Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET)
NET helps those with multiple or chronic trauma construct a coherent life story. Traumatic experiences are placed in the context of a whole life.
What is Narrative Exposure Therapy?
NET was developed for people with multiple or chronic traumatic experiences, including refugees, survivors of war, torture or repeated violence. You construct a chronological narrative of your entire life, not just traumatic episodes.
Traumatic memories are placed within the broader story of who you are: your family, your joys, your struggles, your survival. This contextualisation reduces the overwhelming power of isolated trauma memories.
How does it work?
The lifeline
You construct a physical lifeline with stones (traumatic events) and flowers (positive events), representing your whole life. This externalises and structures your story.
Testimony
The written narrative becomes a testimony document, your story, authored by you. Many survivors find this reclaiming of their story deeply healing.
What can you expect?
You create a lifeline symbolically representing all major events in your life.
Starting from childhood, you narrate your life story in chronological order.
Traumatic events are described in detail, with emotions, sensations and thoughts.
The therapist writes the narrative with you, session by session.
The completed testimony document is given to you as an account of your life and survival.
Suitable for
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Book an intake session with a provider who specialises in this approach. Together you'll look at what fits best for your situation.
Source: Robjant & Fazel (2010), Clinical Psychology Review · Schauer, Neuner & Elbert (2011)