Thesis (DPhil (Psychology))—University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This study has two purposes which are complementary: Firstly, an alternative prevention intervention was developed in order to introduce narrative group therapy as a therapeutical practice within preventative interventions in South Africa. Secondly, a training protocol was developed which can be used to train psychologists, counsellors, social workers, teachers and relevant persons to apply narrative group therapy as an alternative preventative intervention in their communities. In the context of this study, the personal stories of the adolescents who took part in this study reflect the problem stories of the Jamestown and Cloetesville community near Stellenbosch. After identifying 20 adolescents who experience problem stories with high-risk themes at two secondary schools in the respective communities, ten narrative group sessions were held, with social constructionism as philosophical approach. The training protocol was primarily of an experiential nature, consisting of 40 hours of training and 12 hours of supervision, with special focus on the personal stories of the four master’s degree psychology students who underwent training and facilitated the group therapy with the adolescents. For the purpose of this study qualitative research was done. During the development of the alternative preventative intervention, a qualitative description was given of the content of the personal stories of the adolescents within the interactional space of narrative group therapy and personal stories. The focus during this qualitative description was the following: • to establish whether the therapeutic process facilitated change, • to develop a new understanding of the therapeutic process by specifically focusing on applying narrative therapy in a group, and • to train and empower narrative-group-therapy facilitators to facilitate the narrative- group-therapy process. In this study two narrative-analytical research methods were used. Firstly, a qualitative narrative-analysis method was used to evaluate the psychotherapeutical transcripts. A part of these sessions was dedicated to this purpose and is presented in transcribed format. Secondly, the content-analysis method was applied: session data was examined, categories of the adolescents’ and students’ narratives were defined and thematic statements were extracted from the text, classified and sorted into categories or groups. This study provides supportive evidence that narrative group therapy as an alternative preventative intervention can be introduced as a therapeutic practice in South Africa. In addition, an effective training protocol was developed which can be used to train psychologists, counsellors, social workers, teachers and other relevant individuals to use narrative group therapy as an alternative preventative intervention in their communities.