OPENER
When multiple different kinds of traumas are part of our past, it can make trauma the center of our lives. In Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), you tell your story, from memories in your past to present moments, including both the negative and the positive, to create a timeline of events. The traumas are placed within the context of your entire life. In this way, you make meaning of them by placing the traumas alongside a timeline of all your memories, positive and negative.
TECHNIQUE
By mapping out your timeline and talking through your different traumas, you and the therapist slowly put together all the details you may have difficulties remembering. By putting together all the pieces of your story, you gain some distance from the trauma, and they become less triggering.
In each session you go through your timeline with the therapist. You are encouraged to explore, describe, and control your responses to the traumatic parts in different ways. As a result, what was once a triggering event can now be experienced as a past memory. A memory that is in the past and part of your life story, but not the center of it.
NET allows you to reflect on your whole story. This helps to reclaim your life and put you in the present moment. NET is especially good to work through guilt and shame associated with traumatic experiences.
NET takes as long as needed to create your timeline. You meet once or twice a week with a therapist. The sessions are 60-90 minutes long.
NET is a shorter-term therapy, with no homework and can also be done in groups. At the end of the therapy, you will be given your timeline for reference.