Narrative Counseling in Schools

"What a gift to education! By practicing the ideas in this book, school counselors everywhere can help create new descriptions and stories that will transform the academic lives and behaviors of their students."
—Linda Metcalf, Author
Counseling Toward Solutions and Solution–Focused School Counseling

Promote students′ respect for themselves and others through narrative interventions!

Narrative counseling is based on the premise that stories, rather than hard-nosed realities, shape our lives. By changing the stories that negatively label and define students, we help them open up new avenues and opportunities.

In this second edition of their best-selling book, John Winslade and Gerald Monk present even more case studies, guidance, and examples of counseling practice to help students narrate stories that "redescribe" who they are and can be. Mindful that today′s busy counselors need effective and brief techniques, the authors make plain the steps with which counselors can externalize problems and draw out student self-knowledge to inform new ways of identifying and behaving. Updated throughout, this new edition offers:

• An exploration of ethically sound accountability practices
• Potential obstacles and suggestions for overcoming them
• Guidance to help students set goals
• Applications of narrative ideas to restorative justice
• An expanded section on group work, specifically focusing on anger management and grief counseling

Grounded in a deep respect for students, this book′s principles and practices will enable students to choose for themselves the new reputations by which they′ll be known.