Critical Reflection On Narrative Interview Approach In Counselling Practice

Use of Narrative Approach with Client

Critical Reflection on the use of a narrative approach when interviewing a client

In this narrative interview, the client is a mother of 10-year-old daughter who was concerned about her daughter’s refusal to go to school. The reason was the impact of unfortunate events and passing of loved ones led the child to a state of depression. The reluctancy of the mother was clearly visible but in order to recover her daughter’s mental state, she accepted the referral of taking her daughter to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services for an assessment. While engagement with the client, Mika, a narrative approach was utilized in my practice. According to my understanding, narrative ideas in counselling practice helps to relate and connect with the clients to our own context.

When I first interview Mika, I tried to understand and build a strong connection between some of the commitments and purposes that are important during my practice as a counsellor. In hindsight, I tried exploring two of the narrative ideas namely externalizing conversations and re-authoring conversations. The use of externalizing conversations allowed me to understand and talk about the problems as being separate from people. According to Carey & Russell(2002), the concept of externalizing conversation allows a counselor to know the influence of problems on people’s lives and how they can be renegotiated. For instance, Mika’s daughter was suffering from depression which created the need of externalizing her feelings by discussing them with the CAMHS.

On the other hand, use of re-authoring conversations allowed the client to convey the terrible circumstances her daughter faced resulting in shutting herself down and stop going to the school. As stated by Carey & Russell(2003) about re-authoring in their article, it is important to know that there can be negative circumstances in life but internalizing those situations can worsen the mental state of the person. I utilized re-authoring conversation by inquiring about the issue faced by the client’s daughter, notice any contradiction and use it development for an alternative story.

The gaps identified during the practice was that, I may have not made Mika realize that the problems faced by her daughter is not her fault. I may have asked the questions to Mika by changing the adjectives like asking her how her daughter feels about her depression. I could have recommended her to engage with her daughter more and build her confidence rather than being reluctant of seeking Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

Identified Gaps in Practice

In this narrative therapy, the learnings from Morgan (2002)social theories were used in order to understand the problems, assess the needs of the client and commission the provision of social care. As opined by Di Pietro& Illes(2016), Strength-based is one the approaches used in this context to focus on the strength and self-determination of the client. The reason behind using this approach is to determine the behavior, actions and resilience of an affected person during their adverse situations. Coady& Lehmann(2016) suggest thatthis theory allows individuals to identify their inner strength in the course of change. In the case of Mika, her reluctancy converted into approval as she could not stand her daughter suffer in that situation. The use of Systems theory also allowed to analyze all of the systems that contribute to the client’s behavior in their particular situation. In the case of Mika’s daughter, she was clearly depressed, and I intended to help create a positive impact on her behavior by providing necessary assistance and emotional support.

A key part of narrative approaches is to ensure that the stories from client is not seen from a different perspective and the problem saturated stories are deconstructed so that possible inconsistencies in the story. Ryan, O’Dwyer& Leahy(2015), the process of deconstructing the problem uses externalizing conversations which is one of the techniques that separates the person from their problems. The concept of Critical Questioning allows to ask questions in a different manner to the client by using different adjectives which becomes easier for the clients to describe themselves and externalize their problems. According to Miller (2014), interpersonal communication is also an important skill which allows to communicate and understand the issues faced by the clients. A counselor or therapist must provide the benefit of questioning the clients themselves about their problems and how they sustain it. In this sense, they are not only surviving with the problem but constructing their own ideas of the problem and what exactly they are doing to overcome the problem. The most important skill that a therapist can use in social work practice is engagement and building rapport with their clients. Often, these two skills remain unappreciated as people are concerned with resolving the issue as early as possible. In this case, my responsibility was to engage with the client’s problems and the issue her daughter was facing. This eagerness improves the quality of the relationship with the client.

