Narrative therapy one week training at Dulwich Centre
Level One and Level Two one week intensives are an in-depth and hands-on way to train in narrative therapy.
Dulwich Centre is an internationally renowned narrative therapy training institute, a counselling centre, and an organisation which is regularly engaged in community projects.
Dulwich Centre has a long history of offering one week intensive workshops. Michael White offered these events at Dulwich Centre since the mid-1980s. We now to continue this tradition with an international faculty.
About the trainings
These trainings are offered by Dulwich Centre Faculty members who work as both therapists and teachers and who trained and worked alongside Michael White over many years. Dulwich Centre has a training philosophy that ensures that those teaching narrative therapy are also maintaining a therapy practice themselves. We have found that this leads to rich and rigorous training conversations.
Note that we can also offer these intensives as external training within your workplace/community, see here for more info.
Cost:
AUD$1650 incl. GST for Australian residents / AUD$1500 for international participants
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.
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
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$1650 incl. GST for Australian residents / AUD$1500 for international participants
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.
- Extending collective narrative practice – current ideas and projects with dd
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.
Cost:
AUD$1650 incl. 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, 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 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 2027 Master of Narrative Therapy and Community Work (other entry requirement can be found here).
This workshop is held yearly in Gimuy Cairns, Queensland.
This event is designed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners and other First Nations colleagues. It is for First Nations people only.
Cost:
AUD$1650 incl. GST
About:
This Level Two Intensive is designed for First Nations 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 and is a deeper dive into the ideas.
This workshop will cover: the absent but implicit; creating documents to enhance the development of preferred stories; developing experience-near questions; weaving practices together in ways that follow the preferences of those we work with; and slowing down interviews to explore the effects of different practices and to expand our range of possibilities.
Methods of exploring this will include engaging together in interviews and exercises designed to practice skills and engage more fully in the narrative worldview.
This workshop is held in Gimuy Cairns, Queensland.
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 event is designed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners and other First Nations colleagues. It is for First Nations people only.
Upcoming workshops
Level One Intensives
- November 3rd – 7th in-person* in Tarntanya Adelaide, South Australia
- February 2nd – 6th, 2026 in-person* in Tarntanya Adelaide, South Australia
- February 2nd – 6th, 2026 online
Level Two Intensives
- November 10th – 14th 2025 online
- November 10th – 14th 2025 in-person* in Tarntanya Adelaide, South Australia
Intensives for First Nations practitioners – Telling our stories in ways that make us stronger
Level One Intensive
- Dates for 2026 tbc – please register your interest here
Level Two Intensive
- Dates for 2026 tbc – please register your interest here
*Please note that bookings close for our in-person courses once capacity is reached. The timing of this is unpredictable.
Payment plans are available. We require a $300 deposit upon registration and monthly payments, with the full balance due two weeks prior to the course.
Please email dcp@dulwichcentre.com.au for more information.
To pay by bank transfer or for an invoice addressed to your workplace, please email dcp@dulwichcentre.com.au.
If you need to cancel your registration the following costs will be incurred (except in extenuating circumstances):
In-person Intensives
- More than four weeks in advance you may transfer your place to another person or to a future Intensive within one year at no cost. If you cannot transfer, there will be an AUD$55 administration fee to issue a refund.
- One to four weeks before the course you may transfer your place to another person at no cost or to a future Intensive within one year for an administration fee of AUD$55. If you cannot transfer, there will be an AUD$110 administration fee to issue a refund.
- Within one week of the course, you may transfer your place to another person at no cost. No refunds or transfers to a future Intensive will be available.
Online Intensives
- More than four weeks in advance you may transfer your place to another person or to a future Intensive within one year at no cost. If you cannot transfer, there will be an AUD$55 administration fee to issue a refund.
- One to four weeks before the course you may transfer your place to another person at no cost or to a future Intensive within one year for an administration fee of AUD$55. If you cannot transfer, there will be an AUD$110 administration fee to issue a refund.
- Within one week of the course, you may transfer your place to another person at no cost or to a future Intensive within one year for an administration fee of AUD$55. No refunds will be available.”
