A Year-Long Series Exploring Contemporary and Emerging Narrative Practices 

18 ALLIANT CEs NOW APPROVED!

“What is your narrative backbone?” was a magnificent event due to all the thought, planning, and how you all navigated what had seemed to me to be a very difficult course. I hope this initial event encouraged you for what lies ahead of the reimagined Collab. I thank you all so much, knowing this was no easy feat.

What a great gathering you organized and hosted! We were delighted to be part of it. Thank you for including us. For participants in our yearlong program it was so important to have participated in a gathering of a larger narrative community. So thank you for that opportunity as well.

Jill Freedman & Gene Combs, International Teachers, Co-directors EFTC

I loved the feel you created—with the unrushed opening welcome that started us off with such great questions, that sense of settling in, and the sense that each person had something to contribute and to think about from their perspective. You supplied all that in so many ways, and I loved it! I felt each of you in there with such love and collaboration!

Thank you all so much for hosting such a successful afternoon. Gathering 74 people on a Sunday afternoon is quite an undertaking. I appreciate you all and wish you the very best with this new initiative.

Being involved and included among such notable colleagues was an honor and delightful honor! The NextGen Collaboratory is creating a wonderful platform to continue onward with the Narrative Spirit! You have nurtured such a respectful welcoming of me over the years that hits the heart of what it means to engage in “narrative work.”  So it is I who offer you my deepest gratitude. I hope the next generation finds meaningful ways to keep us engaged and in the community.

Arturo Sanchez, PhD, Teacher, California State University, Chico

I really enjoyed the gathering!!  I appreciate your thought-ful ways of co-creating a lovely space to be in together.  It was energizing to spend time with all the folks there, and to get a chance to spend time with the three of you.  Delightful to see some people, like Maggie and David, that I had not seen in a long time.  I always enjoy conversations with Jill and was glad to be with her and Maggie in the conversation.  Thank you for inviting me to participate!

Poh Lin Lee

Akansha Vaswani-Bye

Peggy Sax

Co-hosts Poh Lin Lee, Akansha Vaswani-Bye, Peggy Sax and MANY cherished contributors

May 19, 2024; September 15, 2024; November 17, 2024; January 19, 2025; March 16, 2025, May 18, 2025

Sundays 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm EST or EDT (New York time)

Beginning May 19, 2024, co-hosts Poh Lin Lee,  Akansha Vaswani-Bye, and Peggy Sax will facilitate a series of six bi-monthly 3-hour gatherings reaffirming our narrative foundations while exploring contemporary and emerging narrative practices. With a deepening understanding of intercultural considerations, differences, and accountability, our new series embraces a co-learning approach based on “creating a collaboratory,” bringing together teachers, practitioners, students, and enthusiasts to explore a narrative approach across therapeutic, creative, community, political, academic and organizational fields. As the name suggests, the NextGen Collaboratory will emphasize the emergence of contemporary narrative therapy. It gives a platform to younger voices from varied cultural backgrounds that stretch and grow Narrative Therapy in the ever-evolving ways we believe the originators hoped would be their continuing legacy.  

We hope you will sign up for the series of all six gatherings and be part of these community conversations as they unfold.  If you book the entire series, you will receive a discounted rate. Re-Authoring Teaching members get further discounts.  Depending on your financial situation, choose between Patron, Sustaining, or Subsizided rates. You can earn 18 Alliant CE credits for the entire series, or 3 CEs for attending each of the six online gatherings.

Register for the NextGen Series
Earn 18 CEs for the Series
Register for Gathering #3, November 17
Earn 3 CEs for Gathering #3, November 17

Next, we describe each of the six gatherings. You can register for single events if you cannot join us for the entire series.

A Series of Six 3-Hour Generative Conversations

Each gathering brings contributors from different perspectives to participate in a conversation focusing on a particular theme.  Witnesses to this conversation will then gather in small facilitated groups to reflect and inquire according to specific guiding questions into what they have heard, places of resonance, and ripple effects on their own experiences. Coming back together as a large group, we anticipate discoveries, new possibilities, and grappling with congruence.

