Narrative without
spoken narrative.
Can I re-author my story if I don’t tell it in words?
How narrative practice can work with people who use AAC, have memory or language differences, a learning disability, or who simply don’t tell their lives as a spoken, linear story.
What this is: a guide to adapting narrative practice beyond spoken storytelling.
Why it matters: re-authoring usually assumes memory, verbal fluency and stamina that not everyone has.
The sharpest reframe: a story doesn’t have to be told in sentences to be a story.
One thing to take away: keep the aim, change the medium.
The short version
Re-authoring conversations usually link events across time and connect them to what a person values, mostly in spoken words. That assumes autobiographical memory, verbal fluency and the energy for long conversations. Many people have rich identities and values but tell their lives differently: through AAC, pictures, objects, music, short episodes, or with help from someone who knows them. The aim of narrative work, a fuller account of what matters to a person, can stay the same while the medium changes.
You might recognise this
Illustrative statementsDrawn together from common experiences. They are not quotes from individual people.
What re-authoring assumes
Our framework- That events can be recalled and placed in order.
- That speech, or fast typing, is available and not exhausting.
- That abstract questions about identity (“what does this say about what you value?”) can be answered in the moment.
- That a coherent, linear story is the goal.
None of these is necessary for someone to have a sense of who they are, or to benefit from narrative ideas.
Other ways of telling
Practice- Pictures and photos: a photo of a favourite place can open a conversation about what matters.
- Objects: a mug, a medal, a scarf. Ask what it means, who gave it, what it says about the person.
- Timelines and maps: visual, with pictures or symbols, filled in over several sessions.
- Short episodes: one moment at a time, rather than a whole life story.
- AAC: prepare questions in advance; offer choices; allow plenty of time; accept short answers as full answers.
- Music, art, movement or video, if the person prefers them.
- Collective approaches such as the Tree of Life, which uses a drawn tree to explore roots, skills, hopes and the people who matter.
Eamon is 38, has a learning disability, and lives in supported accommodation. Long conversations tire him. His therapist brings a stack of photos he has chosen: his football team, his late grandmother, the café where he volunteers. Over several sessions they make a poster. Eamon picks the words to go on it: “good friend”, “hard worker”, “Gran’s favourite”. He shows it to his keyworker with pride.
Eamon is a fictional teaching example, not a real person.
Co-telling with supporters
A family member, assistant or advocate can help tell a person’s story. This can be valuable and also risky: the supporter’s version can take over. Useful safeguards:
- Ask the person whether they want a supporter involved, and who.
- Check each part of the story with the person: “Is that right?”
- Make clear the person can correct, add to or disagree with the supporter.
- Notice whose words end up in any document.
Supporting disagreement, not only confirmation
“Is that right?” invites a yes. People using AAC, or who find disagreeing hard, need easy ways to reject, choose, amend or come back to something. For example:
- Offer options, including “none of these” and “something else”.
- Prepare cards or symbols for “not quite”, “wrong”, “later” and “stop”.
- Read back what has been written, and ask which part to change, not whether it’s right.
- Return to it next session, so changing one’s mind is easy.
I’ve written: “Eamon is a hard worker.” Here are three cards: keep it, change it, or take it out.
(points to “change it”, then types) Good friend first.
In practice
- Keep sessions shorter if that helps, and spread work over time.
- Write down what the person says, in their words, so the story builds even if memory doesn’t hold it.
- Accept non-linear stories. Order matters less than meaning.
- Use accessible documents. See Outsider Witnesses and Accessible Documents.
What needs attention here?
The person tires quickly with talk
Possible focus: pictures, objects, short episodes and written records
What to avoid: reading tiredness as disengagement
A supporter does most of the telling
Possible focus: checking with the person and making room for their corrections
What to avoid: letting the supporter’s version become the story
Memory for events is limited
Possible focus: feelings, values and relationships rather than sequence
What to avoid: treating a non-linear story as “thin”
Possible starting points, agreed with the person, not rules.
How you’d know it helped
- The person recognises themselves in what has been made.
- They choose to share it, or keep it, on their terms.
- Their own words, signs or choices are visible in it.
Words you can use
For clientsQuestions worth carrying, as a therapist
Therapist Reflection- Am I relying on spoken, linear storytelling?
- Have I adapted the medium, or just asked the same questions slower?
- Whose words end up in the record: the client’s or the supporter’s?
Evidence & sources
Sources checked in October 2026, using targeted searches rather than a systematic review. “We have not located” means our searches did not find it.
Re-authoring conversations: White, M., Maps of Narrative Practice (Norton, 2007).
The Tree of Life, a collective narrative approach using a drawn tree: Ncube, N. (2006), International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. The Tree of Life (Dulwich Centre)
The Dulwich Centre has published practice writing on narrative therapy with people who have both an intellectual disability and mental health difficulties: Gibson, J., Clark, J. & Thomas, S., Narrative Therapy and Dual Disability. Narrative Therapy and Dual Disability (Dulwich Centre)
The list of assumptions, other ways of telling and safeguards for co-telling are this site’s synthesis.
Eamon is constructed for learning. He is not a real person.
We have not located research evaluating narrative therapy with people who use AAC, or comparing adaptations for people with memory differences.
How to cite this page: Donaghey, C. (2026). Narrative Without Spoken Narrative. Disability in Psychotherapy. Available at: https://disabilityinpsychotherapy.online/what-is-psychotherapy/narrative-therapy/narrative-without-spoken-narrative/ (Accessed: [date]).
Shared under CC BY-NC 4.0: you can share, adapt and teach from this page, including on fee-paying courses, with credit. See Reusing This Material.