How Is EMDR Different From Narrative Therapy?

How Is EMDR Different From Narrative Therapy?

Short Answer: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Narrative Therapy can both help people change how difficult experiences affect them, but they use very different methods. Narrative Therapy focuses mainly on the stories people tell about their lives, identities, relationships, and problems. It often helps people separate themselves from a problem and develop alternative ways of understanding their experiences. EMDR usually works more directly with a specific memory, belief, emotion, body sensation, or trigger while using bilateral stimulation such as eye movements, alternating sounds, or tapping.

Key Takeaways

• Narrative Therapy focuses on the stories people use to understand themselves and their experiences.
• EMDR usually works with a specific memory, trigger, belief, emotion, or body sensation.
• Narrative Therapy often uses conversation, questions, externalizing, and re-authoring.
• EMDR commonly uses bilateral stimulation during reprocessing.
• EMDR does not require a detailed verbal retelling of an experience.
• Narrative Therapy usually involves more conversation about meaning, identity, values, and personal history.
• The two approaches can overlap in helping someone develop a different relationship with a difficult experience, but they use different procedures.

What Is Narrative Therapy?

Narrative Therapy is a counselling approach developed primarily through the work of Michael White and David Epston.

It is based on the idea that people make sense of their lives through stories.

These stories can shape how someone understands:

• Who they are
• What a problem means
• What caused it
• What it says about them
• What choices they believe are available
• What they expect for the future

Narrative Therapy aims to help people examine these stories and make room for alternative accounts of their lives that may better reflect their abilities, values, relationships, hopes, and experiences.

What Does “The Person Is Not the Problem” Mean?

One of the best-known ideas in Narrative Therapy is externalizing.

Instead of treating the person and the problem as the same thing, Narrative Therapy separates them.

For example, instead of saying:

“I am an anxious person.”

the conversation might explore:

“How has anxiety been influencing your life?”

The distinction may seem small, but it can change how someone understands their relationship with the problem.

The Dulwich Centre summarizes this idea as viewing the problem as separate from the person rather than defining the person's identity by it.

What Does EMDR Do Differently?

EMDR usually begins with a specific target rather than with a broad exploration of someone's life story.

A target might include:

• A distressing memory
• An image
• A negative belief
• An emotion
• A body sensation
• A present trigger
• An anticipated future situation

During reprocessing, the person connects with some of that material while bilateral stimulation is used.

Bilateral stimulation may involve:

• Side-to-side eye movements
• Alternating sounds
• Alternating tapping or tactile stimulation

The person then pauses between sets and notices what thoughts, emotions, memories, images, beliefs, or body sensations are present now.

What Is the Biggest Difference?

A simple way to understand the difference is:

Narrative Therapy primarily works through conversation about meaning and story.

EMDR primarily works through structured reprocessing of specific target material.

Narrative Therapy may ask:

• How has this problem shaped the story you tell about yourself?
• When has the problem had less influence?
• What does that say about your values or abilities?
• What alternative story better fits your life?

EMDR may ask you to identify:

• The worst part of a memory
• What you believe about yourself when you think about it
• What emotion you feel
• Where you feel it in your body

and then begin bilateral stimulation.

Both approaches may eventually change how someone understands an experience, but the path is different.

What Is Re-Authoring in Narrative Therapy?

Narrative Therapy often uses re-authoring conversations.

These conversations explore experiences that may not fit the problem-dominated story someone has been telling about themselves.

For example, a person may have come to believe:

“I always fail when things become difficult.”

A narrative conversation might explore times when they:

• Persisted despite difficulty
• Asked for help
• Protected someone else
• Made an important decision
• Acted according to their values

These experiences may support a richer story about who the person is.

Narrative Therapy does not simply replace a negative story with a positive one. It explores evidence from the person's actual life and helps give more attention to stories that may have been overlooked.

Does EMDR Also Change the Story Someone Tells About What Happened?

It can, but that is not usually the main technique.

