This article presents an approach to therapy that links narrative and strategic concepts. The term "strategic" is used not in the prescriptive, impositional sense that has come to be associated with the method, but in terms of having a clear therapeutic direction in promoting change. The authors outline an approach to therapy that expands upon the fundamental principles of the MRI (Mental Research Institute) Brief Therapy model, elaborating more upon its constructivist premises than its prescriptive practices. They propose that by mapping how ordinary life events affect a person's preferred view, the therapist can locate the key narrative elements that shape the course of the problem and direct its solution. The authors suggest a framework for how problems evolve and dissolve. When new events are construed as contradicting family members' preferred narrative accounts, problems evolve. Problems dissolve when family members see the event, and the ideas and actions of others, as consonant with their preferred ways of being and acting.

This article describes an assimilative integration process in which a concept from individual therapy, Rogerian unconditional positive regard, was integrated into a theory of family therapy based on the assumptions of the Mental Research Institute school of strategic family therapy. Milton Erickson's utilization principle served as the catalyst for a closer examination of the motivational elements of Rogers' unconditional positive regard. From this emerged Eron and Lund's concept of preferred view, a way of thinking and talking about a valued self from both intrapersonal and interpersonal perspectives. The approach resulting from this assimilative integration, narrative solutions, has the advantage of being nonimpositional while also giving therapists a clear framework for conducting effective conversations with clients.

This article describes refinements of the Narrative Solutions approach to individual and family therapy we first presented in Family Process 22 years ago. The centerpiece of this integrative (narrative-strategic) model is "preferred view of self," or the constellation of qualities people would like to see in themselves and have others see in them. We assume that problems generally involve one or more people mismanaging discrepancies or "gaps" between preferred views of self and either their actual behavior or how they see others seeing them and their behavior. Because clients are motivated to resolve such discrepancies, we use specifiable conversational strategies to help people (a) be clear about their preferred view of self, (b) notice gaps or discrepancies, and (c) summon resources to manage these gaps more effectively. Positive clinical effects of these strategic conversations can be rapid and dramatic. Case examples highlight applications to child and family problems, and we discuss some challenges and future directions for the Narrative Solutions approach.