Narrative processes in the construction of helpful and hindering events inexperiential psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is an opportunity for the client to tell and "reauthor" the s tory of their life. Previous research into narrative process in therapy has examined narrative structure, modes of narrative processing, and the exper ience of storytelling. The aim of this study was to identify narrative proc esses occurring during moments in therapy perceived by the client as either helpful or hindering, and to develop a framework for understanding how the rapy participants construct these "good moments" through different kinds of storymaking performance. An intensive qualitative case-study method was em ployed, comprising data gathered from six pairs of clients and therapists p articipating in time-limited person-centred experiential psychotherapy. Qua litative data was collected using the Helpful Aspects of Therapy questionna ire and Brief Structured Recall interviews, and analyzed using a form of st ructured narrative analysis of psychotherapy transcripts. Three main catego ries emerged from analysis of this material: therapist as audience, negotia tion of a new story line, and coconstructing the story of therapy. A compar ison of narrative processes occurring during helpful and hindering events r evealed that helpful events were characterized by the experience of a sense of "flow" between participants, which facilitated the storytelling process . The results of this study suggest that existing narrative approaches to t herapy have not given enough attention to the role of the client-therapist relationship in enabling the client to construct a life narrative.