Online narrative therapy from just $35/session with licensed therapists (PhD, PsyD, LCSW, LMHC, LMFT) trained in this collaborative approach. At Grouport, we offer online individual therapy, online group therapy, couples therapy, family therapy, teen therapy, and virtual IOP options. Narrative therapy is a non-pathologizing, empowering approach that helps you separate yourself from your problems and discover who you really are beneath them.
Most therapy starts with a diagnosis: here is what is wrong with you. Narrative therapy starts differently: "You are not the problem. The problem is the problem." Created by Michael White (Australia) and David Epston (New Zealand) in the 1980s and grounded in social constructionism, narrative therapy helps you externalize the problems in your life, separate them from your identity, and discover the hidden stories of strength and resilience that have always been there but were overshadowed by a problem-saturated narrative. Research supports narrative therapy's positive impact on depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and trauma. A controlled clinical trial found narrative therapy comparable to CBT for moderate depression, with participants showing improvements in symptoms and interpersonal functioning. Schedule a free call to learn if narrative therapy is right for you.
Consistently Recognized as the #1 Online Therapy pick
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At Grouport, we offer multiple ways to access narrative therapy, all led by licensed clinicians. Whether you prefer individual sessions for deep re-authoring work, group therapy where shared witnessing amplifies change, or a more intensive program, our narrative-informed offerings are designed to help you reclaim your story. Many members choose to combine formats for the most comprehensive support.
Our online narrative therapy is designed to help you separate yourself from your problems, discover your hidden strengths, and re-author the story of your life. Here is how to get started.
Whether you're interested in group therapy, individual sessions, couples or family therapy, or IOP, you'll start by selecting the type of support that fits your needs. Complete our onboarding form and sign up directly for the plan that suits you best.
After signing up, you'll connect with a dedicated care coordinator who will walk you through available therapists, group options, and scheduling. You'll make the final choice about your care based on your goals, preferences, and schedule.
Start re-authoring your story. Your therapist will guide you through externalization, uncovering unique outcomes, and collaboratively building the preferred narrative of who you are and who you want to become. Our team will support you every step of the way.
Whether you want individual narrative therapy, group sessions with outsider witness practices, a combination of both, or our IOP program for more intensive care, you will start by selecting the format that fits your needs and schedule. Complete our onboarding form and sign up directly.
After signing up, you will connect with a dedicated care coordinator who will discuss your challenges, goals, and where you are in the change process. They will match you with a therapist trained in narrative approaches and walk you through your options. You will make the final choice about your care, including which therapists you will meet with and session times.
Start re-authoring your story. Your therapist will guide you through narrative therapy's collaborative approach: externalizing the problems in your life, discovering unique outcomes when you have resisted or defied those problems, and building a rich, preferred narrative grounded in your values and strengths. Many people feel a sense of relief and empowerment from the very first conversation. Our team will be here to support you at every step.
Narrative therapy was developed by Michael White and David Epston in the 1980s, grounded in the idea that the stories we tell about our lives shape our identities, our relationships, and our sense of what is possible. When problems take over, they create a "problem-saturated narrative": a story in which you are defined by your struggles ("I am depressed," "I am broken," "I always fail"). Narrative therapy helps you step outside that story and see it for what it is: just one version of events, not the whole truth.
The core technique is externalization: separating the problem from your identity. Instead of "I am anxious," narrative therapy reframes it as "Anxiety is influencing my life." This grammatical shift is not just wordplay. It creates real psychological distance, allowing you to relate to the problem as something external that you can observe, challenge, and resist rather than something that defines who you are. From there, your therapist helps you discover unique outcomes: the overlooked moments when you have already defied or resisted the problem. These become the seeds of a new, preferred narrative that reflects your values, strengths, and the person you want to be.
A controlled clinical trial found narrative therapy comparable to CBT for moderate depression, with improvements in both symptoms and interpersonal functioning. Research also supports narrative therapy's positive impact on anxiety, eating disorders, trauma, and psychosocial wellbeing. A scoping review of narrative-based psychotherapies confirmed their association with reductions in depressive symptoms and improvements in interpersonal relationships.
