How do I Define Thee? Types of Narrative Practices

Narrative-Informed Conceptual Modalities

Research has shown that narrative practices-based care can provide a range of benefits. These methods are used in various settings, including provider-patient interactions, consumer healthcare, social justice, primary and secondary education, and corporate employee and client care. Over the last half-century, different narrative approaches have evolved, but they all share the goal of improving individual, team, and group capacity and function.

Contact: Please email questions or recommendations to add a practice type to info@narrativemindworks.org.

Definition of a Practice Type:

• Based on an existing or evolved formal methodology
• Includes an established set of principles, practices, and methods
• Supported by qualitative and/or quantitative peer-reviewed studies confirming efficacy

Practice Types:

1. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (Jon Kabat-Zinn)
   • Group explorations and discussions are designed to foster mindful awareness and reduce stress.
2. Mindful Practice in Medicine (Ron Epstein)
   • Experiential workshops for health professionals to reduce burnout, restore well-being, build community, and promote healthcare excellence.
3. Narrative Art Therapy
   • Uses art-making that tells a story to improve physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
4. Narrative-Based Medicine (Trish Greenhalgh, Brian Hurwitz)
   • Combines cultural perspectives and clinical research to create stories that inform understanding and care decisions.
5. Narrative Exposure Therapy (Maggie Schauer, Frank Neuner, Thomas Elbert)
   • Helps individuals contextualize traumatic experiences by establishing a coherent life narrative, often used in group treatment with refugees.
6. Narrative Medicine (Rita Charon and colleagues, Columbia University)
   • Uses close reading and listening skills from analyzing literature to improve intrapersonal and interpersonal understanding and communication, applicable in both clinical and alternative settings.
7. Narrative Primary Care (John Launer)
   • Provides a framework and skills for individual reflection, family consultation, and team development. Based on narrative studies, communication theory, and systems thinking. strategies
8. Narrative Therapy Psychological Counseling Method (Michael White, David Epston)
   • Collaborative positioning of the patient with the therapist to explore the problem's context, externalize, deconstruct, and reauthor more positive perspectives.
9. Patient-Centered Care (Moira Stewart, Judith Belle Brown, Thomas Freeman, Ian McWhinney, W. Wayne Weston)
   • Focuses on care collaboration, shared decision-making, family involvement, and timely implementations.
10. Relationship-Centered Care (RM Frankel, Penny Williamson, Andy Suckman)
    • Based on four principles: personhood of participants, the importance of affect and emotion, reciprocal influence in relationships, and the moral value of relationship formation.