The Narrative Model of Therapeutic Change: An Exploratory Study Tracking Innovative Moments and Protonarratives Using State Space Grids (original) (raw)

How Do Self-Narratives Change During Psychotherapy? A Review of Innovative Moments Research

Journal of Systemic Therapies, 2017

In the past decade, researching what we refer to as innovative moments (IMs) has produced interesting results with regard to change in self-narratives during psychotherapy. Building upon the concept of "unique outcomes" (White & Epston, 1990) and "exceptions" in therapy (de Shazer, 1991), a coding system was developed for tracking moments of innovation in clients' narratives throughout the therapy process. In the present article, we review the trajectory of this research, highlighting four main issues. First, we briefly comment on its development and on some of its core theoretical assumptions. Second, we introduce the reader to the basics of the coding system, describing the different types of IMs. Third, we review the main research outcomes, and some preliminary conclusions are drawn with regard to patterns of narrative change. Finally, the practical implications of the findings are discussed. We consequently outline some tips to assist therapists in developing a greater sensitivity to self-narrative change. How does change occur in psychotherapy? These six simple words contain what probably has become the main and everlasting enigma of psychotherapy practice

Studying psychotherapy change in narrative terms: The innovative moments method

Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 2020

This paper aims to describe the Innovative Moments (IM) Coding System (IMCS), an idiographic and transtheoretical methodology that allows the identification of IMs-markers of changes in the client's initial maladaptive framework of meaningthroughout psychotherapy. The present study introduces the theoretical background underlying this methodology, along with the main empirical findings resulting from former studies that have applied this tool to clinical data. The IMCS application is also detailed: the coding phases, the training steps and inter-rater agreement measures. In order to illustrate the application of IM coding, a case study is presented. Although a partial coding was used, the results are in line with previous research. Discussion is centred on the usefulness of the IMCS for the advance of process research in psychotherapy, and the potential use of this methodology in group format.

Narrative and Clinical Change in Cognitive-Behavior Therapy: A Comparison of Two Recovered Cases

Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 2016

Psychotherapy research suggests that therapeutic change is associated with the emergence and development of innovative moments (IMs)-that is, exceptions to the problematic self-narrative that brought the client to therapy. This study compares two recovered cases of major depression, according to symptom measures, that presented contrasting profiles of evolution of IMs: one typical of successful therapy (Barbara), and another typical of unsuccessful therapy (Claudia). The core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT) was used to study narrative change independently of the innovative moments coding system (IMCS). The results suggest a high congruence between the IMCS and the CCRT profiles. Although Barbara presented changes in the IMCS and the CCRT in a similar way, Claudia's self-narratives (IMs and CCRT), despite symptom change, did not change. The results are discussed, considering the importance of narrative changes in recovery from depression and the maintenance of therapeutic gains. Several scholars and researchers have proposed that meaning is constructed through narrative processes that allow a person to make sense of life experiences (e.g., Angus & McLeod, 2004; Sarbin, 1986; Singer, 2005). According to this perspective, in psychopathology, problematic selfnarratives block the healthy diversity of meanings and experiences (Dimaggio, 2006; Gonçalves, Matos, & Santos, 2009; Neimeyer, 2000). Thus, the elaboration of events outside the scope of the problematic self-narrative-that is, the occurrence of exceptions-is considered to be an important process of improving the flexibility of self-narratives, which has also been associated with change in psychotherapy (Alves, Mendes, Gonçalves, & Neimeyer, 2012; Angus & Greenberg, 2011; Polkinghorne, 2004). To evaluate the process of narrative change in psychotherapy, Gonçalves, Ribeiro, Mendes, Matos, and Santos (2011) developed the innovative moments coding system (IMCS), which identifies exceptions to the problematic self-narrative experienced by clients throughout treatment, called innovative noments (IMs). IMs are categorized into five types: action, reflection, protest, reconceptualization, and performing change, as illustrated in Table 1. Using the data from several studies that employed the IMCS (