Narrative Family Therapy Paper

One of the weaknesses of narrative therapy is that the focus on externalizing problems allows avoidance of deeper issues (Rasheed, Rasheed, & Marley, 2011, p. 322). In the case of the Michael’s family, this should not be as much of a problem. Due to the fact that the Michael’s were referred for grief counseling and the children are showing signs of grief and trauma, the concerns of not addressing deeper issues does not apply to the aspects of grief therapy. It may still apply to some of the aspects of therapy relating to John’s gang involvement. While it would be helpful to examine how the family handles John’s gang involvement and their perspectives on it, it is important to examine what is leading John to turn to that kind of peer group. Narrative therapy does not evaluate why (Rasheed, Rasheed, & Marley, 2011, p. 322). It would not evaluate why
John feels compelled to join a gang or why he feels the emotions that are encouraging him to participate in gang activities. It is still necessary to address how the family can better respond to his behaviors as the family’s responses could possibly be unhelpful and even more damaging.
Another weakness of narrative therapy in this family’s situation is that it may encourage that emotions need to always be externalized (Rasheed, Rasheed, & Marley, 2011, p. 322). This could allow the family to never fully deal with their grief. This may make other therapeutic models more appropriate for those aspects of family therapy. There has to be focus that it is OK for a person to feel grief and anger sometimes following the loss of a family member, which is why another model needs to be used in addition to narrative family therapy interventions.
Narrative family therapy does have its strengths when applied to the Michael’s family however.
Narrative family therapy will be greatly beneficial for the Michael’s family in terms of dealing with the boys’ anger. Kim has stated that she does not know how to handle John and her other children when they become anger and difficult to deal with and feels that nothing she does to discourage or stop the behaviors helps. Narrative therapy will allow the family to reevaluate their beliefs that they might not feel are important to the problems while telling their story to the therapist. The family would benefit from finding techniques to cope with John’s conflict with his siblings in a way that best suits them. Kim has stated that her children are all generally well behaved and simply have minor behavioral problems that she wants help addressing before they become more serious with age. This approach allows the family to look at things that are going well in the family currently and things that they would like to see more of. Narrative family therapy is a strengths-based model that would greatly benefit the
family.