Narrative Therapy Session Note

Client Presentation and Context:

• Brief summary of presenting concerns and current life circumstances
• Any relevant updates or changes since the previous session
• What brought the client to therapy or what they hope to address
• Significant life events or contextual factors shaping the client’s experience

Problem Story:

• Description of the dominant problem-saturated story
• Language used by the client to describe their difficulties
• Impact of the problem across relevant life domains (relationships, work, self-perception, daily functioning)
• Any secondary problem stories, clearly distinguished from the dominant one

Externalising Conversations:

• Name given to the problem and whether it was client-generated or collaboratively developed
• How the problem was separated from the client’s identity
• Specific externalising language used by the therapist or client
• Exploration of the problem’s tactics, strategies, or methods of operation
• Mapping of the problem’s influence across life domains

Relative Influence Questioning:

• Exploration of the problem’s influence on the client’s life, relationships, thoughts, feelings, and identity
• Exploration of the client’s influence on the problem
• Times when the client has resisted, challenged, or reduced the problem’s influence
• Client’s evaluation of the problem’s effects and whether they find them acceptable

Unique Outcomes and Sparkling Moments:

• Specific events, actions, or choices that represent exceptions to the problem story
• How these unique outcomes were explored and elaborated upon
• Client language demonstrating agency, strength, or capacity that contradicts the dominant story

Re-authoring and Alternative Stories:

• Landscape of action: concrete events, behaviours, sequences, and plot development over time
• Landscape of identity/consciousness: meanings, values, beliefs, commitments, hopes, and personal qualities
• Linking of events across time (past, present, future) to support the alternative storyline
• How the emerging preferred story was thickened and enriched
• Any shifts in the client’s self-perception or understanding of their situation

Values, Commitments, and Purposes:

• Exploration of the client’s values, hopes, dreams, commitments, and purposes
• How values were discovered through responses to problems or through what is “absent but implicit”
• Connection between the client’s values and their sense of identity

Absent But Implicit:

• Values, hopes, or preferred ways of being lying beneath expressed pain or distress
• How the therapist inquired into stories and values that contrast with the problem story
• What the client’s responses to difficulty reveal about what they hold dear

Re-membering Conversations:

• Who was re-membered and why
• The figure’s contribution to the client’s life and identity
• How the client sees themselves through this figure’s eyes
• The client’s contribution to the figure’s life and what this reveals about their identity

Deconstruction of Dominant Discourses:

• Cultural, social, or political discourses explored in relation to the problem story
• Questioning of taken-for-granted assumptions or “truths” that support the problem
• How the problem story was broken into smaller parts to reduce overwhelm

Outsider Witness Practices:

• Who served as witnesses and what they witnessed
• Process and content of reflections
• Impact of witnessing on the client’s experience of their alternative story

Therapeutic Documents and Letters:

• Description and purpose of any therapeutic documents, letters, or certificates created or planned
• How these documents support the alternative story and provide a tangible resource between sessions

Client’s Responses and Insights:

• Moments of recognition, realisation, or new understanding
• Client engagement with narrative processes and any feedback provided
• Shifts in language, emotional state, or sense of agency during the session
• Expressions of hope, possibility, or renewed connection to values and preferred identity

Therapeutic Relationship and Collaboration:

• Quality of the therapeutic relationship and collaborative partnership
• How power dynamics were navigated and the therapist’s de-centred position
• Types of narrative questions used during the session
• Therapist’s stance of curiosity and “not-knowing”
• How agency was attributed to the client throughout

Therapist’s Reflections:

• Significant themes and direction of the narrative work
• Considerations and preliminary plans for future sessions

Safety and Wellbeing:

• Any concerns about immediate safety, including self-harm, suicidal ideation, or harm to others
• Safety plans developed or resources provided
• Protective factors and sources of support in the client’s life

Next Steps and Between-Session Tasks:

• Practices, experiments, or tasks committed to between sessions
• Rationale and connection to the client’s goals and values
• Scheduled date and time of the next session if discussed

Session Summary:

• Brief narrative summary (no more than four sentences) capturing the collaborative work, emerging alternative stories, and overall direction of treatment