News
NTI Launches Membership Program
May 29, 2019
To help support our mission to grow and sustain the Narrative Worldview, NTI has launched a new Membership Program. The membership fee is good for one year and includes several benefits, including a discount at our annual workshop. Learn more.
Join Our 2019–20 Narrative Apprenticeship Program
April 3, 2019
Registration is now open for NTI's yearlong Narrative Apprenticeship Program. A cohort of 9 “apprentices” meets monthly with NTI Director Stephen Gaddis to engage with and grow their understanding of narrative therapy in practice. Thie program is designed for people who are seeking a caring and supportive learning environment where they can explore narrative ways of working. Learn more.
NTI Launches New Five-Day Narrative Therapy Intensive
February 4, 2018
In April and May 2018, NTI is offering a five-day Narrative Therapy Intensive. This training is for people interested in the ways narrative therapy ideas can be put into practice. After a brief review of narrative therapy's social justice foundation, the course focuses on learning narrative therapy skills. Participants will have a chance to develop their skills through reading transcripts, watching live interviews, and participating in experiential exercises. This course meets the requirements for entering into the Narrative Certificate Program, which runs annually beginning each fall. CEUs available.
March Training: "What Is Narrative Therapy?"
January 18, 2018
On Saturday, March 10, 2018, NTI Director Stephen Gaddis, Ph.D., will lead our one-day training, "What Is Narrative Therapy?" This training is for people who have heard about narrative therapy but have never been formally introduced to its radically collaborative, respectful, and social-justice oriented ways of understanding people and problems. The narrative therapy motto is: “The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem.”
In this workshop, participants learn about…
• The distinctions between the Narrative and Normative Worldviews
• The narrative practice skills that help people re-author their lives and relationships
• Examples of narrative therapy in practice
• Whether they wish to pursue further narrative training
NTI to Host Summer Brunch Think Tanks
June 17, 2016
The Narrative Therapy Initiative is hosting a series of three Summer Brunch Think Tanks to generate conversation and ideas around developing a narrative, social justice revolution. Led by NTI Director Stephen Gaddis and Tracy Starr, LMFT, these meetings will explore community-building and non-violent activist possibilities.
We imagine these meetings will involve conversations around specific questions Tracey and Steve have developed. Tracy and Steve will introduce a question and then small groups will have some time to reflect on the question. These small groups will then bring their conversations back to the large group. We will record the re-tellings in the large group to document the collective knowledges being expressed. We want to be clear that these meetings are for people who are passionate about the Narrative Worldview. You do not have to be highly knowledgeable or experienced to be welcome. Your interest is what matters.
The Think Tanks will be held on three Sundays -- July 17, August 21, and September 18, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., in Marblehead, MA. The meetings are free and food, drinks, and child care will be provided.
New Speaker Series Launches on May 24
May 9, 2016
The Narrative Therapy Initiative inaugurates a new Speaker Series on Tuesday, May 24, with Elmarie Kotze, Senior Lecturer in the Counsellor Education program at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, which is internationally recognized for its emphasis on narrative approaches in counseling and therapy.
Titled "Doing Hope Together: In Everyday Living, Supervision, Research, and Counseling," Elmarie's presentation will explore what research can mean when storied from a narrative perspective. She will describe practices of “doing hope together” in a kaleidoscope of personal and professional narratives woven into and between people’s lives. Her presentation will include vignettes from counseling, research, and supervision experiences.
Practice Intensives Offered in April and May
March 31, 2016
The Narrative Therapy Initiative is offering two 2-day Practice Intensives on April 29 & 30, and May 13 & 14. These courses are for people who have been introduced to narrative therapy and have a strong interest in continuing their narrative therapy journey. The April course will focus on Externalizing and the May course will explore Re-Authoring. NTI Director Stephen Gaddis will be teaching these courses with Sally Reagan.
Both courses will include clinical examples to help illustrate various and creative ways that externalizing and re-authoring can be practiced. We will also examine how externalizing and re-authoring can be incorporated into progress notes and treatment plans, including measurable goals. Participants can register for one or both intensives.