Use of Social Theories in Narrative Approach

As suggested by Stronach& Adair(2014), creating a rapport with the client involves being empathetic to their issues, collaborating with them to resolve their problems, earning their trust and being loyal to them. The lack of these components and humanistic qualities would be problematic while adopting narrative approaches. Therefore, as suggested by Miller (2014), it is important too deeply listen to the client’s side of the story and suggest them with appropriate solutions. The skill of deep and respectful listening could have been utilized. The use of nonverbal behavior involves gestures, facial expressions, postural alterations which allows a person to express their emotions without the need for speech.

Challenges during the interview

While interviewing Mika, through following the narrative style, it created some confusing and unrecognized situations where I went blank and couldn’t make out as what should be stated next. Counseling requires a clear mind set and on practicing counseling it has been realized that the councilor needs to be specific and clear in his words and mind. According to Danbyet al.(2015), narrative interview is among the most productive ones which helps in bringing out the feelings and sorrows in the most fluent way. This helps the client in trusting the councilor and believe his words. In case of Mika, The foremost challenge was that it was related to a child and a child’s mental state is quite critical to handle. Mika being the child’s mother has been suffering equally with her daughter, and handling both of them created some challenging situations. While interviewing her, it was to be kept in mind that the words spoken should work on the mother in a way that it brings out more from her to me so that some remedy could provide to it. The narrative interview requires to have a good listening power and patience which was not met as I interrupted in between her words which diverted her from the scenario she was explaining. Listening to someone and picking up the minor points which carries deep impact on the mind, was quite tough and this was quite challenging for me. While listening to Mika, at times I just went with the flow and didn’t noticed the depth or tried to know the reason behind the scenario. As stated by Mueller(2019), narrative interviews need to be conducted with high patience and the words of the client should be noted with accuracy as this helps in understanding the depth of their pain and sorrow.

Importance of Engaging and Building Rapport with Clients

On understanding the mistakes or the loopholes that existed in the interview, I decided on to cross check my mistakes through closely understanding the features of a counselor or specifically of narrative counselors. The mistake of speaking in between and not listening patiently is the foremost requirement which would be enhanced. In future I would plan the interview in a way that the client speaks more than me and this is believed to provide productive results. As per Atkinson& Sampson(2019), the acknowledgement of narrative interview process closely could help a lot in making the counselor and the client more productive and the output could be enjoyed by both of them. The challenges that were faced in case of Mika, would be excessed closely and this would help in improvising my skills. The narrative interview has been acknowledged to be quite accurate in its approach and this also reveals the future acceptance of the process.

According to Sherwood (2013), Australia has been deeply impacted by the affects of colonization in the past. The major hit or negative impact of colonization has been taken by the Aboriginals and Indigenous people of Australia. As evidence from Sherwood (2014) article suggest that suggest that the Indigenous people were displaced, exploited, disrespected and their rights were violated by the British Colonial system. At times, these Indigenous people were not even considered as humans and extreme acts of cruelty was enforced on them. However, in the early 18^th century, the colonial attitudes to establish new systems and institutions for the Indigenous people that continues to have impact on them even today. Therefore, the result of such disadvantage to Indigenous people observed today is the long-term effect of lack of opportunities in the previous generations. Lack of education, healthcare and inadequate public facilities deeply impacted the existence of Aboriginals in Australia.

Parker & Milroy(2014) identify that Aboriginals are the most disadvantaged society in Australia in terms of health and socioeconomic measures. The effect of colonization has not stopped social workers from providing better outcomes for these Indigenous people. However, the relationship between the social workers and Aboriginals has been sour due to underpinned issues of child protection interventions and provision of healthcare services. Even today, the condition of social work practice approaches shows lack of training of practitioners in being culturally responsive, lack of educational preparation and lack of empathy towards Aboriginals has impacted their relationship with social workers.

Challenges in Narrative Interview Process

As per Davis& Gentlewarrior(2015), the effect of colonization shows that white people are more advantaged that people of color and are more discriminated. This gains unearned racial privilege for white people and gave them the right to create their own biases and assumptions in social work. The social work education also lacks diversity as it does not teach about bringing change in the community and the curriculum is also based on White privilege that impacts their delivery of social service towards Aboriginal Australians.

