Narrative Therapy in Newport Beach: Why I Love this Approach
Narrative therapy is rad.
As a therapist in Newport Beach, I was introduced to a lot of therapeutic theories during graduate school — CBT, psychodynamic therapy, family systems, attachment theory… and more. They were all interesting, and I took little gems of wisdom from each of them.
But when I started seeing clients at a site specializing in narrative therapy, something shifted. It felt like the oceans parted. Like I had come home to the kind of therapy I didn’t even know I’d been searching for.
You know that moment when something just clicks? When the philosophy and values match how you already experience the world? That’s what narrative therapy did for me. It made sense — and I’ve seen firsthand the power it has to create meaningful change in people’s lives.
Clients often tell me, “This feels different than other talk therapy,” or “I’m having insights I’ve never had before.” That isn’t about me being an amazing therapist. It’s about the power of narrative therapy to slow things down, create space for curiosity, and help people reconnect with their own wisdom.
Let me tell you why this approach matters so much to me — and why it might resonate with you, too.
What Makes Narrative Therapy Different From Traditional Talk Therapy?
What makes narrative therapy different from traditional talk therapy is that it focuses on meaning, strengths, and personal agency — not just what went wrong. While early experiences matter, narrative therapy takes a wider, more compassionate lens that centers you as the expert on your own life.
In narrative therapy, you decide what we talk about and when. If revisiting childhood trauma doesn’t feel right, we don’t force it. The work moves at your pace and honors your boundaries.
Rather than asking only, “What happened to you?” narrative therapy also asks:
“How did you survive?”
“What strengths did you develop?”
“What parts of you helped you adapt?”
These questions help shift the focus from pathology to resilience.
For clients in Newport Beach navigating life transitions, relationship challenges, or identity questions, this approach can feel deeply validating. You are not reduced to a diagnosis or a problem to be fixed. You are seen as a whole person with history, agency, and capacity for change.
Narrative therapy invites you to re-author your story — moving from “I’m broken because of my past” toward “Look what I lived through, and look how I learned to cope.” When your patterns and reactions begin to make sense, awareness grows — and with awareness comes choice.
When Old Survival Stories No Longer Serve You
The ways we learned to cope and survive in childhood don’t just live inside us — they often show up in our relationships. What once kept us safe can later appear as conflict patterns, emotional distance, people-pleasing, or shutdown.
In narrative therapy, we don’t blame these patterns or label them as flaws. Instead, we get curious about how they developed and how they’re shaping your relationships today.
This relational lens is especially powerful for couples and individuals who want to understand not just what is happening between them, but why — and how they might begin relating differently.
Narrative Therapy Puts You in the Expert Seat
One of the core beliefs of narrative therapy is that you are the expert on your own life.
As a narrative therapist in Newport Beach, my role isn’t to hand out advice or tell you what to do. My job is to be curious, ask thoughtful questions, and help you hear yourself more clearly.
Many clients come in thinking they need solutions. What they often discover is that they already have a deep inner knowing — they just haven’t had the space to slow down and listen to it.
Narrative therapy creates that space. A place where you can say the thing out loud, reflect on it, and realize, “Oh. I actually know what matters to me.”
Deconstructing the “Shoulds” That Keep You Stuck
Narrative therapy is especially powerful at calling out the invisible rules we’ve absorbed over time.
You know the ones:
“I should be further along by now….”
“I should be grateful, this is not a real problem…”
“I should be doing more for/to....”
In sessions, we gently question where those messages came from and whether they actually belong to you. Many clients realize they’ve been living according to someone else’s definition of success — not their own.
This kind of deconstruction can be life-changing for individuals and couples navigating comparison, pressure, or burnout.
Creating Space for New Possibilities
When people feel stuck, their stories often become very black-and-white. Narrative therapy introduces nuance.
By separating you from the problem and expanding the story around it, new options emerge. Suddenly there’s breathing room. Choice. Movement.
This can be especially helpful for people seeking individual or relational therapy in Newport Beach who feel like they’ve tried everything and nothing has worked.
A Relational Approach to Healing
Even in individual therapy, narrative work is deeply relational. We exist in connection — to partners, families, culture, and community.
Rather than offering quick fixes, narrative therapy explores how you want to show up in your relationships and what kind of connection feels most aligned for you.
It’s thoughtful. It’s respectful. And it honors the complexity of real life.
What’s Your Story?
Narrative therapy isn’t about fixing you. It’s about getting curious about the stories you’ve been carrying — and deciding which ones still serve you.
If you’re looking for narrative therapy in Newport Beach and this way of working resonates, I’d love to sit with you. Therapy can be a place to reflect, make meaning, and reconnect with parts of yourself that may have gone quiet.
You don’t need to be in crisis. Just curious.
Schedule a free consultation with Therapy by Jen and let’s get started!
Hi, I’m Jen!
Would you like to work together? Contact me to set up a free phone consultation.
