Lessons

Welcome to Topic 9B: Conflict dissolution. You can choose between the three topics in Topic 9 to write your reflection on. This reflection is due 29 September, 2023. Narrative approaches to restorative justice settings: Considerations of power, struggle and…

Welcome to Topic 9B: Talking about sex and sexual pleasure*. This reflection is due 5 October, 2025. *You can choose to either engage with 9A or 9B. If you are keen to explore ways of using narrative practices to…

Please upload your practice diary submission for the first half of the year here. Please use this template to keep track of your hours, and make sure each page has a running total of the hours you have accumulated.…

Please upload your practice diary submission for the second half of the year here. Please use this template to keep track of your hours, and make sure each page has a running total of the hours you have accumulated.

Consent form for tapes

Welcome to the Level Two Intensive! Please find the information you will need for the week (including Zoom links, workshop handouts and slides, and other resources) in the dropdown menu below.Be sure to check back in on this page…

Please use this template to keep track of your hours, and make sure each page has a running total of the hours you have accumulated. You will need to complete this each week and include it at the end of each…

Post a comment once you have completed each chapter; andComplete an essay of 1,000 words (maximum) responding to the following questions: What three ideas or practices from this course did you find most helpful?Why were these ideas significant to you?If…

Interview and Essay To gain a certificate of completion for this course you’ll need to conduct and interview, and submit a transcript of that interview alongside a short commentary on the interview itself (approx. 700 words).  The commentary may…

Please submit any extension applications for up to two weeks using this form, prior to the due date. If you are requesting an extension longer than two weeks, please email us.

Download the handbook here

Our work is always political. Of course, in many contexts queer and gender diverse people have long been fighting for legal recognition and protection from violence and discrimination. But now we are also seeing in countries that have made…

G’day and welcome to this One Year Narrative Therapy Training Program! First, let’s get you familiar with some of the materials and resources you’ll need during the course including: Course handbook Marking matrix Registration links for Zoom catch-ups Recordings…

Welcome to Lesson 1: Externalising conversations and de-centered practice. "The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem, and the solution is not only personal".On this page you'll find the resources for the topic and the link to…

There are two topics in lesson 7. You can choose to engage with 7A or 7B, or combine them. The reflection for your topic of choice is due 9 August, 2026 (Adelaide Tarntanya time zone).  

Welcome to Topic 2: Re-membering practicesYour reflection is due March 29th, 2026 (Tarntanya Adelaide time zone). Choose five of these resources:The ‘Life Certificate’: A tool for grief work in Singapore by Mohamed Fareez International Journal of Narrative Therapy and…

Welcome to Topic 3: Re-authoring conversations – tracing values, skills and knowledge across timeYour reflection for this topic is due 26 April, 2026 (Tarntanya Adelaide time zone). Choose five of these resources:Commonly asked questions about re-authoring conversations compiled by Shona…

Welcome to Lesson 4: Documenting alternative stories / knowledges Your reflection is due 24 May, 2026 (Tarntanya Adelaide time zone). Choose five of these resources:Collaborative representation by Sue Mann Gecko 2000, (2)Therapeutic documents revisited by Michael White Chapter 8, Re-authoring LivesDebriefing after…

Welcome to Lesson 5: Definitional ceremonies and enabling contributionThis reflection is due 14 June, 2026 (Tarntanya Adelaide time zone). Opening up the counselling room – the joining of stories as a political act by Renee Handsacker International Journal Of Narrative Therapy…

Welcome to Lesson 6: Feminisms, intersectionality and narrative practiceYour reflection is due 12 July, 2026 (Tarntanya Adelaide time zone). WEB RESOURCE: Feminisms, intersectionality and narrative practice. This online course initiated by Cheryl White with Zan Maeder, Tileah Drahm and…

Welcome to the final lesson. Lesson 10: Thinking behind practice – beyond psychological colonisation, post-structuralism & broadening the horizonThis topic will invite you to consider many topics, including post-structuralism, culture, individualism, and escaping from failure/normality.The reflection is due 8…

Please upload your practice diary submission for the first half of the year here. Please use the templates below to keep track of your hours, and make sure each page has a running total of the hours you have accumulated.Both…

Please upload your practice diary submission for the second half of the year here. Please use this template to keep track of your hours, and make sure each page has a running total of the hours you have accumulated.

