Why use narrative to study trauma recovery?
The narrative is an essential part of the fabric of social exchange. Narrative constructions are human acts of sharing stories, providing ways to relate together and validate each other. The narrative is the mental activity that consciously organizes the unifying links between the self, relationships, time and morality. Narratives include descriptions of sensations, situations, actors, causes, effects, a moral judgement, and how that meaning relates to the future.
Meaning-focused narratives can protect the trauma survivor from re-traumatization because the emphasis of the narrative is on the causes, effects and future, rather than the specific events. We believe this is critical for safe interviewing. Moreover, the emphasis on meaning provides the participant with information to use in future decisions in their healing process.
Using survivor-driven activities to facilitate the narrative
The purpose of the CENI narrative format is to facilitate a participant to connect aspects of their life together and to examine these connections from a variety of angles. The CENI was developed to help participants articulate the meaning in their lives and to relate that meaning to healing and recovery from a new, more aware vantage point. The CENI’s narrative approach is an engaged process through which unconscious patterns of one’s life are brought into consciousness, and can, therefore, become reorganized and integrated into consciousness.
What is a “psychological journey?”
The psychological journey is the experience of a facilitated narrative ‘unfolding.’ The CENI facilitates a psychological journey that begins with the external, moves to the internal, then moves to the chronological, and next into the experiential. It culminates in meaning making, integration, evaluation, then out toward one’s whole life and ones future.
Components of the CENI
The social network explores the participant’s current situation within their social world (external), and the person explores themself-in-contact. The participant, while drawing their social world, considers relationships, social engagement, perception and use of social resources, as well as the perceptions of negativity and stigma.
The participant to uses a body map to place their current feelings (emotional, physical, social, and spiritual) onto their body (internal). The participant places significant events, illnesses, distresses, and joys upon the body as a way of locating their impact. The body map not only helps the participant shift their focus toward the internal, but also reminds them to take the body seriously.
The participant draws a historical overview of her highs and lows in a lifeline, linking the past and following situations, stressors, responses, and actions (chronological). The lifeline facilitates “creating order” in the narrative, gathering themself across time. The lifeline is not intended to be an “accurate” or “complete” representation of life events, but shows what stands out for the participant at the time of the drawing.
It is our understanding that the process of self-awareness begins with the general, but that it is within the particular that people derive meaning. The card sort helps the participant describe and put into words the feelings they had during a selected low point on the life line. Using their experiential map of feelings, they examine the cause, consequence, and meaning. The interviewer does not ask about the circumstances that created the distress. Importantly, the interviewer helps the participant “make meaning” about these events by examining their beliefs during them, the meanings they held at the time, how that meaning affected their actions at that point.
The final step in the CENI process is the integration of all the parts of the story together. While analyzing a focused event, the participant is engaged in ‘putting all of the pieces together’ to make sense of the gestalt of the narrative and interpret causes, meanings, consequences and the future. The interview concludes by helping the participant bring these meanings ‘back out into life,’ connecting them onto the lifeline, the body map and the social network.
Learn more
Please contact Dr Saint Arnault using our contact us form to ask questions and request consultation or training. The CENI is a licensed interview, but the license is currently free for research purposes. We are also carrying our studies to learn about the benefits as a clinical intake too. You can find out details about the license here. Virtual training is possible, however on-site training provides an invaluable experiences. Full training in the use of the CENI takes about 3 days, and training can accommodate about 20 people. Also, watch for announcements for regional training events.