Abstract
Despite the growing popularity of narrative approaches to couple and family therapy and the demonstrated effectiveness of enactments—a clinical process typically articulated and utilized in more modern or positivistic approaches to therapy—there is very little, if any, literature exploring how enactments may fit within a narrative therapeutic framework. In this paper we suggest: That narrative therapy theoretical assumptions, principles, and therapeutic processes may coexist within an enactment framework articulated by Butler and Gardner; that such assumptions and processes may be enhanced when clinicians use an enactment “scaffolding” throughout the therapeutic process; and that this enactment framework “empirically informs” the narrative therapy process and strengthens the stance of narrative therapy under the scrutiny of those claiming a need for an evidence basis in psychotherapy.
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Brimhall, A.S., Gardner, B.C. & Henline, B.H. Enhancing Narrative Couple Therapy Process with an Enactment Scaffolding. Contemporary Family Therapy 25, 391–414 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1027308719029
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1027308719029