The Book

Previews, reviews and to order.

Tributes to
Michael White

Sign our Guestbook and tell us where you live

April 26, 2009

Narrative Conversations in Tuscany, 25 - 30 June, 2009!

With delight, Peggy Sax (Vermont, USA) and Gaye Stockell (Sydney, Australia) offer this 5-day replenishing seminar on narrative practice at the historic Villa Rinascimento in Lucca, nestled in the Tuscan countryside.

We know no better way to understand concepts than applying them to our own lives and work. Participants will directly experience the narrative practices we are studying: separating problems from the person and placing them in context, mapping and expressing personal values and commitments, asking questions that generate experiences of self knowledge and understanding, experiencing the poetics of our words, and serving as witnesses to each others' stories.

Come join an enlivening international group of practitioners - therapists, counselors, social workers, physicians and nurses - to engage in narrative conversations that refresh the spirit of our work, while savoring the panoramic views, charming Italian culture, and special Tuscan countryside tranquility.

To register: http://italyseminars.com/seminars/gaye-stockell-and-peggy-sax-in-tuscany/

The Narrative Practice and Collaborative Inquiry Study Group - Peggy Sax

The international online study group is finding its members, one person at a time. After much tinkering, the site has become a user-friendly meeting place for ongoing study of narrative practice and collaborative inquiry. The newly updated media library includes articles, audio and video recordings. For example, this week we are reading Lynn Hoffman's article, "The art of withness," chapters - one at a time - from Michael White's Maps of Narrative Practice And we are watching the Masterswork recording of the Michael White interview- - REAUTHORING LIVES THROUGH STORIES OF CARING A weekly update summarizes what's new, draws attention to "hot topics" and makes it possible for anyone to join at any time. Please consider joining us.

Special announcement: International Training Programme in Narrative Therapy

Narrative Practices Adelaide announces a year long international programme in collaboration with:

January 3, 2009

The Narrative Practice and Collaborative Inquiry Study Group - Peggy Sax

"New Year's greetings from wintery Vermont!" In 2008, we lost a great teacher, mentor and friend – Michael White. His untimely death has far-reaching effects on many practitioners, as reflected on this website. The "Narrative practice and Collaborative Inquiry" study group is one of many answers to questions posed by John Winslade and Lorraine Hedtke (2008)."What has Michael left us with and what might we do with this legacy? How might his legacy continue to grow and develop and how might we contribute to this development?"

For some time, I have dreamed of creating an international study group where people from different countries, work settings, designated roles, and levels of experience can come together in an online community of active learners. Since 2001, I have been constructing blended learning courses to teach narrative practice that combine face-to-face sessions and an interactive website. Up until now, I have experimented with creating a “collaboratory” in academic settings, teaching social work and psychology students. Now I am thrilled to extend a warm welcome to those who can join me in creating a web-based collaborative learning venture, "The Narrative Practice and Collaborative Inquiry Study group." My hope is that we will create webs of connection that traverse the world, making it possible to share experiences and get to know each other, though some of us may never actually meet in person.

In September, 2008, I began a small online study group. That initial discussion tool was good for starters, but I quickly grew frustrated by some of its limitations. As of January, 2009, we officially migrate to a "new, improved" forum that includes discussion boards, a media library with readings and recordings, exercises for practice, guest authors, consultations with esteemed leaders in the field, and ample opportunities for inquiry and reflection. We begin with extensive study of Michael White's remarkable contributions to counseling and community work. I am delighted to announce our first featured guest authors: Bill Madsen, Sallyann Roth, Lynn Hoffman and David Epston, each of whom offer tremendous food for thought and practical guidance about inquiring collaboratively. Soon, study group members will have opportunities to also study contributions of Maggie Carey, Shona Russell, Johnella Bird, Ken Hardy, Jennifer Freeman, Dean Lobovits, Rick Maisel, Lorraine Hedtke, John Winslade and others. My hope is for this study group to become a place where we can honor each other's contributions – the well known and the hidden jewels – toward becoming more skilled practitioners."

This new study group brings together a lively international community of colleagues, coming from different professional backgrounds and levels of experience. So far, our group includes social workers, psychologists, counselors, and nurses. Some of us have been exposed to narrative ideas and practices for many years. Others have less experience, and perhaps fresher eyes. Some people are seasoned practitioners in independent practice, while others work primarily in community agencies, hospitals, or universities. Some of us have personal experience as service seekers dealing with emotional challenges and psychiatric crises in our own lives, and/or with spouses, family members, and friends. Some members are talented writers, and others are less confident writing, expressing themselves more freely in song, dance, art, or.. . We all come to this endeavor with different skills and knowledge –it is my hope that we can be experienced consultants to each other.

The group will stay open for enough members to make for conversation – of the kind that never ends. I will do my best to make it possible for others to join the conversation as we continue. And to ensure we don't grow so big that we lose the hominess that I associate with Vermont, USA, my own home.

For further information please click here

Monday, August 25, 2008

Introduction

“Collaboratory” blends the words collaboration and laboratory to convey an environment without walls where participants use communication technologies to connect with a sense of discovery over a shared project. The book Re-authoring Teaching applies the collaboratory metaphor to teaching, showing how the addition of an interactive website has the potential to turn a course into a vital collaborative learning community. This website now extends the conversation beyond the formal structure of a course by offering space for teachers, students, practitioners and clients to transcend designated roles, sharing stories and teaching practices. We hope to create an international learning community to share teaching stories, practices, dilemmas and enthusiasms. Throughout, we will only share stories with permission, and act carefully in accordance with professional codes of ethics as psychologists, social workers, mental health counselors, psychiatrists and physicians.

Rather than drawing sharp distinctions between practitioners’ lives and the lives of people who seek help, we seek to develop ethical practices that build on professional knowledge, while earnestly learning about life experiences from the people who seek our services. We urge you to make our website what you would like it to be, expanding the circle of connections through your participation.

Tribute to Michael White

This website begins as a tribute to Michael White, the gifted and creative co-founder of narrative therapy. His life’s work and his untimely death in April, 2008 have affected many people worldwide. (click here to read further tributes). Michael offered a language and specific practices that enabled therapists to become less professionally distanced, more participatory and linked with a community of support. His narrative explorations were journeys that awoke in people a sense of agency, a realization that they could actively shape their own lives. The following quote best conveys Michael White's ethic of collaboration - inspiring this website to become a meeting place where people who believe in collaborative inquiry can exchange ideas and teaching practices and learn from each other.

"And what of solidarity: I am thinking of a solidarity that is constructed by therapists who refuse to draw a sharp distinction between their lives and the lives of others, who refuse to marginalize those persons who seek help by therapists who to constantly confront the fact that if faced with …the troubles of others, they just might not be doing nearly as well themselves."

- Michael White

Te Whakaakona
“The New Zealand Maori word Te Whakaakona includes in one word the concepts of teaching and learning; which traditionally in Western ways of thinking are viewed a different processes involving different positions for the participants. ...The teacher and students learn side-by-side, the teacher is responsible for teaching practices that foster learning through discovery for both students and teacher, and, feedback on practice.”

Dorothea Lewis and Aileen Cheshire