What Is Narrative Therapy? A Healing Approach for Trauma Survivors

By Sabrina Grover, LCSW

When you've lived through trauma, it can shape how you see yourself. You might carry quiet beliefs like “I’m broken,” “It was my fault,” or “I’ll never feel safe again.” These thoughts can feel like facts, and over time, they can become the story you tell yourself about who you are.

Narrative therapy is a type of counseling that helps people step back from those stories and see them for what they are — just one version of the truth. It offers a way to explore your experiences, make sense of them, and begin to rewrite the story in a way that feels more empowering and compassionate.

What Is Narrative Therapy?

Narrative therapy was developed in the 1980s by therapists Michael White and David Epston. It’s based on a simple but powerful idea: we all understand our lives through stories. These stories are shaped by our families, relationships, culture, and past experiences, including trauma.

The heart of narrative therapy is this belief: you are not the problem. The problem is the problem.

That means you are not defined by your trauma, your anxiety, or your depression. Instead, you and your therapist work together to explore how these challenges have shown up in your life, how they’ve influenced your story, and how you’ve responded to them. You also look for moments that don’t fit the usual pattern times when you coped, resisted, or made choices that reflect your values.

Importantly, in this approach, your therapist is not above you. They walk with you side by side, offering support and guidance as you explore and rewrite your story together.

Over time, those small moments can help you build a new narrative that reflects your strength, not just your pain.

How Does It Help Trauma Survivors?

Trauma can leave you feeling stuck, like your worst moments are the only thing people see — or the only thing you see. Narrative therapy helps create space between you and what happened, so you can begin to look at your story with more clarity and kindness.

Here’s how it can help:

• It gives you back your voice. In trauma, people often feel silenced or powerless. Narrative therapy centers your perspective and puts you in the role of the expert in your own life.

• It separates you from your trauma. Instead of saying, “I am broken,” you might start to say, “I’ve been through something hard, but I’m learning how to move forward.”

• It helps you find meaning. Rather than just focusing on what happened, narrative therapy explores what you’ve learned, how you’ve grown, and what truly matters to you.

This approach is especially helpful if you feel like trauma has taken over your identity. It offers a way to begin reconnecting with who you are beyond what you’ve been through.

A New Story Can Begin

Your trauma doesn’t define you. It’s part of your story, but it’s not the whole thing. Narrative therapy helps you step back, reflect, and discover the moments of courage, strength, and choice that have always been there — even if they’ve been hard to see.

You deserve to feel heard, understood, and supported as you write the next chapter of your life. And that next chapter can be one where you feel more like yourself again.

Ready to Explore Narrative Therapy in Brooklyn?

If this approach resonates with you, I’d be honored to support your healing journey. I’m Sabrina Grover, a licensed therapist at Grovemind Therapy, based in Brooklyn, New York. I specialize in helping trauma survivors reconnect with their strength and sense of self through compassionate, collaborative therapy.

You can contact me here to schedule a free consultation or learn more about how we can work together.