Currently, clinical interventions in male-dominated correctional systems are derived from traditional positivistic theories, many of which lack both cultural and gender relevance to the predominantly minority female correctional population. Narrative therapy--with its postmodernist assumptions about power, knowledge, and truth--is a better means of helping female inmates with many problems. Narrative therapy involves the retelling and reliving of the stories that compose a person's life and helps explain the feelings, behaviors, beliefs, and problems that emerged from and have lasted beyond the events of the stories. Incarcerated women will benefit from being encouraged to tell their stories, many of which have not been previously told to anyone. The stories depict strengths, resilience, and coping mechanisms as the women have attempted to deal with their loss of freedom and the emotional and physical stresses of prison. The goal of narrative therapy is to bring the women to see that they can construct new stories for their lives by drawing on the positive resources developed in previous stories. They are helped to understand and then broaden and change the stories around which they have organized their lives. Their attitude toward their lives is thus changed from a belief that it is a cycle of repetitive problems to a belief that they have the resources to construct new and different stories for their lives. Narrative therapy can help women examine the various events and experiences that have brought their lives to the current state; and it helps them identify the barriers to be overcome and the personal resources they have to meet the challenges of forging a new life story. 27 references