Identifying unique outcomes in relationships: potential application of narrative therapy for a serodiscordant gay couple

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study was conducted upon the request of a serodiscordant couple to write an article to provide narrative materials for gender equality and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) destigmatisation. This study sought to enable serodiscordant couples to identify unique outcomes in their relationships, and attempted to understand the connection between gay men and the stigma of AIDS. The researcher employed narrative therapy conversation externalisation and relative-influence questions to identify unique outcomes for this couple, and gained three insights through the conversations. (1) An overemphasis on unique imagination may not lead to unique outcomes; (2) therapists should focus on the problems mainstream society imposes on nonmainstream narratives; and (3) narrative therapy emphasises context, which enabled the researcher to better understand herself. The results of this study indicate that serodiscordant couples should be regarded as a unit. With narrative therapy, the couple had the opportunity to develop a coconstructed alternative story.