Narrative therapy does not just reduce symptoms. It transforms your relationship with yourself, your problems, and your sense of what is possible.
When you have been living with depression or anxiety long enough, it starts to feel like who you are. Narrative therapy's externalization practice breaks that fusion. By naming the problem as something separate ("Depression has been whispering that nothing matters"), you regain the ability to observe it, question it, and choose whether to listen. This is not denial. It is liberation.
Problem-saturated stories hide the moments when you resisted, survived, or defied the problem. Narrative therapy helps you find these "unique outcomes" and recognize the values, skills, and knowledge that made them possible. These are not fabricated stories. They are real moments from your own life that reveal strengths the dominant narrative has been hiding from you.
When a problem defines you, your identity narrows. You become "the anxious one," "the one who always fails," "the broken one." Narrative therapy helps you re-author your identity by building a richer, more complex story grounded in your values and lived experience. Research shows this process of identity shift is especially powerful for eating disorders, where separating the person from the disorder is a critical step in recovery.
Narrative therapy's "re-membering" practice helps you maintain meaningful connections to loved ones who have died, rather than pressuring you to "move on" or "let go." By re-authoring the relationship as an ongoing part of your story rather than a closed chapter, grief becomes something you carry with love rather than something that overwhelms you.
Society gives us stories about who we should be based on gender, culture, race, sexuality, and ability. When these stories do not fit, the result is shame, disconnection, and suffering. Narrative therapy explicitly examines how social and cultural narratives have shaped your self-image and helps you challenge the ones that are not serving you. This makes it especially valuable for people from marginalized communities.
When you externalize problems in your relationships ("The Blame Game keeps pulling us apart"), both partners can unite against the problem instead of blaming each other. This shift from "you versus me" to "us versus the problem" creates space for compassion, understanding, and the rediscovery of the values that brought you together.
Narrative therapy sessions feel like a collaborative conversation where you are treated as the expert on your own life.
Your therapist helps you name the problem as something separate from you and explore how it operates in your life. You might call it "The Worry Machine," "Depression," or "The Critic." Together, you map its influences: when it shows up, what it tells you, how it affects your relationships and daily life. This externalization creates immediate relief as you realize: the problem is the problem, you are not the problem.
Your therapist helps you find the moments in your life when you resisted, defied, or escaped the problem's influence, even briefly. These "unique outcomes" are always there, hidden beneath the dominant story. By exploring them, you discover the values, skills, and knowledge you already possess. These become the foundation of a new, preferred narrative about who you are.
Together, you and your therapist build and enrich your preferred narrative: the story of who you really are, what you value, and the life you want to live. This process may include "re-membering" conversations (reconnecting with important people and influences), therapeutic documents (letters, certificates, timelines), and outsider witness practices where others acknowledge and honor your new story. The richer this preferred narrative becomes, the less hold the problem-saturated story has over your life.
See how our therapy options have helped our members experience life-changing results
Stephanie
“Grouport is time flexible and affordable and if it didn’t exist, I don’t know where I would go. I had looked into other places before Grouport and there really wasn’t any option like it.”
Michael
“I highly recommend this to anyone who is struggling with anxiety or depression. The therapists are top notch and have made me feel really comfortable and my anxiety has improved tremendously in only a few sessions!”
Isabel
"I joined Grouport to work on myself and to heal. I’m learning so much at every session! The change I see not only in myself but in my fellow group members is abundantly encouraging and profoundly fulfilling. Group therapy with Grouport is a powerful healing tool."
Sheldon
“I was feeling very down at the end of 2020 and I was ready to do something drastic that I know I'd likely regret. The group definitely helped show me that there are people who feel the same way as I do.”
Nancy
“The therapy from Grouport is high quality and convenient. I am becoming much more self aware and am liking myself more. My relationships at work are better and I’m much happier.”
Emily
“I like the connection you can make with total strangers and the confidentiality it comes with.”
Danielle
"Grouport can help you with your issues. Their therapists are well trained to work with you on your issues. I felt my anxiety greatly improve after only a few sessions. I highly recommend it!"
