Resistance
Resistance
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Short definition
Resistance refers to the countless ways people respond to, oppose or refuse the influence of problems, oppression and dominant narratives. In Narrative Therapy, resistance is understood as evidence of agency, values and preferred identity rather than simply resilience or coping.
Expanded definition
Resistance is one of the most important yet often overlooked concepts in Narrative Therapy. Michael White argued that people are never passive recipients of problems. Even when difficulties appear overwhelming, people continue responding in ways that protect what matters to them.
These responses may be obvious or almost invisible. They can involve actions, thoughts, emotions, relationships or decisions that prevent the problem from completely determining a person's life.
Examples include:
- speaking despite fear
- attending school despite anxiety
- protecting a sibling despite feeling overwhelmed
- asking for help despite shame
- maintaining hope during depression
- refusing violence or abuse
- preserving dignity in the face of discrimination
From a Narrative perspective, these are not simply coping strategies.
They are acts of resistance.
Resistance demonstrates that people continue acting according to their values even when problems attempt to organise their lives differently.
Narrative therapists therefore become highly attentive to moments of resistance because they reveal preferred identities that have not been erased by the problem.
Rather than asking:
"Why didn't the problem completely take over?"
therapy becomes curious about:
"What enabled you to resist?"
"What does this tell us about what matters to you?"
"What kind of person was present in that moment?"
These conversations transform resistance from an unnoticed survival strategy into a foundation for re-authoring preferred stories.
Why this concept matters
People frequently arrive in therapy believing that the problem has completely defeated them.
Narrative Therapy assumes this is never entirely true.
Even in situations of significant distress, there are almost always examples of resistance.
Recognising these responses helps people reconnect with:
- agency
- hope
- dignity
- courage
- preferred values
- preferred identities
Resistance therefore provides one of the strongest bridges between Externalising and Preferred Stories.
Rather than focusing exclusively on suffering, Narrative Therapy also asks how people have responded to suffering.
Non-clinical example
A university student repeatedly describes herself as "giving up easily."
During conversation she remembers continuing to attend lectures despite believing she would fail.
Initially she dismisses this as insignificant.
Further exploration reveals that she continued because education remained deeply important to her.
What first appeared to be an ordinary decision becomes recognised as an act of perseverance and resistance against self-doubt.
Clinical example
A young woman referred following years of emotional abuse describes herself as "weak."
As therapy develops she recalls secretly maintaining contact with supportive friends, protecting younger siblings during arguments and continuing to imagine a different future.
Although these actions felt small at the time, they demonstrate repeated resistance against the effects of abuse.
Together these experiences become central to a preferred story organised around courage, loyalty and hope rather than weakness.
Core insight
People are never defined solely by what has happened to them.
They are also defined by how they have responded.
Resistance reveals that preferred identities continue to exist even under the greatest pressure.
Questions before a session
- Where might resistance already be occurring?
- Which responses have been overlooked?
- Which values appear protected through these responses?
- How might the conversation strengthen agency?
- Which preferred identities may emerge?
Questions during a session
- How did you stop the problem from taking over completely?
- What kept you going?
- What were you protecting?
- What mattered enough for you to continue?
- What does this response tell you about yourself?
- Have there been other occasions when you responded similarly?
- Who else has recognised this quality in you?
- How does this fit with the person you prefer to be?
Questions after a session
- Which acts of resistance became visible?
- Which values emerged most clearly?
- How did resistance contribute to preferred identity?
- Which experiences deserve further exploration?
- How can these stories continue developing?
Related epistemologies
Related schools and models
Related concepts
- Externalising
- Unique outcomes
- Preferred story
- Problem-saturated story
- Absent but implicit
- Narrative identity
Related methods
Related techniques
Related pathways
Key theorists / contributors
Key texts / references
- White, M. (2007). Maps of Narrative Practice. New York: W. W. Norton.
- White, M. (2000). Reflections on Narrative Practice.
- White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. New York: W. W. Norton.
- Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge. New York: Pantheon Books.
Notes
Resistance occupies a central position within Narrative Therapy because it reframes people from passive recipients of problems to active responders. Every act of resistance—however small—provides evidence of values, intentions and preferred identities that problems have been unable to erase. Recognising and richly describing these acts allows therapists to connect them into preferred stories through re-authoring conversations. Resistance is therefore not simply an outcome of therapy; it is often the very starting point from which therapeutic change begins.
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