Cost:

AUD$1200 (including 10% GST)

About:

These one week intensive trainings will provide an immersion in the practices of narrative therapy. Narrative therapy centres people as the experts in their own lives and views problems as separate from people. Narrative approaches assume that people have many skills, competencies, beliefs, values, commitments and abilities that will assist them to reduce the influence of problems in their lives. The word ‘narrative’ refers to the emphasis that is placed upon the stories of people’s lives and the differences that can be made through particular tellings and re-tellings of these stories. Narrative therapy involves ways of understanding the stories of people’s lives, and ways of re-authoring these stories in collaboration between the therapist and the people whose lives are being discussed. It is a way of working that is interested in history, the broader context that is affecting people’s lives and the ethics or politics of this work. It is a hopeful approach. When using narrative approaches, it is often possible to address serious problems in playful and respectful ways.

These one week workshops have been specifically designed for those who are relatively new to narrative ways of working or those who have had some exposure to the ideas and would now like the opportunity to more rigorously engage with narrative practices. This course will feature a review of key narrative ideas and practices, including recent developments, including:

• Externalising conversations: the person is not the problem, the problem is the problem
• Re-authoring conversations: telling our stories in ways that make us stronger
• Outsider-witness practices: linking lives and the use of audiences
• Re-membering conversations: considering the memberships of our lives
• Listening for alternative storylines
• Documenting change: The use of letters and certificates
• The Tree of Life Narrative Approach (David Denborough offers this one day workshop within the intensive)

Stories of therapeutic conversations, videotapes, transcripts and therapeutic letters will be shared that relate to work with adults, children and families. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of maps for therapy will be given. What is more, during the week, many opportunities will be provided for participants to develop their own skills in narrative questioning through training exercises. We have found this to be particularly helpful in order for participants to then be able to use narrative practices in their own work context. This intensive workshop will be relevant to counsellors, therapists, psychologists, social workers, welfare workers… indeed anyone who is working with the stories of people’s lives.

These intensives will be taught in English with an Australian accent! It’s necessary to have a very good grasp of spoken English as there’s lots of discussion in small groups, practical exercises, and interactive classroom discussion.

Cost:

AUD$1200 (incl 10% GST)

A small number of scholarships are available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners. For more information email: dcp@dulwichcentre.com.au

About:

Dulwich Centre is delighted to announce this five day intensive on narrative therapy and community work for First Nations people who are practitioners, which could include counsellors, community workers, support workers, liaison officers, etc. This workshop will explore ways in which narrative practices can contribute to decolonising identity stories, linking stories between communities, and sharing practices of culture and healing. This workshop will be facilitated by Tileah Drahm-Butler, a graduate of the Master of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. It has been designed with guidance from the late Aunty Barbara Wingard who was a key member of the Dulwich Centre Faculty for twenty years.

This workshop is held yearly in Cairns, Queensland.

This intensive will introduce the key narrative practices of externalising, re-authoring, re-membering, outsider witness, documentation, and the Tree of Life, all through an Aboriginal lens. This workshop will also act as the necessary pre-requisite training to then apply for the 2025 Master of Narrative Therapy and Community Work.

This event is designed for and open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners and other First Nations colleagues.

Cost:

AUD$1200 (including 10% GST)

About:

This one week training program is designed for those practitioners who have already attended a Level One intensive or its equivalent and would like to extend their knowledge and skills of narrative therapy. This skill-building workshop will be tailored to the interests and contexts of group members. Areas we will address include:

• The clinical implications of what is absent but implicit
• Creating documents to enhance the development of preferred stories
• Developing experience-near questions to expose normalising judgments and discourses
• Using narrative ideas in a variety of contexts — individual, couple, family, and group therapy, and community work
• Weaving practices together in ways that follow the preferences of those we work with
• Slowing down interviews to explore the effects of different practices and to expand our range of possibilities.

Our methods will include:

• Reviewing videotapes
• Engaging together in interviews
• Exercises designed to practice skills and engage more fully in the narrative worldview.

Participants must have attended a Level One Intensive (or its equivalent) in order to enrol in this workshop. If you have attended previous narrative therapy training but aren’t sure if it would be the equivalent to a Level One Intensive, please email us.

This intensive will be taught in English with an Australian accent! It’s necessary to have a very good grasp of spoken English as there’s lots of discussion in small groups, practical exercises, and interactive classroom discussion.

Please note, in the event of a participant needing to cancel their registration, it is possible to exchange their place with another person, or to receive a one-off transfer of their place to a future Intensive within one year of the original Intensive at no cost. Transfers can be made up to one month prior to the Intensive (except in extenuating circumstances). If you need to cancel your place (and cannot exchange or transfer) there will be a AUD$55 administrative fee. If you cancel your place less than one month prior to the course there will be administrative fee of AUD$110. If you cancel your place in the week leading up to the course we will not be able to offer any refund.