Narrative research in psychotherapy: A critical review

Purpose. This paper is a review of studies which utilise the notion of narrative to analyse psychotherapy. Its purpose is to systematically present this diverse field of research, to highlight common themes and divergences between different strands and to further the development and integration of narrative research in psychotherapy. Methods. The paper reviews studies which employ an applied textual analysis of narratives produced in the context of psychotherapy. Criteria for inclusion of studies are, firstly, the analysis of therapeutic and therapy-related texts and, secondly, the adoption of a narrative psychological perspective. The studies were examined on the basis of the notion of narrative they employ and the aspects of client narratives they focus on, and were grouped accordingly in the review. Results. The majority of the studies reviewed assume a constructivist approach to narrative, adopt a representational view of language, focus primarily on client micro-narratives and relate to cognitive-constructivist and process-experiential psychotherapeutic approaches. A smaller group of studies assume a social constructionist approach to narrative and a functional view of language, focus on micro-narratives, highlight the interactional and wider social aspects of narrative and relate to postmodern trends in psychotherapy. Conclusions. The range of conceptualisations of narrative in the studies reviewed, from a representational psychological view to a constructionist social view, reflects tensions within narrative psychology itself. Moreover, two trends can be discerned in the field reviewed, narrative analysis of therapy, which draws from narrative theory and utilises the analytic approaches of narrative research to study psychotherapy, and analyses of narrative in therapy, which study client narratives using non-narrative qualitative methods. Finally, the paper highlights the need for integration of this diverse field of research and urges for the development of narrative studies of psychotherapy which employ a broader social understanding of narrative production and transformation.