I picked this book up at a David Epston workshop in Saskatoon in May/96 and have read it approximately 3 times. Work is tough in a protection agency, it influences us to look at people from the wrong end of the telescope. Narrative Therapy is one of those books that encourages a relentless optimism and a willingness to consider people's stories from a "many-meaninged" perspective. The wide angle view so to speak.

Freedman and Coombs begin by detailing the paradigm shift away from the Ecosystemic to the Narrative metaphor. Narrative therapy is not just an evolution of systems theory, it is according to the authors, a discontinuous paradigm, "a whole new language", the language of the post-modern.

This is a clinical, practice oriented book. In it, you will find the 4 main ideas that relate to a post-modern world view. You will learn techniques of deconstructive listening and questioning (that process by which the subjugating aspects of peoples stories are selectively minimised and examinations of new meanings are actively promoted). You will learn how to externalise the problem (the problem, not the person, is the problem) and of exposing the role of dominant discourses.

One whole chapter dwells on the many different kinds of questions that can be used to open up new spaces in people's stories (lives) including unique outcome questions, hypothetical experience questions, future questions, preference questions, story development questions, meaning questions,and many more. Techniques of thickening the plots, therapeutic letter writing and spreading the news are all described enthusiastically and artfully. The book is replete with therapeutic transcripts, providing a wealth of material to re-author your own practice.

What did I like most about this book? I think the recognition by the authors that we are all to a great extent "works in progress" ourselves. If we take seriously the narrative/constitutionalist metaphor, especially in a child protection work culture, all aspects of our lives are up for continued maintenance and attention. I've given this book a 10 out of 10 rating. Get a hold of it. You'll be glad you did. W.W. Norton is the publisher.