Narrative Psychiatry and Family Collaborations

Narrative Psychiatry and Family Collaborations is about helping families with complex psychiatric problems by seeing and meeting the families and the family members, as the best versions of themselves, before we see and address the diagnoses. 
This book draws on ten years of clinical research and contains stories about helping people, who are heavily burdened with psychiatric illnesses, to find ways to live a life as close as possible to their dreams. The chapters are organized according to ideas, values, and techniques. The book describes family-oriented practices, narrative collaborative practices, narrative psychiatric practices, and narrative agency practices. It also talks about wonderfulness interviewing, mattering practices, public note taking on paper charts, therapeutic letter writing, diagnoses as externalized problems, narrative medicine, and family community meetings. Each chapter includes case studies that illustrate the theory, ethics, and practice, told by Nina Jørring in collaboration with the families and colleagues. 
The book will be of interest to child and adolescent psychiatrists and all other mental health professionals working with children and families.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Alexander, June

Epston, David

JØRRING, NINA

Mental Health

Routledge

Use of letter-writing in family therapy. White and Epston base their therapy on the assumption that people experience problems when the stories of their lives, as they or others have invented them, do not sufficiently represent their lived experience. Therapy then becomes a process of storying or restorying the lives and experiences of these people. In this way narrative comes to play a central role in therapy. Both authors share delightful examples of a storied therapy that privileges a person’s lived experience, inviting a reflexive posture and encouraging a sense of authorship and reauthorship of one’s experiences and relationships in the telling and retelling of one’s story.

Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends

WHITE,MICHAEL

W.W.Norton&Company

The "grown-up talk" of therapy is likely to turn off children - especially if it focuses on their problematic behavior. The highly effective techniques of narrative therapy include children by respecting their unique language, stories, and views of the world. This book describes a basic theory of collaborative narrative play, as well as verbal and nonverbal techniques that clear the way for stories of hope, possibility, and change. Compelling case examples, drawn from the authors' work, will appeal to parents and educators as well as therapists.

Playful Approaches to Serious Problems: Narrative Therapy with Children and their Families (Norton Professional Books (Hardcover))

FREEMAN, JENNIFER

Lobovits, Dean

This important book immediately draws the reader into the world of those struggling with anorexia/bulimia (a/b), whose stories, poems, and first-person accounts expose the 'voice' of these deadly problems. The authors' decade-and-a-half collaboration with 'insiders' has yielded fresh answers to these life and death questions: How does a/b seduce and terrorize girls and women? Why is a/b successful in encouraging girls and women to unwittingly embrace their would-be murderer? How can such a murderer be exposed and thwarted? This book details a unique way of thinking and speaking about anorexia/bulimia. By having conversations with insiders in which the problem is viewed as an external influence rather than a part of the person, these therapists show how to bring the tactics of a/b into the open, expose its deceptions, break its spell, and encourage defiance of its tyrannical rule. These innovations enable insiders, professionals, and loved ones to unite against anorexia/bulimia rather than allowing a/b to pit a professional or loved one against an insider, and the insider against herself. Coercion is sidestepped in favor of practices that are collaborative, accountable and spirit-nurturing. The groundbreaking discoveries outlined in this book will provide new options, inspiration and hope, not only for those who suffer at anorexia's hands, but also for their loved ones and healthcare professionals.

Biting the Hand that Starves You: Inspiring Resistance to Anorexia/Bulimia (Norton Professional Books)

Maisel, Richard

Borden, Ali

Psychology & Counseling

Recognizing the power of children’s imaginations in narrative therapy.
Therapists may marvel at children's imaginative triumphs, but how often do they recognize such talents as vital to the therapy hour? Should therapists reserve a space for make-believe only when nothing is at stake, or might it be precisely those moments when something truly matters that imagination is most urgently needed?
This book offers an alternative to therapeutic perspectives that treat children as vulnerable and helpless. It invites readers to consider how the imaginative gifts and knowledge of children, when supported by the therapist and family, can bring about dramatic change.
The book begins with an account of the foundations of narrative theory. It explains how such elements as language, characterization, and suspense contribute to the coherence of a story and bring young people into focus.
Each subsequent chapter provides specific suggestions for the practice of narrative therapy. Examples of the difficulties children face are offered, along with narrative interventions and tips for overcoming common barriers that can arise along the way. Readers will learn a variety of ready-to-implement strategies, including how to personify problems, compose letters to affirm children's identities, summon fairies to lend a helping hand, and many more. Sample dialogues between the authors, children, and their parents bring the application of each practice to life, illuminating how even the most stubborn problem can be outwitted, sometimes by mischievous means.
With robust professional insight, Narrative Therapy in Wonderland will aid any practitioner in calling on children's imaginative know-how. How often can a young person be spotted diving headlong into a world of fantasy? This book explores the extraordinary fact that these young people may, upon arrival in Wonderland, be far better equipped to take on even dire challenges than when they remain "up above."

Narrative Therapy in Wonderland: Connecting with Children's Imaginative Know-How

Marsten, David

Markham, Laurie

David Epston continues to be a considerable influence on many UK family therapists/systemic psychotherapists, as well as being one of the two creators of Narrative Therapy, the other being the late Michael White.Part One, Down Under, contains previously published work from different periods of Epston's writing career. As always, each chapter reflects Epston's creativity, and at times those of his co-writers.Part Two, Up Over, contains six examples of Epston’s current work, all of which are printed here for the first time, including inventive approaches to chronic bed-wetting, relationships between children and their estranged fathers, court reports, stealing, and sibling conflicts, as well as a long chapter on Anti-Anorexia, a subject close to Epston's heart.

Down Under and Up and Over: Travels with Narrative Therapy

Karnac Books

From the back cover:

'Ever wanted to catch up with David Epston over a cup of tea or coffee and talk through the most significant aspects of his work over the last six or so years?

If so, this inspiring and thoughtful collection of practice-based papers is for you!

Written in an engaging and entertaining style, the papers in this book trace the influences in David's recent work and explore in detail his therapeutic consultations.

Specific sections address internalising/externalising conversations, celebrating specialness, letter writing and his approach with so-called anorexia/bulimia.'

Catching up with David Epston: A Collection of Narrative Practice-Based Papers, Published between 1991 and 1996

Dulwich Centre Publications

Ngā Kūaha: Voices and Visions in Māori Healing and Psychiatry (Writing Lives: Ethnographic Narratives)

NiaNia, Wiremu

Bush, Allister

Reference

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Epston, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Epston, David