Citation

Bullen E. Int. J. Narrat. Ther. Community Work 2015; 2015(3): 13-27.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Dulwich Centre Publications)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Debate continues about what constitutes evidence for outcomes of psychological interventions. There are challenges to operationalise research for post-modernist views of knowledge being multiple and relative rather than singular, fixed, and absolute. This has led to limited empirical evaluation of practices such as narrative therapy. This paper describes the therapy process for eighty women and outcomes for twenty-three women who had experienced domestic violence and were engaged in narrative therapy, utilising the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS). PCOMS consists of integrating two outcome rating scales into each counselling session - the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) and the Session Rating Scale (SRS). The design of the research was clinical data mining. This paper briefly discusses difficulties and limitations of the concept of evidence-based practice when applied to narrative therapy. The study identifies and defines several different patterns of therapy outcomes. PCOMS was used to demonstrate that clients who were treated for at least six, one-hour sessions of narrative therapy for complex trauma (domestic violence), showed positive outcomes equivalent to other studies using different treatments.

Language: en