An INTRODUCTION to NARRATIVE THERAPY: Philosophy, key concepts and ethical practices

This introductory workshop serves as a threshold for practitioners interested in the study of the philosophy, key concepts and ethical practices of narrative therapy. People give meaning to their lives through the “identity stories” that are available to them.  These stories make it possible for them to make sense of their own life experiences.  People often enter into therapy in the grip of negative, self-demeaning stories that contribute to a deep sense of personal failure.  This introductory workshop experience will explore the propositions associated with the narrative metaphor and will demonstrate the practices of narrative therapy that help people to challenge and break free of these negative stories and assist them to explore alternative “identity stories” that offer new possibilities for their lives.

People often experience their lives to be single-storied, absent of the knowledges and skills necessary for addressing their concerns and predicaments. Despite this, people’s lives are multi-storied, and they do possess these knowledges and skills. Narrative explorations contribute to the identification and rich development of the alternative stories of people’s lives, while making visible these knowledges and skills. This provides a foundation for people to proceed to address their concerns and predicaments.

These narrative explorations can be viewed as journeys, and therapists are guided in these journeys by a particular posture and a range of conversations and questions that are available to them. Although these scaffolded conversations do not specify the destination, they do provide the therapist and the person seeking conversation with a compass along the way. This multi-storied orientation assists therapists to recognize possibilities that exist in people’s lives and provides a basis for the development of collaborative conversations and meaning generating therapeutic questions that have the potential to speed people toward the purposes and preferred destinations in their lives.

Clear presentation, digitally recorded examples of narrative therapy sessions, experiential exercises, a comprehensive handout package and a bibliography will be offered to create a rich and interactive brief narrative practice training experience. There will be a particular emphasis on hands on (practice-practice-practice) micro-skill development and ways of taking this work into your own personal style and practice wisdom.

Participants will be introduced to:

• The tradition of thought that shapes narrative practice.
• The role of discourse, deconstruction and transparency.
• Developments in the re-authoring conversations (storied therapy as a three-act play), and externalising conversations maps for therapeutic practice.
• Specific applications of these maps to working with a range of problems, with a special emphasis on those relevant to addressing pain and distress that is the outcome of trauma.
• Skills relevant to these maps of therapeutic practice.
• Practices for getting to know the person away from the problem.
• Therapeutic posture and post-structural inquiry.
• Narrative ideas and practices that can be applied to your work and life immediately.

JST Institute provides CEU hours in accordance with the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council. For other professional boards, please verify with them their specific requirements. A Certificate verifying 7 hours of participation completed will be awarded to each participant.

WORKSHOP HOURS:

Friday, May 12 and Saturday, June 13, 2023 – 1 PM to 4:30 PM (US Central Daylight Time)

REGISTRATION FEE:

Early Bird Fee: $150.00 (Register by April 30, 2023).

Regular Fee $170.00

Student Fee: $100.00 (Must show proof of student status if requested)

CANCELLATION:

Full refund minus $30.00 cancellation fee until April 30, 2023 for Early Bird Fee)

50% refund between April 30 and May 11, 2023.

No refund  May 12, 2023 and thereafter.

NOTE: Zoom log-in information will be provided to the email you registered with close to the workshop dates.

JIM DUVALL, M.Ed.

Jim Duvall is Co-Director of JST Institute and Editor of Journal of Systemic Therapies. His experience as a therapist, educator, consultant, speaker, editor, and author spans over four decades. He has spent over 300 hours studying and collaborating with Michael White in training, writing and community projects. His work aims to integrate time-sensitive narrative practices within social justice principles.

In addition to numerous articles, book chapters, Jim co-authored a policy paper (Duvall, J., Young, K., Kays-Burden, A., 2012), No more, no less: Brief mental health services for children and youth. His co-authored book (Duvall & Béres, 2011), Innovations in narrative therapy: Connecting practice, training and research, WW Norton and Company is the first book to integrate training and research with narrative therapy resulting in compelling practice-based evidence. He is the co-editor (Beaudoin & Duvall, 2017) of Collaborative therapy and neurobiology: Evolving practices in action.

He has offered hundreds of workshops, courses, and keynote presentations with organizations throughout Canada, US, Australia, Asia and Europe. Other times Jim can be found playing music with his friends or boating on the Gulf of Mexico with his partner, family and their dog, Sailor.