An Inquiry into the Qualitative and Subjective Aspects of Trauma: Narrative Therapy Approaches

Abstract

Beginning from the early 1990s, narrative therapies have begun to be used widely by mental health professionals. Recently, more specialized forms of narrative therapy, including trauma-focused approaches, have been developed. This paper reviews narrative therapy approaches which focus on trauma. Trauma-focused narrative therapies address qualitative and subjective aspects of trauma and aim to integrate the traumatic experience into the clients’ chronological life history. Positioning the client as the expert, narrative therapists help clients to deconstruct and reconstruct the narrative. In the literature, there are several structured trauma-focused narrative therapy approaches such as testimony therapy, narrative exposure therapy (NET), and life review therapy, and also collective narrative approaches. Although evidence is mostly anecdotal for these approaches, some studies have shown conditional effectiveness of NET for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Increasing the use of these approaches and examining their effectiveness for stress- and trauma-related disorders would help practitioners and researchers to better understand the validity and clinical utility of trauma-focused narrative therapy approaches, especially in Turkey where estimates of exposure to traumatic events are quite high.

Keywords

• trauma,narrative therapy,PTSD,review

Travmanın Nitel ve Öznel Yönlerine Bir Bakış: Öyküsel Terapi Yaklaşımları

Abstract

1990’ların başından bu yana, öyküsel terapiler ruh sağlığı alanındaki uzmanlar tarafından daha yaygın olarak kullanılır hale gelmiştir. Yakın zamanda öyküsel terapinin, travma-odaklı yaklaşımlar gibi, daha özelleşmiş biçimleri geliştirilmiştir. Bu makalede, travma alanındaki öyküsel terapi yaklaşımları derlenmektedir. Travma-odaklı öyküsel terapiler travmanın nitel ve öznel yönlerine odaklanmaktadır ve travmatik deneyimi danışanların kronolojik yaşam öyküsü içine yerleştirmeyi hedeflemektedir. Danışanı uzman konumuna yerleştirerek, öyküsel terapistler danışanların öykünün yapısını bozmasına ve öyküyü yeniden yapılandırmasına yardım etmektedir. Literatürde, tanıklık terapisi, öyküsel maruz bırakma terapisi (NET) ve yaşam incelemesi terapisi ve ayrıca, kolektif öyküsel yaklaşımlar gibi birtakım yapılandırılmış travma-odaklı öyküsel terapi yaklaşımları bulunmaktadır. Her ne kadar bu yaklaşımlara yönelik kanıtların çoğu anekdota dayalı olsa da, bazı çalışmalar travma sonrası stres bozukluğunun tedavisinde NET’in koşullu olarak etkili olduğunu göstermiştir. Bu yaklaşımının kullanımının artırılması ve stres ve travma ile ilişkili bozukluklar için etkililiğinin incelenmesi uygulayıcıların ve araştırmacıların travma-odaklı öyküsel terapi yaklaşımlarının, özellikle travmatik olaylara maruz kalma oranlarının oldukça yüksek olduğu Türkiye’de, geçerliğini ve klinik yararını daha iyi anlamasına yardımcı olacaktır.

Keywords

• travma,öyküsel terapi,TSSB,derleme

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