Graduate Certificate in Narrative Therapy

What is narrative therapy?

(Michael White, April 4th 2008)

Narrative Therapy approaches which were originally developed by Michael White (at Dulwich Centre, Australia) and David Epston (Family Centre, New Zealand).   Narrative therapy holds that our identities are shaped by the accounts of our lives found in our stories or narratives. A narrative therapist is interested in helping others fully describe their rich stories and trajectories, modes of living, and possibilities associated with them. At the same time, this therapist is interested in co-investigating a problem's many influences, including on the person himself and on their chief relationships. By focusing on problems' effects on people's lives rather than on problems as inside or part of people, distance is created. This externalization or objectification of a problem makes it easier to investigate and evaluate the problem's influences. Another sort of externalization is likewise possible when people reflect upon and connect with their intentions, values, hopes, and commitments. Once values and hopes have been located in specific life events, they help to “re-author” or “re-story” a person's experience and clearly stand as acts of resistance to problems.

Dulwich Centre

Dulwich Centre is an independent centre in Adelaide, Australia involved in: narrative therapy, community work, training, publishing, supporting practitioners in different parts of the world, and co-hosting international conferences. They write and publish books on narrative therapy. So much has occurred since Dulwich Centre first opened her doors in 1983! First of all, a way of working, 'narrative approaches to counselling and community work' has evolved. This way of working has not only been developed, but has moved from being a marginal approach to one that is now considered a mainstream modality in many contexts. Secondly, a 'community of ideas' and a 'community of practitioners' have grown in many different parts of the world and linked in many ways - through the ideas and practices, journals and books, narrative connections and other websites, e-lists, and workshops and conferences. So many people have contributed to these developments, in so many different ways. Throughout these developments Dulwich Centre has been, and continues to be, a place of narrative therapy, community work, training, publishing, conferences and conversation! 

Dulwich Centre has an international network of narrative practitioners and has members from USA, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and many other countries around the world. They are consistently hearing from therapists from other places who are making links through their website (http://www.dulwichcentre.com.au).

Course Objective

The course has 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. It is a structured course that teaches a collective of narrative therapy techniques. It opens up a wide array of possibilities and ideas for social service workers to explore and experience new ways and practices to their work.

This therapy is now being used by therapists, social workers and counsellors in many parts of the world in a wide-range of contexts. Due to significant interest in narrative therapy in Singapore, the Graduate Certificate in Narrative Therapy offered by Dulwich Centre, Australia is brought in by Academy of Human Development (AHD) to train social workers, counsellors and people-helpers in using narrative therapy approaches to effectively help clients and people solve problems by themselves.