Dudgeon, et. al. (2014), Aboriginal Australians experience a burden of health issues and lack of provision of healthcare that has lowered their life expectancy as compared to non- Aboriginal Australians. The implication of Clinical Social Work practice with Aboriginals by White people shows that they have far-reaching effects on their lives as White people occupy at status of privilege. Since white people are unaware of their marginalized identities, they do not understand the feeling of being oppressed. Therefore, in clinical practice critical reflection and cultivating self-reflection can help social workers to visualize oppression and inequality towards others. In Clinical Social Work practice, the workplace culture is full of frontline racialized workers which must be addressed for the social welfare of Aboriginal Australians. The inclusion of aboriginal health workers in Healthcare teams is expected to be a strong move words creating spaces where both aboriginal and non-aboriginal people could work together. As identified by Walter, Taylor& Habibis (2011), due to the lack of cultural awareness, training, and understanding of the Aboriginal culture has led the White people create a dominant culture of their own and gained all the privileges that makes Aboriginals more disadvantaged in terms of receiving education and healthcare facilities. Also, in narrative practices, the counselors or therapists can play an important role in working for justice to Aboriginal people. They can apply their knowledge and skills to bring the disadvantaged community ahead by supporting their problems which cultural sensitivity and identify solutions to resolve those problems.

References

Atkinson, P., & Sampson, C. (2019). Narrative stability in interview accounts. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 22(1), 55-66.

Carey, M., & Russell, S. (2002). Externalising: Commonly asked questions. International Journal of Narrative Therapy & Community Work, 2002(2), 76.

Carey, M., & Russell, S. (2003). Re-authoring: Some answers to commonly asked questions. International Journal of Narrative Therapy & Community Work, 2003(3), 60.

Coady, N., & Lehmann, P. (Eds.). (2016). Theoretical perspectives for direct social work practice: A generalist-eclectic approach. 4^th ed. New York, USA: Springer Publishing Company.

Danby, M. C., Brubacher, S. P., Sharman, S. J., & Powell, M. B. (2015). The effects of practice on children’s ability to apply ground rules in a narrative interview. Behavioral sciences & the law, 33(4), 446-458.

Davis, A., & Gentlewarrior, S. (2015). White privilege and clinical social work practice: Reflections and recommendations. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 26(3), 191-208.

Di Pietro, N., & Illes, J. (2016). Closing gaps: strength-based approaches to research with Aboriginal children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Neuroethics, 9(3), 243-252.

Dudgeon, W., Wright, M., Paradies, Y., Garvey, D., & Walker, I. (2014). Aboriginal social, cultural and historical contexts. In Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice (pp. 3-24). Commonwealth Department of Health.

Miller, K. (2014). Respectful listening and reflective communication from the heart and with the spirit. Qualitative Social Work. 13(6), 828-841.

Morgan, A. (2002). Beginning to use a narrative approach in therapy. International Journal of Narrative Therapy & Community Work, 2002(1), 85.

Mueller, R. A. (2019). Episodic Narrative Interview: Capturing Stories of Experience With a Methods Fusion. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18, 1609406919866044.

Parker, R., & Milroy, H. (2014). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health: an overview. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice. 2nd ed. Canberra: Department of The Prime Minister and Cabinet, 25-38.

Ryan, F., O’Dwyer, M., & Leahy, M. M. (2015). Separating the problem and the person: Insights from narrative therapy with people who stutter. Topics in Language Disorders, 35(3), 267-274.

Sherwood, J. (2013). Colonisation – It’s bad for your health: The context of Aboriginal health. The context of Aboriginal health, Contemporary Nurse, 46(1), 28-40.

Stronach, M., & Adair, D. (2014). ‘Dadirri’: Reflections on a research methodology used to build trust between a non-indigenous researcher and indigenous participants. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 6(2), 117.

Walter, M., Taylor, S., & Habibis, D. (2011). How white is social work in Australia?. Australian Social Work, 64(1), 6-19.