Narrative Therapy in Portland, Oregon
Reclaim your story.
Separate yourself from the problem.
Create new meaning.
When life experiences, trauma, anxiety, depression, or long-standing patterns take hold, they can start to define how you see yourself. You may notice a single story repeating in your mind — I’m broken, I’m not enough, This is just who I am — even when those stories no longer reflect who you truly are.
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At Health Allies Counseling, we use Narrative Therapy to help adults step back from problem-saturated stories, reconnect with their values and strengths, and rewrite their relationship with challenges in a way that feels empowering and authentic. We welcome clients in person in our offices in SE Portland and throughout Oregon via telehealth, including Portland, Eugene, Salem, Bend, and rural communities statewide.
How will narrative therapy help me?
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What is narrative therapy?
Narrative Therapy is a collaborative, strengths-based approach that views people as separate from their problems.
Rather than asking “What’s wrong with you?” Narrative Therapy asks:
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How did this problem come to take up so much space in your life?
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What values, skills, or hopes have been overshadowed?
Narrative Therapy helps you:
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Externalize problems instead of internalizing them
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Identify dominant stories that limit your sense of self
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Reclaim forgotten strengths and values
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Create new narratives aligned with who you are and who you want to become
You are not the problem — the problem is the problem.
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What symptoms is narrative therapy good for?
Narrative Therapy can be especially helpful for people experiencing:
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Anxiety or depression shaped by self-criticism
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Trauma or identity-shaping experiences
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Shame or feeling “stuck” in a role
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Life transitions or loss
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Relationship challenges
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Marginalization or systemic oppression
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Chronic illness or disability identity
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Burnout or loss of meaning
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Perfectionism or imposter syndrome
This approach honors context, culture, identity, and lived experience — not just symptoms.
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Is narrative therapy a good fit for you?
Narrative Therapy may be a good fit if you:
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Feel defined by past experiences or diagnoses
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Carry stories of shame, blame, or failure
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Want a non-pathologizing approach
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Are interested in identity, meaning, and values
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Feel constrained by labels or expectations
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Want therapy that centers collaboration and respect
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Prefer conversation-based, reflective work
Narrative Therapy can be used on its own or integrated with trauma-informed, somatic, or mindfulness-based approaches.
Does this sound like you?
Find a therapist
that can help you with these concerns now