Rewriting Your Job Story: Narrative-Therapy Tools to Rediscover Purpose in the Same Role

It’s a common experience: You used to love your job, or at least feel connected to its purpose. But now you’re clocking in and out with a sense of numbness, frustration, or dread. And yet, nothing external has changed—your title, salary, and daily responsibilities remain the same. This disconnect is often misinterpreted as burnout, boredom, or entitlement. But what if the real issue isn’t the job itself, but the story you’ve come to believe about it? Narrative therapy offers a way to examine and rewrite the internal script driving your disconnection—without requiring you to quit or completely reinvent your career. This article will explore how narrative techniques can help you reconnect with meaning, autonomy, and emotional investment in a role that no longer feels alive.

The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Work

Narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston, is built on the idea that people create meaning through stories. These stories aren’t just what we tell others—they’re the internalized narratives we use to understand ourselves, our roles, and our relationships (White & Epston, 1990). When it comes to work, these narratives often begin with statements like: “I have to prove my worth,” “I’m stuck here,” “I’m the reliable one,” or “If I stop achieving, I’ll be replaced.” Over time, these internal scripts shape how we perceive our jobs, colleagues, and even our self-worth. They can become so dominant that they obscure any alternative perspective. Narrative therapy doesn’t ask you to lie to yourself. It asks you to deconstruct the dominant story, identify the assumptions embedded within it, and look for moments of contradiction—what narrative therapists call unique outcomes.

How Job Stories Become Problem-Saturated

A “problem-saturated” story is one where your role is defined entirely by limitation, pressure, or emotional pain. You may feel trapped by expectations, discouraged by a lack of recognition, or exhausted by the pressure to constantly perform. The story might sound like: “I’m invisible,” “I’m failing,” or “This job is slowly draining the life out of me.” These narratives often emerge in high-demand environments, especially when the work is meaningful but the system is unsustainable. You might still believe in the mission—but feel like the cost of your involvement is too high. According to narrative therapy, the goal is not to negate these feelings, but to locate them within a broader social and personal context. What systems are reinforcing this story? Where did this narrative begin? Who benefits from you continuing to believe it?

Deconstructing the Narrative

The first step in narrative re-authoring is externalization—separating the person from the problem. Instead of saying “I’m burned out,” narrative therapy invites you to say, “Burnout has been showing up in my work lately.” This subtle shift creates space for reflection, curiosity, and self-compassion. From there, you can ask key questions: When did this story start to take over? What values or events made you feel connected to the role in the past? Are there exceptions to the story—days when you felt energized, respected, or in alignment? These unique outcomes are crucial. They’re often overlooked moments when the dominant narrative loosened its grip. By identifying and amplifying these counter-stories, you begin to reclaim authorship of your professional identity.

Reclaiming Purpose Through Values

One powerful narrative intervention is to reconnect with your personal values, especially those that predate your current role. What drew you to this kind of work? What do you care about, outside of how others evaluate you? Narrative therapists use questions like: “What does this say about what matters to you?” and “How have you continued to show up for what you believe in, even when it’s hard?” These questions help you locate a deeper story—one in which your commitment, empathy, creativity, or persistence still exist, even if they’re not being mirrored by your environment. Research shows that value alignment significantly buffers against burnout and increases job satisfaction, even in high-stress roles (Shanafelt et al., 2009).

The Role of Identity in Work Narratives

Many people conflate their identity with their job title. In narrative therapy, identity is viewed as multi-storied—not a fixed truth, but a complex mosaic of values, relationships, memories, and dreams. When you experience a rupture at work—whether it’s a toxic manager, a missed promotion, or a shift in company culture—it can feel like an existential crisis because it threatens the story you’ve built about who you are. Narrative work invites you to explore other parts of your identity that have been overshadowed. Who are you outside of metrics, deliverables, or recognition? What would it mean to bring those parts of yourself into your professional story, even subtly?

Small Shifts That Create Narrative Change

Narrative rewriting doesn’t always require massive transformation. Sometimes, changing the story starts with changing the lens. You might begin by setting clearer boundaries to reclaim agency: “I’m not available after 6 PM because I’m someone who values rest.” You might document small moments of impact: a thank-you from a colleague, a task you completed with care, a problem you solved creatively. These moments are narrative footholds—evidence that the problem-saturated story is not the whole truth. Narrative therapy emphasizes that meaning is co-created in community. Sharing your re-authored story with someone who sees you clearly—whether a therapist, mentor, or trusted peer—can solidify it into something real.

When You Can’t Change the System

In some workplaces, systemic issues—such as racism, ableism, exploitation, or lack of psychological safety—make it extremely difficult to rewrite your story without gaslighting yourself. Narrative therapy doesn’t ignore these realities. It acknowledges that some environments are genuinely misaligned, harmful, or unsustainable. In those cases, narrative work can help you reclaim dignity and choice. Even if you decide to stay temporarily, you can shift your narrative from “I’m stuck here” to “I’m choosing to stay for now while I plan my exit.” That small shift reintroduces agency and can dramatically change how you feel day to day.

The Neuroscience of Re-Authoring

Neuroscience supports the core principle of narrative therapy: that the stories we tell ourselves shape our emotional and physiological responses. The brain uses schemas—cognitive frameworks built through repeated experiences—to interpret new situations. When your schema about work is negative, your nervous system is more likely to respond with hypervigilance, fatigue, or disengagement (Beck, 2011). Rewriting your narrative can gradually create new schemas that allow for flexibility, hope, and motivation. This is not just mental—it’s embodied. You start to feel differently because you’re interpreting your environment through a new lens.

When to Seek Support

If your job story is deeply entangled with shame, trauma, or identity loss, it can be hard to re-author alone. Working with a therapist trained in narrative therapy—or even someone who practices from a values-based or integrative framework—can help you articulate your dominant story, grieve what’s been lost, and experiment with new narrative possibilities. This isn’t about toxic positivity or pretending everything is fine. It’s about becoming the narrator of your own experience again, rather than the passive subject of someone else’s plot.

Final Thoughts

You don’t always have to quit your job to change your relationship to it. Sometimes, what needs to change first is the narrative—the story that’s been telling you who you are and what your work means. Narrative therapy offers tools to deconstruct the dominant script, identify overlooked moments of meaning, and write a new version of your work life that includes agency, purpose, and nuance. Even if the external role stays the same, your internal experience of it can shift in powerful ways.

Feeling stuck in your role doesn’t always mean it’s time to quit—it might be time to rewrite the story you’re living inside. If your work identity no longer fits or you’re carrying emotional weight that isn’t yours, therapy can help you reframe, reclaim, and re-engage.

Book your appointment today at refreshtherapynyc.clientsecure.me.

Written by: Keeley Teemsma, LCSW, MA

Works Cited
Beck, J. S. (2011). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

Shanafelt, T. D., West, C. P., Sloan, J. A., Novotny, P. J., Poland, G. A., Menaker, R., & Dyrbye, L. N. (2009). Career fit and burnout among academic faculty. Archives of Internal Medicine, 169(10), 990–995. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2009.70

White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. Norton & Company.