What is a Problem-Saturated Story?
Often when individuals come into counselling, they share their story. Within that story they often identify aspects of themselves, their partners, family, or friends as having or being a problem. For example, someone may come into my office and state “I am an anxious person.” This individual can often only see themselves as the problem, or an anxious person. This Dominant Narrative informs the person how they see themselves, what their capable of, what their limits are, how they define their identity and their relationships around them. This is what is called a Problem-Saturated Story.
The Problem-Saturated Story is all pervasive in how the person views themselves, what their capabilities are, and what their future may look like. The person becomes so entrenched in the Problem-Saturated Story that they cannot access alternative or competing narratives that could be much more positive for them. Often these alternative stories can reveal how the individual has successfully managed the intrusiveness of anxiety. Rather than seeing the Problem-Saturated story as Totalizing with no escape, alternative narratives can reveal moments when an individual was successful in living without anxiety, and how they managed to that this.
Narrative Therapists “views problems as separate from people and assumes people have many skills, competencies, beliefs, values, commitments and abilities that will assist them to reduce the influence of problems in their lives.” During this collaborative work therapists help individuals to “externalize” the problem, so that they don’t view themselves as the problem. Indeed, in Narrative work, “the problem is the problem, the person is never the problem.” Individuals who often come into counselling experience a sense of relief that they are not the problem. In the example of anxiety, anxiety is the problem, the person is not the problem. Counselling entails assisting the individual to access their skills, abilities, gifts and past success in resisting the intrusiveness of anxiety into their lives. Once the impact of the problem is reduced, the counsellor works with the individual to identify Unique Outcomes where they have been successful in managing anxiety.
Exercise: to assist you to identify any Problem-Saturated Stories in your life.
Externalization Journaling:
Write a description of how the problem manifests and influences your life, using language that treats it as an outsider. Give the problem a name. Instead of anxiety, you might call it the mosquito in the room, or the dragon that’s holding you hostage. Map what kind of strategies it uses to become intrusive in your life e.g. during a change in your life? How does the dragon make you feel when it is close. How does the dragon effect your work, relationships, health, plans for the future, etc. By using Externalization Journaling to map how the problem works and impacts an individual’s life, a person is better able to identify what the Problem-Saturated Story is, and how to better work with it.
Reference
What is Narrative Therapy? Dulwich Centre gateway to narrative therapy and community work. https://dulwichcentre.com.au/what-is-narrative-therapy/