Suppose someone begins EMDR with the belief:

“It was all my fault.”

That belief may be connected to a particular memory, emotion, and body sensation.

As processing continues, other memories or perspectives may emerge.

The person may eventually experience the event differently and feel that a belief such as:

“I did the best I could.”

fits better.

So the meaning of the experience can change during EMDR.

The difference is that this change generally emerges through memory reprocessing rather than through an extended conversation about how the person's life story is constructed.

Does Narrative Therapy Use Bilateral Stimulation?

No.

Bilateral stimulation is characteristic of EMDR, not standard Narrative Therapy.

EMDR may use:

• Eye movements
• Alternating tones
• Alternating taps

while the person remains connected to the target memory and related material.

Narrative Therapy does not require this kind of sensory task.

Its primary tools are conversation, questions, reflection, and sometimes written therapeutic documents or letters.

Does Narrative Therapy Require Telling the Whole Story?

Not necessarily.

The word narrative can make it sound as though someone must give a long, detailed account of everything that happened.

That is not the main idea.

Narrative Therapy is more interested in how experiences have been interpreted and linked together into stories about identity and life.

The therapist may ask questions about particular events, relationships, values, exceptions, and meanings rather than simply asking someone to retell their entire history from beginning to end.

Does EMDR Require Telling the Whole Story?

No.

EMDR generally does not require a detailed verbal account of a distressing experience.

The person may identify the target relatively briefly and then work with it internally during bilateral stimulation.

EMDR sources specifically note that detailed verbal retelling is not required.

This is one of the practical differences between EMDR and approaches that depend more heavily on therapeutic conversation.

Which Approach Involves More Talking?

Narrative Therapy generally does.

Conversation is central to the process.

A Narrative Therapy session may spend substantial time exploring:

• How the problem affects the person's life
• What the person values
• How they understand themselves
• Exceptions to the problem story
• Relationships that support a preferred identity
• Alternative interpretations of past experiences

EMDR also includes conversation during preparation, assessment, and check-ins.

But active reprocessing may involve relatively little talking.

Between sets, the person may simply report briefly what came up before continuing.

Does Narrative Therapy Work With Identity More Directly?

Usually, yes.

Narrative Therapy pays particular attention to identity and the stories that shape how someone sees themselves.

For example, a problem may lead someone to conclude:

• “I am weak.”
• “I always ruin relationships.”
• “I cannot handle anything.”
• “I have always been a failure.”

Narrative work may explore where those conclusions came from, how the problem has influenced them, and what other experiences tell a different story.

The person is treated as the expert on their own life rather than as the problem that needs to be corrected.

Does EMDR Work With Identity and Beliefs Too?

Yes.

EMDR specifically identifies a negative belief connected with a target memory.

Examples might include:

• “I am powerless.”
• “I am not good enough.”
• “I cannot trust myself.”

A preferred belief is also identified.

As processing develops, the negative belief may feel less true while the preferred belief becomes more believable.

So EMDR can influence how someone sees themselves.

The distinction is that EMDR works with beliefs as part of the target memory network rather than making identity stories the primary focus of therapy.

Does Narrative Therapy Focus on the Past?

It can, but not exclusively.

Narrative Therapy may explore past events because they contribute to the stories someone carries about themselves.

It may also explore:

• Present relationships
• Cultural influences
• Social expectations
• Values
• Current choices
• Hopes and plans for the future

Narrative approaches are interested in the broader context surrounding people's lives, not only their internal symptoms.

Does EMDR Focus on the Past?

Past experiences are often important in EMDR, but EMDR is not limited to the past either.

Standard EMDR treatment can address:

• Past experiences
• Present triggers
• Future situations

For example, someone may process a past event, then work with situations that trigger distress today, and later imagine handling a future situation differently.

This past-present-future structure is part of the standard EMDR framework.

Do Both Approaches Work With Trauma?

Yes.

EMDR has a particularly strong evidence base for PTSD and is recommended in major clinical practice guidelines.

