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).

Why it works

Narrative therapy distinguishes two "landscapes" in a story: the landscape of action (what happened, in sequence) and the landscape of identity (what the events reveal about the person’s desires, values, and qualities). Asking only action questions produces a sequence of events but no meaning. Asking only identity questions produces abstract self-description with no grounding. Alternating between the two thickens the story in both dimensions simultaneously — grounded events that reveal character.

How to do it

1. Map the action landscape first: "What did you do? What happened next? When did you decide that?"
2. Then shift to identity: "What does it say about you that you did that? What does that reflect about what matters to you?"
3. Alternate: let the identity answer prompt a new action question to ground it.
4. Work forward and backward in time: find the history of the quality, and imagine its future.
5. Use both landscapes when exploring unique outcomes, not just when building the preferred story.

Evidence

The two-landscape model is a central theoretical framework from White’s narrative therapy practice and his use of Bruner’s narrative psychology. Bruner’s distinction between landscape of action and landscape of consciousness is well-established in narrative psychology. (mechanistic)

The two-landscape framework is theoretically grounded in narrative psychology; its clinical effectiveness as an isolated technique has not been separately trialed.

Sources

• Bruner (1986), "Actual Minds, Possible Worlds" — foundational narrative psychology framework

Common mistake

Staying only in the action landscape ("and then what happened?") and never turning toward identity — this produces an interesting story but no transformation of self-understanding.