Narrative Trauma Work –
What ist NAT?

What is Narrative Trauma Work – NAT?

Narrative Trauma Work - NAT was developed to identify and support individuals affected by trauma and social stressors through an effective screening and counselling approach early on - before psychological and physical illnesses can manifest.

This target group of highly burdened individuals remains largely unrecognized within our conservative healthcare systems globally. Consequently, not only do individuals fall ill, but cycles of transgenerational violence and suffering are maintained and perpetuated into future generations. 

NAT originates both scientifically and clinically in the groundbreaking principles of Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET).

The aim of NAT is to reduce, stone-by-stone, the individual building block that has formed through experiences of violence, abuse, neglect, severe stress, and social pain – often beginning in childhood and continuing throughout life – through the process of narrative biography work.

The outcome of successful NAT work is prevention of psychological ill-health and strengthening of effective self-efficacy.

NAT sessions: Four steps

Within a safe, effective and short-term four-step process, guided by an easy-to-understand traffic light system, affected individuals are identified and significantly supported within just a few NAT sessions:

• Health and Safety Screening:
  Do you need help? And if "yes": 
  What type of help? Followed by a traffic light evaluation.
• Checklist Interview:
  What happened to you in life?
  How heavy is the backpack of your experiences?
• Laying the Lifeline: 
  Show me when and where the important events took place.
• Narrative Exploration Sessions:
  Let us talk about these most important experiences of your life.

NAT enables clients to achieve biographical integration and radical acceptance of past life events. Through the intense process of witnessing and documenting.

The NAT provider engages in both, psychological counseling and active human rights work.

NAT can be integrated both in population-based service provision, within e.g. a public mental health system, as a low-threshold, stepped-care intervention, or individually applied in psycho-social case work.

Especially social peers, but also non-specialist providers from diverse health and social fields as well as individuals from the legal and educational sectors, and community helpers are invited to learn and offer NAT in their respective contexts.

The NAT Training will be facilitated by our senior NET Institute trainers and originators of the NAT method.

Each Input Day includes a rich mix of lectures, demonstrations, practice sessions in small and large groups, and guided discussions. The model follows our successful NET training structure and combines self-exploration with adult-learning principles.

Read more about NAT-Trainig and how we teach