Narrative in Therapy and Theology: A Biblical Response to Susie Orbach’s Narrative Therapy
PAPER • Often, counselees are rife with inaccurate perceptions exposed by errant narratives and trenchant problems in living. In light of these issues, I raise a pressing question: how should a counselor approach interpreting and realigning counselees’ narratives to life-giving truth?
Read time: 25 min
Abstract
Everyone enters the counseling room with a narrative: the content and fashion of personal stories depicting one’s “emotional experiences, goals, intentions, and beliefs within the context of the events of the unfolding narrative scene.” Both secular and biblical counselors believe that narratives can shed light on underlying beliefs, values, and commitments. In a counseling conversation, one’s narratives may vary in length and structure, from comprehensive stories to brief comments, anecdotes, or asides, and what is omitted potentially carries as much importance as what is said. Often, counselees are rife with inaccurate perceptions exposed by errant narratives and trenchant problems in living. In light of these issues, I raise a pressing question: how should a counselor approach interpreting and realigning counselees’ narratives to life-giving truth?
In her published collection of therapy sessions, In Therapy: The Unfolding Story, Susie Orbach presents a secular answer to this question. Throughout her work, Orbach relates to clients in substantial agreement with narrative therapy, a social constructionist subset of psychotherapy rooted in postmodernism. Narrative therapy alleges that interpreting and helping clients reauthor their narratives can facilitate positive change.
In this paper, I will argue that Scripture exposes profound errors in Orbach’s narrative therapy (NT) and provides a far superior framework for interpreting and realigning counselees’ narratives to God’s accurate and authoritative perspective, revealed in Scripture. To advance this argument, I will first employ narrative therapy literature to describe Orbach’s narrative therapeutic approach to John, one of her clients in In Therapy. Secondly, I will deconstruct and challenge Orbach’s assumptions, truth claims, and principles of change from a biblical worldview. Thirdly, I will explore a scriptural framework for interpreting and realigning counselees’ errant narratives. ❖