Welcome to the certification module for those students who are taking it. Certification module resources: Consent form for tapes

There are three topics in lesson 8. You can choose to engage with one of the following: Topic 8A: Working with children and young people Topic 8B: Sexualities, genders and narrative practice Topic 8C: Sparking and sustaining social movement(s)…

There are two topics in lesson 9. You can choose to engage with one of the following: Topic A: Mental health Topic B: Talking about sex and sexual pleasure The reflection for your topic of choice is due 4 October,…

Download the course handbook here

Lesson 1 resourcesExternalising – Commonly asked questions co-ordinated by Shona Russell & Maggie CareyVIDEO: Externalising conversations: Statement of position map 1 by Mark HaywardNarrative practice with families with children: Externalising conversations revisited by Michael WhiteStanding Together on a Riverbank: Group Conversations about Sexual…

Lesson 2 Resources The danger of the single story by Chimimanda Adichie Lightpost 4: Reauthoring Our Stories (with Rukmini’s story) by Shelja Sen from the book Reclaim Your Life [physical copy] Commonly asked questions about re-authoring conversations compiled by Shona Russell and Maggie…

Lesson 3 resourcesUsing therapeutic documents a review by Hugh FoxCollective documents as a response to collective trauma by David DenboroughCollaborative representation by Sue MannCounter Documents by Michael White, Chapter 4  Narrative Means to Therapeutic  EndsTherapeutic Documents – revisited by Michael White, Chapter 8 Re-Authoring Lives: Interviews…

Lesson 4 resourcesSaying hello again when we have lost someone we love by David Denborough Chapter 8 Retelling the stories of our lives The ‘Life Certificate’ by Mohamed FareezVideo: Working with loss: Beyond re-membering by Jill Freedman Saying hullo, goodbye, or both? Multi-storied re-membering practices to…

Lesson 5 resourcesOutsider-witness practices: some answers to commonly asked questions compiled by Shona Russell and Maggie CareyCreating audiences for children’s preferred stories by Alice MorganEnabling contribution: Exchanging messages and convening definitional ceremonies by David DenboroughLiving in stories: Embodiment in therapy through Liturgical…

Lesson 6 resourcesCommunity therapy: A participatory response to psychic misery by Adalberto Barreto & Marilene GrandessoLinking Stories and Initiatives: A narrative approach to working with the skills and knowledge of communities by David Denborough, Carolyn Koolmatrie, Djapirri Mununggirritj, Djuwalpi Marika, Wayne…

For this lesson students have their choice of topic, either A, B, C or D.To submit your reflection on your chosen topic please return to this lesson page and submit below. 

Discovering children’s responses to trauma: a response-based narrative practice by Angel Yuen International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work #4 2007 Children, trauma and subordinate storyline development by Michael WhiteA framework for receiving and documenting testimonies of trauma by David DenboroughNaming abuse and breaking…

For this lesson students have their choice of topic, either A, B, C or D.To submit your reflection on your chosen topic please return to this lesson page and submit below. 

Web resource: In our own ways: Beyond psychological colonisationDe-colonizing our lives: Divining a post-colonial therapy by Makungu Akinyela International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 2002, #2Decolonising identity stories: Narrative practice through Aboriginal eyes by Tileah Drahm, Aboriginal narrative practiceStories from Sri Lanka…

For those of you who never got to meet Michael in real life, Penny White wanted to make sure that you know that he was funny. Here are a series of clips from his teaching that convey not only…

In Michael’s later teaching workshops and articles he would often start with a story of practice. We thought we would do the same. Here is Michael sharing a story of practice about his conversations with a young man, Daniel,…

One of the best ways to get a sense of some of Michael White’s early work is to read ‘Panning for Gold’ which is an article written by Mary Sykes Wylie that was published in 1994 in Psychotherapy Networker.…

Having got a sense of the ethos and humour in relation to narrative practice and some of the early developments, let’s now step back and listen to Michael speaking about the general assumptions that shaped his approach.   https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/1163944688/5f2f8601f4%20Are there…

The way in which narrative therapists are positioned in therapeutic conversations is complex. To consider the ‘de-centred and yet influential’ position within narrative therapy please read this recent paper by Kelsi Semeschuk:Towards a decentred, politically influential, accountable and yet…

The previous chapter included a video in which Michael White’s conversations with Donna and her mother and family involved de-centred ‘political’ influence, in relation to the politics of gender.When meeting with people who have been subjected to abuse and…