Coaching practices for Absent but Implicit Narrative Therapy

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Absent but Implicit Narrative Therapy, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I keep reading my grief and my anger as proof there’s something broken in me
  • I can recount exactly what happened
  • I’m so convinced I’m "the one who always falls apart" that I can’t see anything else
  • I’ll have a breakthrough where I really feel the better version of my story, and then a few days later the old defeating account has quietly taken back over as if it never happened
  • The new way I’m trying to see myself only seems to hold when I’m alone with it

Practices that may help

  1. The Absent But Implicit: What Problems Reveal About What We Value
    Every problem story implies a violated value — surfacing that value reveals the person’s strengths, not just their struggles.
    Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You
  2. Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You
    Narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston, holds that people live by stories — about who they are, what they’re capable of, and what their experiences mean. By separating the person from the problem ("the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem") and finding "unique outcomes" that contradict a limiting story, therapy opens space to author a more empowering alternative. The evidence base is growing but smaller and less methodologically uniform than CBT.
  3. Landscape of Identity and Action Questions
    Use two question types to map both what the person DID (action) and what that reveals about who they ARE (identity).
    Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You
  4. Finding Unique Outcomes (Exceptions to the Problem Story)
    Surface moments when the problem did NOT dominate — these are the seeds of an alternative story.
    Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You
  5. Therapeutic Letters
    A therapist’s written letter to a client between sessions — documenting alternative-story gains before they fade.
    Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You
  6. Definitional Ceremonies and Outsider Witnesses
    Invite meaningful others to witness and retell the new story — being known differently by others consolidates the new identity.
    Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You
  7. Know that CPT-C (cognitive only) skips the trauma narrative
    A cognitive-only version of CPT omits the written trauma account and may be more tolerable for some people.
    Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT): Unsticking the Meanings That Maintain PTSD
  8. Create a testimony document
    NET produces a written testimony of the person’s life — a document that the person and therapist co-author and that the person keeps.
    Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET): Weaving Trauma Into a Coherent Life Story
  9. Write an impact statement — why the trauma happened and how it affected you
    A written account of the meaning you made of the trauma is CPT’s starting point for finding stuck points.
    Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT): Unsticking the Meanings That Maintain PTSD
  10. Re-Authoring the Alternative Story
    Build a preferred story of identity by thickening the exceptions into a narrative with a plot.
    Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You

Related concerns

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