's perspectives of their life, history, and future.