Letter-writing – Re-Authoring Teaching

November 19, 2023 Collab Salon: Letter writing campaigns: You never know what might emerge from a ‘roadblock’

Are you meeting with people who are living with Despair? Or where problem stories or descriptions have taken over a person’s identity, and/or where systemic, structural and/or institutional forms of oppression have contributed to ‘totalized identity conclusions’? (Eg. I’m a Troublemaker, I’m Too Damaged To Be In A Relationship, There’s Something Wrong With Me’). What guides your approach to conversations with people facing Despair, or where a person’s identity has been overtaken by a problem story? Amy Druker will share an attempt at a letter writing campaign with a young person who was (at the time of the proposed letter writing campaign) surviving within the carceral system, and what emerged when we encountered a “roadblock”. Amy will share a recorded interview with a friend of the young person who was surviving time inside, who participated in the project of helping her friend reclaim his life from Despair and Hopelessness.

Peggy Sax2023-11-21T13:25:58-05:00October 11th, 2022|0 Comments

April 17, 2022 Collab Salon: Letter as Threshold: Inhabiting Metaphor in Narrative Letter Writing Practices

We live through the narrative metaphor, yet many of us as Narrative Therapists find ourselves lost when invitations to metaphor beckon at the edges of our therapeutic conversations. From the forgiving editorial space of Narrative letters, this presentation invites participants to identify, expand, and inhabit metaphor to externalize problems, develop unique outcomes, and recruit an appreciative audience. Akansha and Randy will share some of the metaphor-centered letters they’ve written and invite participants to begin exploring metaphor in text while collaboratively resisting the gravitational pull of Cleverness that sometimes keeps pen from paper.

Peggy Sax2022-04-18T15:27:54-04:00October 2nd, 2021|0 Comments

February 20, 2022 Collab Salon: Authoring Your Life: Narrative Practices with Writing

What does it mean to “author your life?” Like all things, the phrase has no fixed meaning. It is just a collection of words. For us, the phrase takes us to the politics of meaning-making and calls into question who has the rights to claim authorship of anything. We stand in support of the idea that you have special authorship rights when it comes to whatever it is that matters to you, whether that is your personal identity, events that have taken place in your life, or a project that you are taking up and care about. Writing what you think and feel, and why, in your unique way is precious and no one has any right to demean or diminish it. No one else has a right to evaluate what you think or how you express it. They can share the effects that it has on them or take a different position, but they don’t get to cast judgement on the legitimacy of your position or the quality of your expression.

Peggy Sax2022-02-22T05:53:56-05:00September 23rd, 2021|2 Comments

October 18, 2020 Collab Salon: Narrative Letter Writing Across Divides

During the sixteen years of my supervision & apprenticeship relationship with David Epston, David has taught me how to write narrative letters, including letters co-authored with clients. Over the last couple of years, I have been inventing a new letter-writing practice: Co-authoring letters with clients to other family members with whom there has been a rift, or where important issues have not been spoken about. If you would like to learn how to bring a new type of letter writing into your work, do join us! Kay Ingamells

Peggy Sax2020-10-21T05:34:32-04:00September 8th, 2019|0 Comments