About the Book

a 'This volume is especially useful in demonstrating the effects of placing social discourses at the center of therapy. It gores many sacred cows of the larger modernist therapeutic community, but in doing so it offers new ideas for mental health professionals attempting to help their clients with common and serious life problems.'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauPSYCCRITIQUES'This compilation is an insightful read for practitioners who have not taken the opportunity to use narrative therapy in practice...Experienced practitioners will certainly appreciate the theoretical analysis offered by the writers as well as the opportunity for reflective practice. Narrative Therapy is a meaningful contribution to a Canadian book market lacking in clinical literature for social workers'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauCANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORKERSNarrative Therapy:aMaking Meaning, Making Livesaoffers a comprehensive introduction to and critique of narrative therapy and its theories. This edited volume introduces students to the history and theory of narrative therapy. Authors Catrina Brown and Tod Augusta-Scott situate this approach to theory and practice within the context of various feminist, post-modern and critical theories. Through the presentation of case studies, Narrative Therapy: Making Meaning, Making Livesashows how this narrative-oriented theory can be applied in the client-therapist experience. Many important therapeutic situations (abuse, addictions, eating disorders, and more) are addressed from the narrative perspective.aa Rooted in social constructionism, and emerging initially from family therapy, narrative therapy emphasizes the idea that we live storied lives. Within this approach, the editors and contributors seek to show how we make sense of our lives and experiences by ascribing meaning through stories which themselves arise within social conversations and culturally available discourses. Our stories donAEt simply represent us or mirror lived events; they actually constitute usushaping our lives as well as our relationships.aaaNarrative Therapyawill be a valuable supplemental textbookafor theory and practice courses in departments of Counseling and Psychotherapy and of Social Work as well as for courses in Gender and Women Studies.a

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction: Postmodernism, Reflexivity, and Narrative Therapy - Catrina Brown, Tod Augusta-Scott PART I: WRITING IN THE SOCIAL Ch 1. Situating Knowledge and Power in the Therapeutic Alliance - Catrina Brown Ch 2. Re-storying Women′s Depression: A Material-Discursive Approach - Michelle N. Lafrance, Janet M. Stoppard Ch 3. The Blinding Power of Genetics: Manufacturing and Privatizing Stories of Eating Disorders - Karin Jasper Ch 4. Poetics of Resistance: Compassionate Practice in Substance Misuse Therapy - Colin James Sanders Ch 5. Practicing Psychiatry Through a Narrative Lens: Working With Children, Youth, and Families - Normand Carrey PART II: SELF-SURVEILLANCE: NORMALIZING PRACTICES OF SELF Ch 6. Discipline and Desire: Regulating the Body/Self - Catrina Brown Ch 7. Watching the Other Watch: A Social Location of Problems - Stephen Madigan Ch 8. Internalized Homophobia: Lessons From the Mobius Strip - Glenda M. Russell PART III: CHALLENGING ESSENTIALISM Ch 9. Dethroning the Suppressed Voice: Unpacking Experience as Story - Catrina Brown Ch 10.Conversations With Men About Women′s Violence: Ending Men′s Violence by Challenging Gender Essentialism - Tod Augusta-Scott Ch 11. Challenging Essentialist Anti-Oppressive Discourse: Uniting Against Racism and Sexism - Tod Augusta-Scott PART IV: RE-AUTHORING PREFERRED IDENTITIES Ch 12. Movement of Identities: A Map for Therapeutic Conversations About Trauma - Jim Duvall, Laura Beres Ch 13. Letters From Prison: Re-authoring Identity With Men Who Have Perpetrated Sexual Violence - Tod Augusta-Scott Ch 14: Talking Body Talk: Blending Narrative and Feminist Approaches to Therapy - Catrina Brown About the Editors About the Contributors