Level One
Introduction
Level One training explores the theories that inform narrative therapy and the practical skills for using them in your work.
It offers workers opportunities to develop skills relevant to their working contexts and is also a foundation for the Level Two training course.
There are two course formats for Level One training: 1 teaching block of 5 days OR 1 X 3 day teaching block AND 1 x 2 day teaching block. Both formats offer the same teaching time and course content.
Level One courses are open to anyone who wishes to learn about the ideas behind Narrative Therapy and the practices associated with these ideas. There is no entry requirement but you will gain most from the training if you have a context available where you can practice the skills taught after the course.
Please note, applications for our events close two working days before they are due to start.
Course Details
Course Content
The story metaphor in therapy
How our lives are storied and how the stories that we and others tell shape our lives and the lives of others. How the development and rich description of alternative stories can re-shape lives. The role of context and social discourse in forming the stories that are told.
Externalisation
How externalization separates people from the problems that beset them. How this separation enables people to stop being the problem and instead to start taking responsibility for their relationship with it in ways that enhance the sense of personal agency.
Unique outcomes/ Exceptions
Exceptions as points of entry into alternative accounts of life and identity. How to turn seemingly small initiatives into substantive developments from which problem-solving skills emerge. How to spot nuggets of gold in the midst of unremitting difficulties and how to find hope in dire situations.
De-centred practice
How to develop collaborative and respectful ways of relating to clients that makes them the expert on their lives and honours the skills, experience, knowledge and significant relationships of the people who come to meet with us.
Re-authoring lives
How to use any piece of information to identify a person’s strong values. How to connect these with other events and figures in people’s lives to clarify a sense of identity so that entirely new perspectives are possible.
Question structures
How to structure conversations: maps to guide conversations; questions that can rescue conversational cul de-sacs; questions that avoid those “yes, but…” replies; question structures that have profound effects on a person’s thinking; questions that make small improvements much bigger; ways to respond when someone says “I don’t know”; questions that consistently move conversations forward; how to understand conversations so that you’re never stuck for a question; how to chart conversations that reveal where and why they got stuck.
Norms and power
How to question taken for granted norms and integrate an ethical approach. Understand Michel Foucault’s critique of cultural norms and how they affect all our lives. How to discern and appreciate the power of these norms without getting captured by them. How to use language to avoid applying norms to people’s lives.
Wider contexts
How to take account of and make visible the wider social, economic, cultural and political contexts of people’s lives
Outsider Witnessing
How to provide moving and powerful acknowledgements of people that unstick them from repetitive processes. How to use imagery to evoke strong and positive feelings.
Writing Letters and Documents
How to write simple letters that have powerful therapeutic effects and get changes widely recognised.
Re-membering Conversations
How to trace the history of what people value or belive in so that it connects them to important figures from their past. How to make these figures more present in people’s lives in ways that sustain them.
N.B. Courses will aim to respond flexibly to participants and topics covered may vary with each particular group
Entry Requirements
Level One courses are open to anyone who wishes to learn about the ideas behind Narrative Therapy and the practices associated with these ideas. There is no entry requirement but you will gain most from the training if you have a context available where you can practice the skills taught after the course.
You will receive a certificate of attendance at the end of the training but this is not officially accredited with any external body.
Cost
The cost of the course is £660 and does not include accommodation and travel arrangements.
Individuals paying for themselves and unable to set the course fee against tax are eligible for a 20% discount. This should be indicated on your application form and will then be applied to your invoice.
There will be a price increase from 1 January for all courses.
Please note, any applications received before 31 December will be charged at the 2022 rates.
Format
There are two course formats for Level One training: 1 teaching block of 5 days OR I X 3 day teaching block AND 1 x 2 day teaching block around four weeks apart. Both formats offer the same teaching time and course content. Days commence at 09.30 and finish at 16.30.
Upcoming courses
This is the most up-to-date information on our upcoming courses, if the dates listed do not suit you your availability, please keep checking details for details of when new dates are released.
Our courses usually run from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm.
Online
One teaching block of three days and one of two days
- 20-22 Nov 2024
- 23-24 Jan 2025
One teaching block of three days and one of two days
- 9 – 11 Apr 2025
- 15 – 16 May 2025
One teaching block of three days and one of two days
- 3 – 5 Dec 2025
- 15 – 16 Jan 2026
LONDON (usually Covent Garden area)
One teaching block of five days
- 21-25 Oct 2024
One teaching block of five days
- 24-28 Feb 2025
One teaching block of five days
- 13-17 Oct 2025
This course will be face to face in a very large room with appropriate social distancing. Maximum 20 people. Subject to review of the circumstances nearer the time this course may move online.