Glenn
"Grouport's approach to DBT is a real strength. This approach provides tools and methods for working with difficult emotions and getting a handle on them. It has given me hope where other approaches have failed."
Narrative therapy's non-pathologizing approach makes it applicable to a wide range of human difficulties, especially those involving identity, meaning, and the impact of social and cultural forces.
A controlled clinical trial found narrative therapy comparable to CBT for moderate depression, with improvements in symptoms and interpersonal functioning. By externalizing depression and discovering unique outcomes, narrative therapy helps you see that depression is not who you are, it is something influencing your life that you can learn to resist.
Research supports narrative therapy's positive impact on anxiety. By naming and externalizing anxiety ("Worry has been running the show"), you create distance from its demands and discover times when you have successfully defied its influence. This process reduces anxiety's power by changing your relationship to it rather than trying to eliminate it.
Narrative therapy has made significant contributions to the field of eating disorders. Externalization is especially powerful here: separating the person from "Anorexia" or "The Eating Problem" challenges the shame and over-identification that keep disordered eating locked in place. Pioneers like David Epston developed specific narrative practices for eating disorders that depathologize the experience and empower recovery.
Narrative therapy helps trauma survivors reclaim their stories from the grip of traumatic events. Rather than being defined by what happened to you, narrative therapy helps you discover the resilience, resistance, and values that persisted through the trauma. Research with genocide survivors, veterans, and other trauma-affected populations supports narrative approaches for reducing PTSD symptoms and fostering post-traumatic growth.
Narrative therapy's "re-membering" practice offers a powerful alternative to models that pressure you to "move on" from grief. By re-authoring your ongoing relationship with the person you have lost, narrative therapy helps you carry their legacy forward as a source of meaning and strength rather than just pain.
When low self-esteem or identity confusion is rooted in harmful social narratives (about gender, sexuality, culture, race, or ability), narrative therapy is especially effective. It explicitly examines how these external stories have shaped your self-image and helps you construct a preferred identity grounded in your own values rather than society's expectations.
Every Grouport therapist is a licensed, accredited mental health professional with specialized training in evidence-based approaches including narrative therapy, and extensive clinical experience in depression, anxiety, eating disorders, trauma, grief, identity issues, and relationship problems.
Our therapists typically have over a decade of clinical experience across diverse settings, with specialized expertise in narrative therapy, collaborative, and non-pathologizing approaches, as well as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, trauma, and identity issues. Our therapists are trained in narrative therapy and other proven modalities to provide the best fit for your needs.
We continually evaluate outcomes through internal studies and outcomes studies with researchers from leading universities such as Carnegie Mellon, University of Essex, and University of Cologne.
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a healthier future starts right here
80%of our members start with moderate to severe mental health symptoms
70% of our members feel significantly better within just 8 weeks
50% of our members achieve remission levels within just 8 weeks
80%
of our members start with moderate to severe mental health symptoms
70%
of our members feel significantly better within just 8 weeks
50%
of our members achieve remission levels within just 8 weeks
Group, individual, couples, family, IOP, and teen therapy — all online, all therapist-led. Mix and match care options to fit your needs — and get discounted pricing when you bundle.
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Narrative therapy separates you from your problems and helps you re-author the story of your life. Our licensed therapists also treat a wide range of conditions using proven methods.
Narrative therapy is a collaborative, non-pathologizing approach to counseling developed by Michael White and David Epston. It helps you separate yourself from your problems (externalization), discover hidden strengths and moments of resilience (unique outcomes), and re-author the story of your life toward a preferred identity. A controlled clinical trial found narrative therapy comparable to CBT for moderate depression.
Narrative therapy is effective for depression, anxiety, eating disorders, trauma and PTSD, grief and loss, identity and self-worth issues, relationship problems, and difficulties rooted in harmful social or cultural narratives. It is especially valued for its non-pathologizing approach and its attention to social and cultural context.
Yes. Our therapists are licensed mental health professionals (PhD, PsyD, LCSW, LMHC, LMFT) with training in narrative therapy and collaborative approaches for depression, anxiety, eating disorders, trauma, grief, identity issues, and relationship problems.