"What Is Narrative Therapy?" Workshop on April 8
January 24, 2016
Back by popular demand, the Narrative Therapy Initiative is offering, for the second time, a one-day introductory workshop, titled “What Is Narrative Therapy?” This training is for people who have heard about narrative therapy but have never been formally introduced to its radically collaborative, respectful, and social-justice oriented ways of understanding people and problems. The narrative therapy motto is: “The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem.” In this workshop, the Narrative Worldview is distinguished from the culturally dominant Normative Worldview. The instructors are Stephen Gaddis, Kevin Linehan, and Matthew Mooney.
As a result of this training, participants will:
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Be introduced to De-Constructing and Re-Authoring (the dual landscapes of narrative therapy)
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See detailed examples of narrative therapy in practice
Narrative Intro Intensive Offered in January
December 9, 2015
The NTI is pleased to offer the popular Narrative Therapy Introductory Intensive in January 2016. Formerly known as the Level 1 Class, this four-day course is designed for anyone interested in immersing themselves in narrative therapy’s worldview, ethics, and practices. All NTI courses emphasize an embodied or experiential learning approach to understanding a narrative worldview; thus many people who already have some knowledge of narrative therapy find this intensive highly enriching.
The course will be held on two Friday/Saturday blocks--January 15/16 and January 29/30--at the Center for Integrative Healing in Watertown, MA. The instructors are Kate Tiedemann and Laurel Earls.
Fall Workshop to Focus on Families with Children in
Serious Crisis
August 11, 2015
The Narrative Therapy Initiative is pleased to announce that its 2015 Fall Workshop will focus on how narrative approaches can help families with children in serious crisis. The workshop will be held November 12 & 13 at The Wellesley College Club in Wellesley, MA.
In this two-day workshop, the basic assumptions and ideas that distinguish the Narrative Worldview from the culturally dominant Normative Worldview will be explained. In Day One, NTI Director Stephen Gaddis will focus on the theoretical foundations of narrative therapy and clincial examples in therapeutic contexts. On Day Two, Betsy Buckley and Phil Decter will bring their vast knowledge and experience in narrative therapy, public sector, and child welfare work to discuss narrative work in child protection and welfare contexts.
Each day, presenters will show examples of how they have drawn from narrative understandings when working with families in crisis. All clinical examples will explain how working from a narrative perspective helped people change their relationships with problems while maintaining a strong commitment to concerns about physical and emotional safety. At the end of each day, there will be reflections on community actions that address the social injustices that contribute to too many problems in families’ lives and relationships.
Like all NTI trainings, this workshop will introduce questions for participants to engage in through small-group discussions and exercises. While participants are encouraged to attend both days for the full learning experience, they can register for Thursday only, if they prefer. A morning coffee service and lunch are included both days.
Two New Practice Intensives Offered in June
May 18, 2015
The Narrative Therapy Initiative is pleased to offer two new Practice Intensives in June 2015. Practice Intensives focus on a particular narrative therapy skill and can be taken individually or as a series. Like all NTI courses, Practice Intensives emphasize an experiential learning approach in an environment that nurtures community and relationship-building.
Both Practice Intensives are two-day trainings and will be taught by NTI Director Stephen Gaddis. The first is offered June 12 & 13 and will focus on Re-Membering. The second training is on June 26 & 27 and will explore Letter Writing and Poetic Documents.
Dialogical Practice Conference on April 11
April 3, 2015
The Narrative Therapy Initiative is please to announce that our parent organization—The Salem Center for Therapy, Training, and Research—is co-hosting a full-day conference on Saturday, April 11, in Newton, Mass. Titled, "Current Trends in Dialogical Practice: Community Mental Health, Research, and Pedagogy," the training promises to be both exciting and informative for beginning as well as more experienced practitioners in the fields of community mental health, psychotherapy, and education. The NTI's own Stephen Gaddis is among the presenters and wil be talking about considerations of power in his work.
Dialogue is central to postmodern theory and practice. Emerging from social construction theory, and the belief that identity and reality are mediated in language, the past decade has seen a proliferation of dialogical practice in mental health, research, psychotherapy, supervision, and pedagogy. The morning session will provide participants with a theoretical foundation from which to consider the centrality of dialogue and reflection. The afternoon will be devoted to practical applications of this theory in action.
This conference is a collaboration between The Salem Center and The Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.