why queer informed narrative therapy?

My practice, as well as my trainings, consultation, and supervision, are all products of many conversations and experiences shared across a number of practitioners of Narrative Therapy, both in the Sacramento area and far beyond. I more specifically work primarily from a perspective and philosophy situated in Queer Informed Narrative Therapy.

My name is Finley Terhune (they/them), and I am a white, non-binary therapist heavily invested in the support of queer and trans individuals in therapy, as well as in providing greater access for those otherwise often unable to receive mental health services. I facilitated a "think tank" of queer and trans therapists (and a few allies) for approximately a year and a half. The main question of focus was this: "What does it mean to claim the term Queer Informed Narrative Therapy?" What were the pitfalls that "radical" therapies prior had run into in the process of becoming "valid" or "evidence based"?

One glaring answer, of course, was this: the people and groups most impacted, those that pioneered the work, often end up excluded from it, and these things only become "legitimized" after being taken up by dominant groups: often cisgender, white, heterosexual men.

In Narrative Therapy one thing we are always looking for are the stories that counter those of the Problem(s) influencing us, to identify and honor these moments of unique outcomes - times when the stories that the Problem(s) tell us are shown to be but one of the ways a person might experience their life, their self, or their relationship to said Problem(s).

My practice represents a vision not only of building up the experiencing of unique outcomes by individuals currently experiencing mental health struggles, but a vision of the most effective way to create change in the way therapists approach our work across the board. It is also very important to me that I recognize and openly acknowledge that I am also a white person who is read primarily as male in the wider American culture. Queer Informed Narrative Therapy hopes to provide an adaptive viewpoint from which to maintain the conscious attention to the social and cultural violence that many folks routinely experience, and the knowledge that there is always influence from outside factors.

You are not the Problem.
The Problem is the Problem, and it exerts power within the relationship you have to one another.

Relationships can always change.