Narrative Therapy Calgary
Rewrite Your Story: You Are the Expert on Your Own Life
Sometimes we get so caught up in problem-saturated stories about ourselves that we forget we have other chapters—stories of strength, resilience, and moments when we overcame challenges. Narrative therapy recognizes that you are not your problems; you are a complex, multi-faceted person with a rich history of experiences, values, and abilities that extend far beyond your current struggles.
Our narrative therapists help you separate yourself from problem-dominated stories and rediscover the preferred stories of your life—the times when you acted according to your values, demonstrated courage, or found creative solutions to difficulties. This approach doesn’t minimize real challenges but helps you remember that problems are something you experience, not something you are.
Who Is Narrative Therapy For?
Individuals, couples, and families who feel defined by their problems and want to rediscover their strengths, values, and preferred ways of being in the world.
Adults feeling stuck in problem-saturated identities
Anyone seeking to reclaim their personal agency
Individuals dealing with trauma
Individuals who feel like therapy hasn't worked
People seeking meaning and purpose beyond their current struggles
Couples whose relationship story has become dominated by conflict
Individuals feeling disconnected from their cultural identity
Families with problematic patterns
Externalizing Problems and Re-authoring Your Preferred Life Story
Narrative therapy begins with “externalizing” problems—separating you from the difficulties you’re experiencing so that you become a person with problems rather than a problematic person. We explore how problems like depression, anxiety, or conflict have influenced your life story and relationships, while also looking for “unique outcomes”—times when you’ve resisted or overcome these problems.
Through careful questioning and exploration, we help you identify the skills, knowledge, and values you’ve used during these successful moments. We explore what these victories say about you as a person and what kind of life you prefer to live. This process helps you recognize that you have more agency and capability than problems would have you believe.
What You Can Discover On The Other Side
Narrative therapy doesn’t focus on diagnosing or treating disorders, but rather on exploring and reshaping the stories we tell about ourselves. It assumes you are the expert on your own life and that problems are separate from your identity. The therapist takes a curious, collaborative stance rather than being positioned as the expert who fixes you.
Externalizing means talking about problems as external influences on your life rather than internal characteristics. Instead of “I’m an anxious person,” we might explore “How has anxiety been influencing your decisions?” This creates space to see yourself as separate from the problem and opens possibilities for resistance and change.
The length varies based on individual needs and goals. Some people experience significant shifts in just a few sessions as they begin to externalize problems and reconnect with their preferred stories. Others benefit from longer-term work to fully develop and integrate their re-authored life narratives.
This is common when problems have been dominant in your life story. The therapist’s role is to help you discover the unique outcomes and exceptions that are often invisible when you’re caught up in problem stories. Almost everyone has moments of resistance to problems or actions that reflect their values, even if they seem small or unnoticed.
Direct billing
We believe in removing barriers to accessing treatment.
We can direct bill many major insurance companies to ensure your experience with us is more convenient and stress-free.
Our Approach
Our care approach for trauma counselling in Calgary revolves around you.
Begin by booking an appointment with one of our psychologists specifically, or request a match with one based on your individual needs. During your first meeting, we’ll learn about you and your treatment goals and offer our recommendations for specific, evidence-based help. We can also perform assessments to properly diagnose your mental health concerns, enabling us to customize your treatment further. Each subsequent session is a refinement of your goals and the methods that we use to reach them. We encourage growth and self-reflection throughout the process and welcome you to control as much of the decision-making as you are comfortable with.