Recovery in Telling Life Stories

This project tests the Recovery In Telling Life Stories (RETELL) intervention, aimed at supporting personal recovery in people with severe mental illness (SMI). While many of those with SMI experience symptom control, their quality of life often remains low due to social loss, negative self-perceptions, and identity-related challenges not addressed by standard treatments. Through a process of narrative repair, the RETELL intervention helps participants explore the personal consequences of mental illness while supporting the enhancement of narratives that strengthen identity and foster well-being. The intervention is delivered across 8-12 sessions and will be assessed for feasibility of both the intervention and study procedures. We will also explore its preliminary impact on recovery, quality of life, symptoms, functioning, self-stigma, and personality, using a multiple single-case A-B-A design. We expect the intervention and study procedures to show acceptable feasibility. We further hypothesize that participants' scores on recovery and well-being will be low at baseline, improve during the intervention, and remain higher after the intervention ends and at 3-month follow-up. This study will provide a foundation for future randomized controlled trials.