Multi-Story Listening: Using Narrative Practices at Walk-in Clinics

Abstract

This article begins with a short story of the unique service delivery environment in Ontario, which includes an unprecedented number of walk-in therapy clinics, and how this came to be. Some of the pivotal events along this journey are described, which included a policy-ready paper that helped to shape change in services, a multi-agency evaluation project of several walk-in therapy clinics, and a successful appeal resulting in the recognition of single-session therapy as psychotherapy. The history of connection between walk-in therapy and narrative therapy is introduced with a focus on what it is about narrative practices that are such a useful fit with these single sessions. A particularly important aspect of narrative therapy that the author calls multi-story listening is explored in detail with a clinical example.