Narrative Solutions: Using Preferred View of Self to Motivate Individual and Family Change

• Author: Joseph Eron,Steve Dagirmanjian,Thomas Lund
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12207
• Published date: 01 December 2016
• Date: 01 December 2016

Narrative Solutions: Using Preferred View of Self to

Motivate Individual and Family Change

THOMAS LUND

*

JOSEPH ERON

*

STEVE DAGIRMANJIAN

*

To read this article in Spanish, please see the article’s Supporting Information on Wiley Online Library

(wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/famp).

This article describes refinements of the Narrative Solutions approach to individual and

family therapy we first presented in Family Process 22 years ago. The centerpiece of this

integrative (narrative-strategic) model is “preferred view of self,” or the constellation of

qualities people would like to see in themselves and have others see in them. We assume

that problems generally involve one or more people mismanaging discrepancies or “gaps”

between preferred views of self and either their actual behavior or how they see others see-

ing them and their behavior. Because clients are motivated to resolve such discrepancies,

we use specifiable conversational strategies to help people (a) be clear about their preferred

view of self, (b) notice gaps or discrepancies, and (c) summon resources to mana ge these

gaps more effectively. Positive clinical effects of these strategic conve rsations can be rapid

and dramatic. Case examples highlight applications to child and family problems, and we

discuss some challenges and future directions for the Narrative Solutions approach.

Keywords: Narrative solutions; Preferred view; Gaps; Effects questions; Helpful

conversations; Preferred View Questions

Fam Proc 55:724–741, 2016

The Narrative Solutions approach grew from several decades of clinical collaboration at

the Catskill Family Institute (CFI) in Kingston, NY, focused on distinguishing conver-

sations that motivate change from those that do not. Inspired by the interactional vie w of

human problems pioneered at Palo Alto’s Mental Research Institute (MRI; Watzlawick,

Beavin, & Jackson, 1967; Watzlawick, Weakland, & Fisch, 1974) and the brief problem-

focused therapy based on that view (Fisch, Weakland, & Segal, 1982; Weakland, Fisch,

Watzlawick, & Bodin, 1974), we were intrigued by so-called reframing interventions that

motivate change by altering the meaning of events and behavior in people’s lives. After a

decade of applying and experimenting with these methods, we outlined in Family Process

a systematic therapeutic approach integrating core concepts from MRI brief strategic ther-

apy and narrative therapy (Eron & Lund, 1993). Our 1996 book, Narrative Solutions in

Brief Therapy, described and exemplified this approach in greater detail (Eron & Lund,

1996), and over the years this work has garnered praise in at least one leading family ther-

apy text as a notable model of conceptual and technical integration (Nichols, 2012).

After 1996 we continued to sharpen the Narrative Solutions (NS) approach, describing

specific applications to children (Lund & Eron, 1998), couples (Eron & Lund, 1997, 1998),

and older adults (Eron & Lund, 2002, 2003), and explored extending it to inpatient

*

Catskill Family Institute, Kingston, NY.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Thomas Lund, Catskill Family Institute

112 N. Front St. Kingston, NY 12401. E-mail: drtomlund@gmail.com

The authors would like to thank Michael Rohrbaugh for his editorial suggestions and support.

724

Family Process, Vol. 55, No. 4, 2016 ©2016 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12207

settings and special populations such as adolescents incarcerated for violent crimes and

children in residential placements. Much of the sharpening has involved elevating pre-

ferred view of self as a core construct and specifying the structure of helpful conversations

in which a therapist aligns with clients’ preferred views and ultimately uses those views

to motivate change. In all of this, with frequent forays into training and super vision of

human service professionals in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, we have found the Narra-

tive Solutions approach highly amenable to dissemination. A central aim of this paper is

therefore to stimulate further dissemination of the model by describing and illustrating its

currently central features in a clear and specific manner.

BACKGROUND AND EVOLUTION OF THE NARRATIVE SOLUTIONS APPROACH

In the early years we embraced the MRI group’s “principles of problem formation and

problem resolution” (Watzlawick et al., 1974; Weakland et al., 1974). Three core assump-

tions in this work—about how problems evolve, persist, and resolve—continue to underlie

the Narrative Solutions approach:

The first assumption has to do with the origin of problems—namely, that problems

evolve from the mishandling of ordinary life difficulties, often at key transition points in

the family life cycle (e.g., entering school, birth of a sibling, leaving home, marriage, birth

of a child, retirement). The MRI approach makes no presumption of pathology: People can

get into problems with the best of intentions, and they can get out of problems without a

major overhaul to either their personality or family structures.

The second MRI assumption concerns the persistence of problems—specifically, that

well-intentioned “solution” behaviors by the people involved often feedback to keep a prob-

lem going or make it worse. For example, a parent’s persistent attempts to lecture or rea-

son with a difficult child may lead to more troublesome behavior, or attempted protection

and avoidance of conflict might inadvertently promote more distress for the family mem-

ber being protected. The main focus of assessment in the MRI approach is therefore to

identify what we call a “problem cycle” (Eron & Lund, 1996), in which more-of-the-same

solution leads to more of the problem, which leads to more of the ineffective solution, and

so on. Because well-intentioned solutions are so central, the term “ironic process” aptly

describes this form of problem maintenance as well (Rohrbaugh & Shoham, 2001).

A third closely related assumption is that simple interruption of an ironic problem cycle

—by getting someone involved to do less of the same solution—is sufficient to resolve most

problems. In this way, virtuous cycles can begin to replace vicious ones, paving the way

for progressive change. Importantly, to interrupt a problem cycle by promoting less -of-the-

same behavior, MRI therapists would carefully frame suggestions for change in terms con-

sistent with a client’s own “position” (idiosyncratic language, beliefs, world-view, etc.) in

order to encourage a new course of action. This motivational feature of the MRI approach

foreshadowed our later practice of helping clients focus on positive qualities they would

like to see in themselves and have others see in them.

Implied in MRI’s problem cycle formulation was another intriguing idea—how people

perceived their life situations affected what they did about them, and what they did about

their life situations affected what they perceived. Predicated on this interconnection of

meaning and action, the MRI team emphasized the technique of reframing—a way to

“change the conceptual and/or emotional viewpoint in which a situation is exp erienced

and place it in another frame which fits the ‘facts’ of the same concrete situation equally

well or even better, and thereby changes its entire meaning” (Watzlawick et al., 1974, p.

94). In practice, the team not only used reframing as a stand-alone intervention, but also

took great care to frame behavioral prescriptions (for “less of the same” behavior) in terms

consistent with clients’ language, thereby motivating change.

Fam. Proc., Vol. 55, December, 2016

LUND, ERON, & DAGIRMANJIAN

/

725