
Narrative therapy, through the concept of externalising conversations developed by Michael White (White 1984), is the process of separating you from your problems. This helps you be able to see yourself from a different perspective, free from the negative identity you have concluded it is your burden to carry through life.
It is a fascinating and liberating experience as your own personal history is unpacked to discover just why you have the beliefs that you do, just how they began, and how they have helped you in the past - and how they are often passed their use-by date and are now working actively to make you unhappy. Once they were a help - now they hold you back.
As an example, you may have stories such as "I am worthless," I am unlovable," or "I am a bad person." In the safe environment of the non-judgemental therapy space, there's a magnificent chance to explore the history, the influence, and the effect of these stores.

We take those stories that have become so harmful to you, and we begin the task of weakening them, while at the same time thickening the preferences we discover that you have.
You can re-author your life. You can take back control. You can determine your own future. It's a wonderful thing, a powerful thing - a real and possible thing.
- Brown, C. & Augusta-Scott, T. (1997). Narrative Therapy. Making meaning, making lives. Sage Publications, London.
- White, M. (1984), Pseudo-encopresis: From avalanche to victory, from vicious to virtuous cycles. Family Systems Medicine, Vol 2(2), 1984, 150-160
- White, M. (2001). Narrative Practice and the unpacking of identity conclusions. Gecko: A Journal of Deconstruction and Narrative Ideas in Therapeutic Practice, 1, 28-55.
- White, M. (2007). Maps of narrative practice. New York, Norton.
- White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York, Norton.