Narrative Family Therapy: A Special Issue

A Note from Cheryl White

In 1979, the Australian Journal of Family Therapy was first launched. Moshe Lang,Graham Martin, Brian Stagoll, Eleanor (Ruth) Wertheim and Michael White werekey members of the inaugural editorial team of this journal, with Michael as thefoundation editor. They were exciting times. This publication, which was later tobecome the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, sought to contrib-ute to the development of family therapy ‘downunder’. And so it has.

Thirty five years on, this special issue focuses on narrative family therapyapproaches. Narrative approaches to therapy and community work derived from theAustralian and New Zealand fields of family therapy. David Epston and MichaelWhite first met at an Australian Family Therapy Conference. And yet, here in Austra-lia at least, there have been some pretty significant ups and downs in the relationshipbetween ‘family therapy’ and ‘narrative therapy’.

The invitation to Dulwich Centre to put together this special issue of the Australianand New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy was particularly significant to us and wewould like to thank Glenn Larner for this. Once we received his invitation, we wrote tokey narrative family therapists in different parts of the world and asked whether theywould like to submit papers. There was a tremendous response and enthusiasm for this.I think this reflects the rich intertwined histories of family therapy and narrativeapproaches, and also a great wish for further collaborations and generative conversationsacross differences. We will look forward to hearing feedback from readers.

Cheryl White

Dulwich Centre

Editorial by David DenboroughThis special issue includes papers from Norway, USA, UK, Brazil, Uganda, New Zea-land and Australia. These include perspectives from highly experienced narrative ther-apists, as well as those who are engaging with narrative practices in diverse culturalcontexts and transforming them as a result. We have divided this journal issue intothree sections:

� Part I: Looking forwards: narrative family therapy in diverse contexts� Part II: Looking across: links between narrative therapy and other family therapyapproaches

� Part III: Looking back

Part I: Looking Forwards: Narrative Family Therapy in Diverse Contexts

The first three papers include vivid contemporary descriptions of the use of key narra-tive therapy practices: re-membering conversations, outsider-witness practices, exter-nalising conversations and written documentation.

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Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy 2014, 35, 1–3doi: 10.1002/anzf.1050

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In the first paper, Creating stories of hope: A narrative approach to illness, death andgrief, Lorraine Hedtke recounts the use of re-membering conversations with familiesin which children have cancer or life-threatening illnesses. Her work facilitates the for-mation of legacies that can sustain family members, even after the death of a child,folding their stories into the lives of the living, and constructing lines of relationalconnection that can transcend physical death.

In the second paper, Witnessing and positioning: Structuring narrative therapy withfamilies and couples, Jill Freedman provides clear guidance as to how to use outsider-witness practice within family therapy. In this process, people move between positionsof telling and witnessing.

Geir Lundby then provides evocative stories involving the use of externalising con-versations and letter-writing with Norwegian young people and their parents. Geirdecided to focus his paper, Creating different versions of life: Talking about problemswith children and their parents, on externalising conversations because in working withfamilies, many parents have told him that externalising the problem is the single mostimportant thing they experienced in their work together.

While these first three papers focus on contemporary uses of well-known narrativetherapy practices, the following two papers illustrate some of the ways in which narra-tive practices are being transformed in diverse cultural contexts.

Makungu Akinyela examines the cultural relationship between narrative therapyand the therapies of a growing number of communities outside of European domi-nant culture. His article, Narrative therapy and cultural democracy: A testimony viewquestions the dominant approach to multiculturalism in the field today and intro-duces the idea of cultural democracy as an alternative approach to managing the rela-tionship between narrative and other Euro-culture grounded therapies and thetherapies of non-European peoples which may be similar to, yet culturally uniquefrom, Euro-cultural therapies.

Caleb Wakhungu and the Mt Elgon Self-Help Community Project are transform-ing narrative ideas and practices as they use them to spark and sustain local economic‘development’ projects in rural Uganda. Their innovative work links communitywork, therapy and development. A short paper, The gift of giving: empowering vulnera-ble children, families and communities in rural Uganda, describes here the significanceof moving away from a children’s rights model (which had been imported from theWest) to a model of empowering children and families in ways that are congruentwith local cultural practices and understandings.

Part II: Looking Across: Links Between Narrative Therapy and Other Family TherapyApproaches

The second section of this issue includes four papers from the UK, Australia and Brazil.These papers make links between narrative therapy and other family therapy approaches.

Drawing ideas from systemic and narrative approaches, Glenda Fredman’s team inthe UK has found ways to bring families, practitioners and communities together torespond to medical, mental health and social care crises. This work has taken placewith children, adolescents, older people and people affected by intellectual disabilityand their families. Glenda’s paper Weaving networks of hope with families, practitionersand communities shares an inspiring story of this work and describes ways of ‘conduct-ing’ and ‘weaving’ networks of hope.

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Val Jackson and Hugh Fox in their paper Narrative and Open Dialogue: Strangersin the night or easy bedfellows? Briefly describe both narrative and open dialogueapproaches before exploring their shared values, ways of working, their differencesand the possibilities for integration.

Three family therapists from the Acquired Brain Injury team at the Bouverie Centrein Melbourne, Franca Butera-Prinzi, Nella Charles and Karen Story, then provide anaccount of the ways in which they integrate narrative family therapy and group workfor families living with acquired brain injury.

Next L�ucia Helena Abdalla and Ana Luiza Novis introduce their Brazilian narra-tive family therapy approach: Uh Oh! I have received an Unexpected Visitor: The visi-tor’s name is Chronic Disease. Based on their clinical experience with people withchronic diseases, L�ucia and Ana Luiza have developed a narrative methodology named‘The Pantry of Life’ (also known as ‘The Unexpected Visitor’). This reflectiveapproach invites the person and their family to imagine and describe the appearanceof adversity in their lives as an ‘Unexpected Visitor’ who arrives unexpectedly anduninvited.

These four pieces offer glimpses of the ways in which many family therapists areengaging with narrative practices alongside and in conjunction with other family ther-apy approaches.

Part III: Looking Back

We close this special issue by looking back at the intriguing histories of narrative fam-ily therapy. David Epston, in Ethnography, co-research and insider knowledges, revisitssome of the intellectual histories of narrative practice, in particular the developmentof an ethnographic co-research approach to working with families. Significantly, bytracing the influence of anthropological and sociological thought on the developmentof what has become ‘narrative therapy’, one of the co-founders of narrative therapyinvites current practitioners to read beyond the boundaries of any professional field inorder to generate new forms of practice. This paper models a particular engagementwith history in order to spark innovation in the present.

The second historical paper, Michael White and adventures downunder was writtenby David Denborough in response to four questions posed by distinguished familytherapist Maurizio Andolfi:

� What were some of the key steps in Michael White’s historical development from apersonal-professional perspective?

� From where did Michael draw his main inspirations?� What have been his major contributions?� And what has Michael left to the younger generations?

Apart from anything else, the history of narrative family therapy involves somepretty compelling tales!

We sincerely hope that you enjoy this collection of stories, ideas and practice fromdiverse contexts.

David Denborough

Dulwich Centredaviddenborough@dulwichcentre.com.au

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