An Empowering Story: Participatory Design and Feasibility of a Recovery-Focused Narrative Group Intervention for Persons With Personality Disorders

Enhancing personal recovery in persons with personality disorders is an important but understudied topic. Guided by the framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions of the U.K. Medical Research Council, this study follows a qualitative approach with the first aim of using the best scientific, professional, and client expertise to design a narrative intervention aiming for personal recovery in persons with personality disorders. The second aim was to assess the feasibility of the intervention in a practice setting before an effectiveness study can be conducted. The prototype included a 12-week intervention “An Empowering Story” consisting of weekly group sessions with homework and a life story book as final product. Both studies show that the overall aim and structure of the intervention are highly appreciated by professionals as well as clients. The preliminary findings pave the way to examine the effectiveness of “An Empowering Story” in a controlled study.