Narrative discourse and discovery: How I've enhanced my narrative therapy practice using Upheal

If you're a therapist, social worker, or coach, you've likely engaged with narrative tools in your own practice.

Narrative therapy is a collaborative and non-pathologizing approach that focuses on how people construct meaning through stories.

As a narrative therapist, I work to empower my clients to shape their own stories.

Critical and ethical considerations in AI-assisted therapy

In Narrative Therapy, I see my clients as the experts, and I've found many of them feel most heard when we use their words.

However, focusing on their unique language can sometimes make it harder for me to recall all the details accurately.

Upheal helps maintain accuracy in documentation while I focus on allowing clients the opportunity to use and hear their own voice as they shape their narrative.

The essential first step always begins with gathering informed consent and explaining data privacy, including how their information is securely stored.

Next, is revocable consent to the use of the Upheal platform.

I want to make sure my clients understand they have control over how I use Upheal, and if they're not comfortable, I use more traditional note-taking methods.

The next consideration stage happens post-session.

While Upheal's AI transcription significantly enhances note accuracy compared to my own handwritten notes, it doesn't replace my role in reviewing and finalizing them.

I always make sure to review before signing off.

Upheal helps to enhance credibility by filling in the critical gaps

Narrative therapy is incredibly valuable in my work, especially with clients navigating trauma, identity struggles, or oppressive societal narratives.

However, I recognize its limitations.

Some critics see it as a 'soft science' lacking empirical evidence, and it can be harder to replicate than other treatments.

That's where Upheal has been a game-changer for me.

I find it helps bridge those gaps through its transcription and analytical capturing.

Importantly, I've seen how Upheal's clinical benefits enhance my ability to recognize narrative patterns, strengthening the empirical aspects of our work together.

Of course, ethical considerations, particularly around data privacy and digital personal health information, are paramount.

Depending on my location, I must adhere to governing body standards and privacy policies like HIPAA, PIPEDA, and GDPR.

These policies protect my clients' digital data, and I appreciate that Upheal is committed to data security, as outlined on this website.

The power of language in narrative therapy

Why is language so important?

In Narrative Therapy, we use precise language that truly aligns with the client's own experience and understanding, avoiding external interpretations that might inadvertently strengthen the problem's hold.

The potential for empowerment through reframing language often lies hidden within problem-saturated narratives.

Upheal's real-time transcription assists in capturing these subtle linguistic patterns, allowing me to uncover deeper, underlying themes.

Traditional note-taking can sometimes miss the subtle shifts in a client's language that signify growth or emerging resilience.

Upheal enhances this process by capturing nuanced patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed, making it a valuable tool for narrative therapists.

This process co-creates meaning, with the client's vocabulary guiding the direction of therapy.

Key features of Upheal that I take advantage of as a Narrative Therapist

Real-time transcription: While focusing on the client, it's easy to miss subtle shifts and nuances in language.

Upheal highlights turning points.

It captures language patterns to uncover themes buried under problem-story accounts.

Additionally, it flags linguistic markers and identifies the number of sentences with positive, neutral, or negative sentiments (as described in Upheal's treatment plans guide).

Narrative therapy relies on such linguistic shifts, as my clients move from old problem stories to a deeper understanding of new stories of hope and possibility.

In addition, thematic chronology as an enhanced narrative pattern recognition provides thematic analysis that produces themes from texts, improving my note accuracy and progression tracking.

Learn more about thematic analysis.

An important component of narrative therapy is also uncovering collaborators in our clients' lives, those people who provide support and positive identities to our clients, whether family, peers, or within their community.

Upheal helps with relational mapping, by identifying significant others in client stories and remembering them for the therapist.

And lastly, one of my favorite things Upheal helps me to achieve with my clients is values and progress recognition.

It highlights implicit or unnamed strengths as emerging resistance to the problem.

For this, I like to use Upheal's Smart Edit to create narrative journaling prompts based on progress notes.

Invitation to fellow narrative therapists: Explore narrative inquiry with your own clients and take advantage of your progress notes

If you're new to using narrative therapy, use these three common narrative techniques:

1. Double Listening

Michael White and David Epston introduced the concept of 'double listening', which I find incredibly useful.

It's about hearing both the dominant, problem-saturated narratives and the alternative, strength-based narratives in a client's story.

Often a person's response to trauma gets overshadowed by the trauma itself.

I've noticed it can be easier to identify double listening after a session when I review my notes.

This is where Upheal really shines for me.

It helps me identify those unique outcomes that differ from the original problem story.

For example, in my work with sexual trauma survivors, many of my clients express self-blame for allowing the abuse to happen to them.

Discovering unique outcomes through double listening can include all the ways they resisted the abuse and fought back, as well as the everyday acts of resistance in their lives now.

I've written more about narrative declarations against injustice if you're interested in exploring this further.

With these insights, I can not only support my clients in recognizing their inherent strengths, but I can also foster and integrate new ways of approaching problems into future sessions (and their lives).

Upheal helps me highlight these unique outcomes and track the changes across sessions.

Looking for double-listening post-session offers me the opportunity to catch what I might have missed during our conversation.

I can then review these moments at our next session, or even provide possible writing or self-reflection prompts to my clients based on those insights.

2. Narrative Mapping

Michael White's Maps of Narrative Practice provides a powerful framework that helps my clients see themselves as the true experts in their lives.

When we explore narrative mapping through Upheal, it opens up possibilities for them to recognize how cultural and social influences have shaped their self-perception.

It's a chance for my clients to discover and celebrate the areas in their lives where they've created meaningful change.

If you're interested in learning more about this transformative mapping technique, I highly recommend checking out the title link — it will take you to a fantastic free online course on mapping offered by the Dulwich Centre in Australia, the birthplace of narrative therapy.

3. Using Upheal with brief narrative interventions

I find brief narrative therapy to be a remarkably rapid and collaborative approach, especially effective for short-term interventions like crisis response, stabilization, or Employee Assistance Programs (typically 1-3 sessions).

In a single session, usually about 50-60 minutes, I start by building rapport and inviting my clients to explore their stories through double listening.

We then begin to consider the possibility that problems are external forces, not inherent to who they are.

This helps my clients separate their identity from the issue and externalize it by naming and examining its influence.

From there, we can map the effects of the problem and identify unique outcomes — those moments where my clients have resisted its influence.

These moments are gold, as they highlight their values, strengths, and preferred ways of being.

The session then focuses on reframing their identity, helping them discover alternative pathways of empowerment and agency.

We conclude with reflection, affirming their insights and encouraging a strengthened sense of self.

Quick Tip: Did you know that even if you didn't capture your session in real-time, you can still dictate your notes directly into Upheal?

Plus, you can select 'Narrative Therapy' right under the 'Therapeutic Technique' dropdown tab, among other approaches.

Just start by selecting 'New Session,' and you'll find the 'Therapeutic Technique' dropdown menu where you can choose from a variety of options.

Final thoughts: Upheal as a narrative therapy companion

Narrative therapy, as I see it, is a transformative invitation for both my clients and myself.

It's about contextualizing and reinforcing those newly uncovered life stories, allowing them to truly take shape.

Upheal doesn't replace my therapeutic wisdom, but it absolutely expands it by enhancing my ability to track those crucial shifts in my clients' language, uncover their hidden strengths, and facilitate even deeper storytelling.

It also reinforces my commitment to centering the client as the expert in the room.

Upheal supports a narrative practice that's collaborative and deeply contextual.

It enables me to hold space for my clients to explore their newly discovered identities and possibilities, ensuring that each session contributes to the unfolding of a richer, more empowering life story for them.