Insider Witness Practices: Performing Hope and Beauty in Narrative Therapy

Insider Witness Practices (IWP) represent a dramatic re-imagination of narrative therapy practice through the use of performance. As the counterpoint to Michael White’s Outsider Witness Practices, these practices return narrative therapy to its very beginnings; a history for the future. Through a one-session performance, clients become witnesses to a hope-biased portrayal of their lives as performed by their therapist. This portrayal is intended to situate the significant events of clients’ lives within rich story lines that serve as a revelation of their moral character as persons. As a result, clients become both an insider and outsider to their own lived experiences and are afforded the unusual opportunity to experience their own selves as if they were an ‘other.’ From this insider/outsider vantage point, they are able to experience heightened levels of meaning making, self-compassion and self-appreciation.

The results in this experimental IWP approach have so far have exceeded participants’ wildest expectations. Given that this practice has to be seen to be believed,  David and Tom will do more showing than telling during this one day workshop.   Through performance of client videos and transcripts, they will use an immersive experiential learning process to convey what clients, therapists, and others have described as the dramatic and even magical potential of this practice. The presentation will also include the performance of a verbatim play that attempts to capture one client’s transformative experience of Insider Witness Practices.

Registration opens at 8:30. Workshop is from 9am-5pm.

• Regular registration: $155 (regular) or $125 (student/fixed income)
• For an additional $20, sign up for 7  Continuing Education credits from Alliant International University