The treatment effect of initial session unique outcome mindfulness in narrative therapy: An exploratory study

This exploratory study examined the newer postmodern brief therapeutic intervention Narrative Therapy. Partly due to its postmodern roots that in the past have dismissed modernist research practices, there is little research on this type of therapy. As this intervention is growing in popularity in employee assistance programs, an examination of it and those components of it that promote change are of interest to third parties who provide funding. The initial session unique outcome component of Narrative Therapy was examined in this study. Using the Brief Symptom Inventory, this study quantitatively assessed the symptoms that employee assistance program clients were experiencing previous to their first and second therapy session. It looked at the differential treatment effect seen when encouraged mindfulness of this component was given in the initial session compared to when this component was not encouraged. It found that there was no significant difference when the initial session unique outcome mindfulness was encouraged compared to when it was not encouraged. It also found that in 11 out of the 12 scales on the Brief Symptom Inventory there was a reduction in symptoms when Narrative Therapy was applied.