
Rich Story Development Series
An Introduction to Rich Story Development with Maggie Carey
Course Description

This course—the first in our Rich Story Development Series—offers a clear, concise and down-to-earth journey into topics about story development, including the narrative metaphor, landscapes of stories, double listening, loitering with intent, mapping meaning and action, personal agency, listening for resonance, making links, and neurobiology. The course is organized into six lessons (see below) and illustrated with edited video clips from Maggie Carey‘s June 2014 workshop in Shelburne, Vermont: Catching up with Narrative therapy: The Art of Going Slowly with Intent . Registration gives unlimited access to all course materials for personal use for an unlimited time. You can start this course at anytime: all course materials are available on-demand, and adaptable to personal schedules. For an additional $20, registrants can earn 12 APA approved CE credits through Alliant International University.
Course Objectives
Participants will:
- Gain an understanding of the ways in which the various micro-practices of Narrative Therapy are linked.
- Develop skills in inviting the development and embodiment of rich stories of self.
- Be able to identify small openings for story development.
- Gain an enhanced understanding of the conceptual landscape of identity.
- Utilize appropriate pathways to the development of stories of personal agency.
- Attend to the constraints of time and resource in workplace settings.
We are thrilled to welcome Maggie Carey, a member of Narrative Practices Adelaide- the center Michael started in 2008, just a few months before his untimely death. In this course, Maggie presents ideas and practices that she has gathered as a close associate of Michael White – his writings, his ideas, his work. She respectfully extends Michael’s metaphors of story, maps and landscape to create an overall map, offering clear pathways to rich story development.

Maggie Carey
Registration for this Self-Paced Course
- Regular: $130 USD
- Re-Authoring Teaching Member 10 % Discount: $117 USD
- Student or Fixed income: $112 USD
- 12 CE Credit: $25 extra
When you purchase the course
- You will receive an email with the link to the correct page for beginning the course.
- Each lesson and topic has space at the bottom for comments.
- Contact us if you would like a Study-Buddy – a partner with whom to move through the course.
- Please contact us to inquire about a group rate, a scholarship reduced fee or a live webinar.
If you have already registered, access course here:
Earning Continuing Education?
Psychologists and other mental health professionals can earn 12 APA approved Continuing Education credits through Alliant International University! You will need to pay the extra $25 fee. Simply pass the quiz at the end of the course, and email your confirmation to reauthoringcollabor[email protected]. We will send you the certificate of completion.
Lesson Descriptions

Lesson One: A Quick Outline
What do we mean by rich story development? Maggie Carey – a close associate of Michael White- sets the stage for his course by introducing her context at Narrative Practices Adelaide in South Australia, and giving a brief review of several key concepts in narrative therapy: the narrative metaphor, externalizing conversations, literary theory, alternative storyline development and experiencing personal agency. Here is a little glimpse at Maggie offering a brief description of personal agency as the foundation for rich story development:
Guided by Maggie Carey, with a focus on the works of Shona Russell, Rob Hall, Michael White, Lev Vygotsky and Gil Deleuze

Lesson Two: Using Maps as Metaphor
Michael White introduced maps of narrative practice as a guide to interviewing practices toward rich story development. His book, Maps of Narrative Practice, offers an excellent description of these maps. In this lesson, Maggie further extends Michael’s metaphor of maps and landscape, and shows how she uses a white board to map out several clear pathways to rich story development.
Guided by Maggie Carey, with a focus on the works of Michael White, and Shona Russell

Lesson Three: Developing the Problem Story
We show how to build on The Statement of Position Map to guide responding to the problem story, exploring the effects, creating reflecting surfaces and asking why. The lesson ends with showing how responding to the problem story can be a pathway to discover the preferred story.
Guided by Maggie Carey, with a focus on the works of Michael White, Lev Vygotsky, William James, Russell Meares and Paul Ricoeur

Lesson Four: Developing the Preferred Story
In the fourth lesson, we explore how narrative practice can render more visible a person’s preferred account of identity while making links with doing and experiencing. As taught by Michael White, Maggie enters into a person’s conceptual landscape of meaning, by attending to categories of meaning or identity. Additionally, she pays close attention to the particularities of the doing and experiencing- listening for initiatives, making links, linking with themes and drawing out skills and know-how.
Guided by Maggie Carey, with a focus on the works of Michael White, and Lev Vygotsky

Lesson Five: An Overall Map
This lesson illustrates an overall map based on double listening to guide narrative practice, and loitering in rich story development. Putting narrative maps together, Maggie shows how describes the statement of position map and the re-authoring map can come together into one elegant map.
Guided by Maggie Carey with a focus on the works of Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin, Michael White, Lev Vygotsky and William James

Lesson Six: Putting Ideas into Practice
Our final lesson puts ideas into practice. We try out an exercise done in pairs, and review four pathways to rich story development.