Narrative Therapy also includes approaches for responding to trauma and traumatic memory, but Narrative Therapy is a broader counselling framework rather than a treatment developed specifically around PTSD.

So the research bases should not be treated as equivalent.

EMDR has been studied much more extensively as a specific treatment for PTSD.

Is Narrative Therapy a Trauma-Processing Treatment Like EMDR?

Not in the same sense.

Narrative Therapy can address trauma, but it does not use EMDR's structured target-processing procedure.

It does not normally involve:

• Target assessment in the EMDR format
• Sets of bilateral stimulation
• Installation of a preferred belief
• An EMDR body scan

Instead, Narrative Therapy may explore how trauma has influenced someone's identity, relationships, and life story and help the person develop richer accounts of survival, values, abilities, and preferred ways of living.

Does Narrative Therapy Use Writing?

Sometimes.

Narrative practitioners may use:

• Therapeutic letters
• Documents
• Certificates
• Written summaries
• Other forms of documentation

These can help reinforce preferred stories, recognize achievements, or preserve important developments from therapy.

Writing is not required in every Narrative Therapy session.

EMDR does not generally rely on therapeutic letters or narrative documents as a central part of its standard protocol.

Do Both Approaches Try to Change Negative Thoughts?

They can both change how someone thinks, but neither can be reduced to simply “thinking more positively.”

Narrative Therapy explores how certain stories came to dominate and looks for other experiences and meanings that support a broader understanding of the person's life.

EMDR works with negative beliefs as one part of a memory network and allows beliefs to shift as the memory is reprocessed.

The result may look similar—a less limiting belief about the self—but the procedures are different.

Which Approach Is More Structured?

EMDR generally has a more standardized treatment structure.

It uses an eight-phase framework with specific procedures for assessment and reprocessing.

Narrative Therapy has well-developed principles and maps of practice, including externalizing and re-authoring conversations, but it tends to be more conversational and responsive to the direction the person wishes to take.

So both have frameworks, but EMDR is generally more protocol-driven.

Is One Approach Better Than the Other?

There is no useful universal answer because they are not designed in exactly the same way or for exactly the same purposes.

EMDR has particularly strong research support for PTSD.

Narrative Therapy may appeal to someone who wants to explore identity, meaning, relationships, values, and the influence of problems through conversation.

Someone may also work with both approaches at different times or within broader therapy.

The important point is not to treat them as interchangeable simply because both can help someone develop a different relationship with difficult experiences.

Can EMDR and Narrative Therapy Be Combined?

Yes.

The approaches are different enough that elements of both can be used within broader therapeutic work.

For example, narrative conversations might help someone explore what a problem has led them to believe about themselves.

EMDR might then be used to work with a particular memory connected to that belief.

Or EMDR processing may produce a new perspective that later becomes part of a richer narrative conversation about identity and meaning.

EMDR itself is considered an integrative therapy and can be used alongside other therapeutic approaches.

What About Self-Guided EMDR?

The same distinction applies when EMDR is adapted into a structured self-guided format.

With Virtual EMDR, the user works independently through an online EMDR process and manages pacing, pauses, and available bilateral stimulation settings.

That is different from Narrative Therapy.

Virtual EMDR remains organized around focused target processing and bilateral stimulation rather than a therapeutic conversation built around externalizing problems and re-authoring life stories.

Conclusion

EMDR and Narrative Therapy can both help change how difficult experiences affect a person's life, but they work in different ways.

Narrative Therapy focuses on stories, meaning, identity, and the relationship between the person and the problem. It commonly uses externalizing and re-authoring conversations to help people develop richer and less problem-dominated accounts of their lives.

EMDR focuses more directly on specific memories or other targets and the thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and body sensations connected with them, using a structured process that commonly includes bilateral stimulation.

The simplest distinction is:

Narrative Therapy changes the conversation around the stories shaping a person's life; EMDR uses structured reprocessing to change how specific experiences and their associated reactions are carried.