This section of our website is dedicated to providing information about the flourishing base of research evidence for narrative practice. The collections in this repository represent a wide variety of research interests that will be relevant to students, researchers, practitioners, service providers, policy makers and others.
Each collection includes published works such as journal articles, book chapters, reports and theses.
We hope you find these resources useful, engaging, thought-provoking and inspiring.
For the latest publications and up-to-date information about current research projects, please visit the Narrative Practice Research Network website, including its Research Hub and Researcher Profiles. The Narrative Practice Research Network supports and promotes research about narrative therapy and community work and the use of research methods informed by narrative practice. Its website and email list are great ways to be in touch with other researchers and to share your own work.
The Collections
Evidence for the effectiveness of narrative therapy
There is a significant and ever-increasing amount of evidence for the effectiveness for narrative therapy practices. Not only does this contribute to our practice knowledge and provide some surety for practitioners and clients, but it has also become increasingly important for policy makers, service providers and academic researchers to be able to demonstrate that their ideas and practices draw on research evidence. This collection contains research literature on the effectiveness of narrative therapy, including some evidence-based studies and randomised controlled trials.
Researching narrative therapy – how does it work?
The research evidence for narrative therapy as an effective and helpful practice continues to grow. But what is it about narrative therapy that makes it so effective and useful? How is change facilitated? Understanding key features and details of practices and how they work, assists us in making further developments, continuing to innovate and adapt practice to context, and provide improved training programmes. The works included in this collection explore these pivotal questions.
Discussions about narrative therapy and research
The Dulwich Centre is vitally interested in the development of new methods of research that are congruent with narrative practice principles. A number of practitioners/researchers are engaged with developing research methods that are congruent with narrative approaches and meet conventional research standards (quantitative and qualitative), some of which also rigorously test/ demonstrate/ examine the real effects and outcomes of narrative practices.
Evidence of cultural resonance: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contributions
Over the past two decades, extensive documentation has developed in relation to how narrative approaches have been engaged with by practitioners in diverse cultural contexts in ways that fit with local cultural practices/philosophies/values. This has involved local practitioners taking the key ingredients of narrative approaches and then co-developing their own locally diverse practices that fit for their local context. This evidence of cultural resonance and adaptability and the histories of cross-cultural partnership is valued highly here at Dulwich Centre. Examples of this documentation of cultural resonance within Indigenous Australia are included in this collection.
Get involved
Join the conversation!
We welcome you to join the conversation about narrative therapy research. Head over to our forum!
An invitation to contribute:
This is a living repository that continues to grow in number and diversity of works and contributions. Most works included here have already been published in journals, books, reports and online, but there are also a number of outlines or interim reports about ongoing projects. Additionally, The Dulwich Centre is interested in hearing from you about new and innovative ways of publishing and disseminating research. If you would like to submit or recommend something to be considered for inclusion in the repository, please email us:
- The full reference of a published work, or
- A brief outline/report of your ongoing project
If you are the author it would be great if you could include a copy of the work if possible, detailing the appropriate permission for it to be reproduced it in the repository, or a link if it is already freely available online somewhere else. If the work cannot be reproduced here, we can still list its reference, together with a brief description of the work. If your work is currently unpublished we may ask you for additional details about authorship, permissions etc.