CBT focuses on identifying and changing negative thought patterns. Narrative therapy focuses on changing the stories you tell about yourself and your life. Rather than treating thoughts as distorted and needing correction, narrative therapy treats your problems as separate from your identity and helps you discover a preferred narrative. CBT works from the inside out (change your thoughts to change your feelings). Narrative therapy works from the outside in (change your relationship to the story to change your experience).
Narrative therapy does not follow a rigid timeline. Some people experience meaningful shifts in just a few sessions as they begin externalizing problems and discovering unique outcomes. At Grouport, 70% of our members feel significantly better within just 8 weeks. Your therapist will work with you to determine the right pace for your goals.
Yes. Narrative therapy's conversational, story-based approach translates naturally to online format. All Grouport sessions are held via secure, HIPAA-compliant video chat.
Group Therapy averages $32/session. Individual Therapy averages $103/session. Couples Therapy averages $114/session. Family Therapy averages $148/session. IOP is $311/week. Teen Therapy averages $103/session. Payment options include Monthly, Quarterly (Save 10%), and Biannually (Save 15%).
Grouport provides online group therapy, individual therapy, couples therapy, family therapy, teen therapy, intensive outpatient program (IOP), and a DBT self-guided program. Many members combine multiple therapy types for comprehensive support.
Our therapy outcomes are backed by outcomes studies with researchers from leading universities such as Carnegie Mellon, University of Essex, and University of Cologne. 80% of our members start therapy with moderate to severe symptoms. Within just 8 weeks, 70% of members see clinically significant reduction in anxiety and depression, and 50% achieve remission levels.
You can cancel anytime, and your membership will remain active until the end of your current billing period. Email support@grouporttherapy.com and we will send you a quick cancellation form to fill out.
Grouport is available worldwide for everyone. All sessions are held virtually over video chat. We offer separate therapy groups for Adults (18+) and Teens and Adolescents (under 18).
Yes. After signing up, a care coordinator will reach out to understand your needs and match you with the right therapist and schedule. You can switch therapists anytime.
Externalization is narrative therapy's core technique. It means separating the problem from your identity. Instead of saying I am depressed, you learn to say Depression is influencing my life. This is not just wordplay. It creates real psychological distance, allowing you to observe the problem, question its influence, and choose how to respond to it. Michael White described it as: the person is not the problem, the problem is the problem.
No. Narrative therapy is a structured therapeutic approach with specific techniques including externalization, mapping the influence of problems, discovering unique outcomes, re-authoring preferred narratives, re-membering conversations, outsider witness practices, and therapeutic documents. While stories are central to the approach, the therapist uses sophisticated questioning and collaborative practices to facilitate genuine therapeutic change.
Narrative therapy has a growing evidence base. A controlled clinical trial found it comparable to CBT for moderate depression. A scoping review confirmed positive impacts on mood, interpersonal relationships, and psychosocial functioning. Research also supports its use for eating disorders, trauma, anxiety, and depression in people with chronic illness. The evidence base continues to expand as more rigorous studies are conducted.
Both approaches are interested in deeper patterns, but they work differently. Psychodynamic therapy looks at unconscious conflicts and how the past shapes the present. Narrative therapy looks at how the stories you tell about yourself shape your identity and experience. Narrative therapy is less interpretive (your therapist does not tell you what your story means) and more collaborative (you are treated as the expert on your own life).
Yes. Narrative therapy's creative, playful approach is especially effective with young people. Techniques like naming the problem, drawing it, writing letters to it, and creating certificates of achievement resonate with children and teens. Research found improvements in social and emotional skills. At Grouport, we offer separate therapy groups for Adults (18+) and Teens and Adolescents (under 18).
Whether you are struggling with depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, the aftermath of trauma, or a deep sense that the story you tell about yourself is not the real you, narrative therapy can help you externalize your problems, reclaim your identity, and re-author the story of your life. With licensed therapists, growing research support, and flexible online formats, Grouport makes it easy to get started. Take the first step toward your preferred story today.
