Therapists for Family

On this page you'll find therapists who list narrative therapy among their approaches and who work with families. Browse the listings below to explore practitioners, their approaches, languages and experience.

Understanding family difficulties through a narrative lens

When family life feels stuck, what often causes strain is not only events but the stories people tell about those events and about each other. Narrative therapy, developed in Australia and New Zealand in the 1980s by Michael White and David Epston, starts from the idea that people make sense of their lives through stories. Some of those stories - passed down through family, school, work or wider culture - become thin, limiting or unkind. In family work a familiar story might sound like "we are the argumentative family," "you are the sensitive one," or "nothing ever changes here." These accounts shape how family members relate, what they expect from one another, and which moments are noticed or overlooked.

A narrative approach shifts attention from labeling people to exploring the shape of the stories that govern relationships. Rather than centering on symptoms or diagnoses, narrative work helps you and the people you care about name the dominant story, trace where it came from, and notice moments that do not fit it. Those moments - called unique outcomes - become the starting point for creating a different narrative, one that better reflects your values and commitments in everyday life.

How narrative therapy works with family

In family work a narrative therapist tends to foreground relationship stories and cultural influences. The therapist will help you externalise the problem - that is, talk about the problem as something that affects the family rather than something that defines a person. Externalising language makes it possible to describe how the problem operates, who it affects most, and when it has more or less influence. That shift creates space for more detailed description, so the thin, taken-for-granted story can be widened into a richer account that includes contradictory experiences.

Tracing the origins of a familiar story is another central activity. A therapist might ask how that story developed, which discourses or expectations supported it, and which family practices reproduced it. At the same time the work looks for unique outcomes - times when family members acted in ways that contradict the dominant story. These moments are gathered and explored because they provide evidence that a different story is possible. Over time you and the therapist work toward re-authoring conversations and re-membering practices, which reshape how memories and relationships are narrated and remembered. Techniques such as outsider witness conversations or definitional ceremonies may be used to invite respectful feedback from others and to ritualise shifts in the family's shared account of itself.

What to expect in narrative sessions for family

Your early sessions are likely to be conversational and exploratory. A narrative therapist will often begin by asking you to tell the story of what brings you together, listening carefully for the words and metaphors that organise the family's experience. Questions will commonly focus on when the problem is most and least present, what the problem does, and whether there are times that contradict the dominant account. This is the practice of externalising - making the problem describable so it can be examined and addressed without pinning identity to it.

As conversations progress, you may be invited to notice and expand on small departures from the familiar story. These unique outcomes are examined in detail - what happened, who noticed, and what that moment suggests about values or commitments. Later sessions tend to shift toward re-authoring, where you and the therapist deliberately create and test a preferred story that fits ordinary life. Re-authoring often involves practical experiments - small changes you try at home - and conversations that reconfigure which family memories are foregrounded. The pace varies. Many practitioners who list narrative therapy combine it with other approaches, so how much of any session is explicitly narrative differs by therapist. It is useful to ask directly how much of their work they expect to do narratively and what a session usually looks like.

Is a narrative approach the right fit for family?

People who are drawn to narrative work often want to be seen beyond a label and to explore how stories shape day-to-day interactions. If you feel that a family story handed down across generations no longer fits, or if you want to recover values and commitments that the current account obscures, narrative conversations may feel welcoming. Narrative therapy places emphasis on meaning, language and social context - it treats problems as separate from people and focuses on how relationships are organised by stories rather than on changing thought content or teaching specific coping skills.

Compared with approaches that concentrate primarily on thought content, such as cognitive behavioural work, narrative practice is less about restructuring internal beliefs and more about re-authoring the relational story in which those beliefs arose. Compared with skills-based approaches like dialectical methods, narrative work prioritises descriptive unpacking of stories over training in discrete techniques. And compared with therapies that give prominence to insight into the past, narrative work uses history differently - not to locate fault but to trace how particular narratives formed and to reclaim neglected events and values. There is no reliable way to tell in advance whether an approach will suit you. Most people use an initial conversation to assess fit, and therapists frequently integrate methods to meet practical needs.

How to choose a therapist who works narratively with family

Questions to ask before and during your first conversation

When you contact a practitioner, it is reasonable to ask straightforward questions: do they list narrative therapy among their approaches, how much of their practice is narrative, where they trained, and what a typical session looks like for family work. Because listing an approach is not evidence of specific training, asking where someone learned their methods helps you understand their background without assuming credentials from a listing. You should also verify licensure or registration where you live if that matters for your context.

In your first conversation evaluate how the therapist listens to your story and whether they help you notice alternatives to the dominant family account. Fit often comes down to style - whether the therapist's tone, questions and relational stance feel comfortable. Narrative work is conversational and collaborative, so you can expect the therapist to be curious about your values and the exceptions to the problem story. If you prefer a more directive or skills-focused format, mention that so you can learn how the therapist integrates other methods.

Working online and practical considerations

Narrative family conversations translate well to video sessions because they rely on dialogue and close listening rather than physical intervention. If you plan to work online, ask how the therapist manages family participation, whether they have suggestions for structuring the session when several people join, and what they recommend for creating a comfortable environment at home. Discuss information-sharing boundaries and records with the therapist during your initial contact so you understand their processes. Remember that availability and scheduling change frequently, so use the first conversation to clarify timings and practicalities.

Finding the right next step

Choosing to explore family issues with a narrative approach is often about wanting a different way of speaking about what matters. By externalising problems, tracing the sources of dominant stories, gathering unique outcomes and collaboratively building a preferred story, narrative practice offers a route to change that centres your values and everyday life. Use the listings on this page to identify practitioners who list narrative therapy among their approaches, and reach out to ask how they work with families, how much of their practice is narrative, and what a session usually involves. A first conversation will help you decide whether the narrative stance resonates and whether a particular practitioner feels like the right person to work with you.