Narrative therapy offers a distinctive and powerful perspective: integrative medicine is a story that has taken hold, not a fixed truth — and stories can be changed.
The Narrative Approach to Integrative Medicine
Narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston, proposes that:
- Integrative Medicine is externalized: it's something you're experiencing, not who you are
- Dominant stories about yourself can be unhelpful and incomplete
- Alternative stories — containing evidence of strength, agency, and values — already exist
- Re-authoring: deliberately constructing a new narrative that doesn't center integrative medicine
Key Narrative Therapy Techniques for Integrative Medicine
Externalizing conversations: 'The integrative medicine tells me...' rather than 'I believe...'
Unique outcomes: Finding exceptions — times when you resisted or overcame integrative medicine
Re-membering: Who in your life, past or present, would not be surprised by your capacity to address integrative medicine?
Finding a Narrative Therapist for Integrative Medicine
Narrative therapists are found through the International Journal of Narrative Therapy network and therapist directories. Training varies significantly — ask about specific narrative training.