The rising popularity of narrative techniques in psychotherapy (Advi & Georgaca, 2007; Foa, Molnar, & Cashman, 1995; Neimeyer, 2006) calls for careful research investigations of the efficacious properties and outcomes of narrative work. Narrative theory suggests that clients benefit from focusing attention on the construction of their life stories, and the sense they create from their life experiences (White & Epston, 1990). Narrative theory has been applied in the treatment of trauma, as it has been found that clients’ explication of trauma narratives can aid in emotional processing of their intense emotional experiences, which can facilitate progress toward a sense of acceptance or resolution of the trauma (Elliott, Watson, Goldman, & Greenberg, 2004). The present study investigated a specific narrative intervention for trauma: the Process-Experiential (PE) Narrative Retelling Task (NTR), using a multi-stage, mixed-methods, task analytic research design.
This study identified the PE NTR task components (client actions and therapist facilitating responses) that distinguish high-resolving task performances from low-resolving task performances. This analysis was conducted via the application of the second stage of task analysis: mixed-method categorical, qualitative, and quantitative process analysis. In this investigation, 35 Narrative Trauma Retelling (NTR) task events were analyzed: 16 high-resolving cases and 19 low-resolving cases. Task samples were drawn from archives of two process-experiential psychotherapy research data sets. Thirteen task components were found to distinguish high and low task resolvers. These results offer valuable information about the mechanisms of psychotherapeutic change in narrative trauma retelling task work, and provide information for therapists to use in optimal task facilitation. Study results, including key task components, are consistent with PE theory, which asserts that treatment for trauma requires the presence of a caring other, trauma reprocessing, re-establishment of the world as partially trustworthy, and self re-empowerment (Elliott, et al., 2004). The current investigation demonstrates the way in which the task analytic procedure can be used to hone task models and to use research to inform theory and practice.