Re-Authoring Teaching Members can register at a discount. While we encourage everyone to sign up for the entire series, it is also possible to select specific events.  You can earn 3 CE credits for each of the six gatherings.

Gathering #1: Building contemporary narrative therapy on what matters most to us.

**What is your narrative backbone?

Sunday, May 19, 2024 

4:00 pm- 7:00 pm EDT

Facilitators: Poh Lin Lee & Akansha Vaswani-Bye

Confirmed conversationalists: Maggie Carey, Gene Combs, David Epston, Jill Freedman, Sarah Beth Hughes, Charley Lang,  Gerald Monk, Marcy Rivas, Arturo Sanchez, Peggy Sax, Karen Young & Larry Zucker.

A conversation with narrative teachers exploring the luminaries that guide us, ethical considerations and other steadfast commitments, enduring practices, ideas, hopes, and special interests as we become witnesses to re-envisioning the future of narrative therapy.

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Gathering #2: Widening the Tent, Creating Bridges, Building Community

**How are you actively cross-pollinating with other fields of inquiry?

Sunday September 15, 2024

4:00 pm- 7:00 pm EDT

Facilitators:  Akansha Vaswani-Bye & Peggy Sax

Conversationalists include Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin (Positive psychology, IPNB & mindfulness),  Lucy Cotter (the arts), SuEllen Hamkins (psychiatry), Chris Hoff (The Encyclopedia of Radical Helping), Poh Lin Lee (multi-storied bodies), Sheila McNamee (dialogic transformation),  Mark Mullkoff (Deleuzean philosophy), Mary Clark Moschella (Pastoral counseling), marcela polanco (decoloniality), Lynne Rosen (EMDR and somatic therapies), Navid Zamani (the affective turn).

A conversation about cross-pollinating with other fields of inquiry, social justice, community-building efforts, enthusiasms, cautions, emerging explorations, and grappling with congruence.

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Gathering #3: Innovations in Writing, Teaching, Supervision, Co-Research, and Research Practices

**How does narrative therapy shape your adventures with writing, research, co-research, supervision and teaching practices?

Sunday, November 17, 2024, 4:00 -7:00 pm EST

Facilitators:  Poh Lin Lee & Peggy Sax

Conversationalists include John Beckenbach, Tim Donovan, Amy Druker, Sol Durso, Sarah Beth Hughes, Sarah Kahn, Robert Lester, Randy Nelson, Beth Prullage, Juan Carlos García Rivera, Shawn Patrick, Arturo Sanchez and Akansha Vaswani-Bye.

Exploring how narrative ideas, practices, and ethics have spawned a range of co-research, research, supervision, teaching, writing and technological possibilities.

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Gathering #4: Considering Practices Across the Life Span and Differing Contexts

**Where do you focus your work, attending to specific contexts across the lifespan?

Sunday, January 19, 2025, 4:00-7:00 pm EST

Confirmed Conversationalists include Lodovica Guidarelli, Mona Klausing, Poh Lin Lee, Courtney Olinger, Shuo Yuan (袁硕),  Keiko Tsuzuki, Sabine Vermeire and Julia Wallace.

Facilitators: Akansha Vaswani-Bye & Peggy Sax

We build on the migration of identity metaphor and intergenerational explorations to discover innovative narrative practices with children and families, couples, death and dying, and other specific contexts.

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Gathering #5: Expressive Arts and Narrative Practice

**How do creative traditions and practices collaborate with narrative therapy in your context?

Sunday, March 16, 2025, 4:00-7:00 pm EST

Confirmed Conversationalists include Gabrielle Brady, Piper Clyborne, Ingrid Guerrieri, Jen (Kiki) Hart, Astrid Jones, Poh Lin Lee, Natalie Ivin Poole, Shoshana Simons, and Jon Tatelman.

Facilitators: Akansha Vaswani-Bye & Peggy Sax

We bring together people engaging in narrative practice with arts, music, filmmaking, and other creative contributions.

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Gathering #6: Beyond the Therapy Room

**How would you describe the places you co-create when you take narrative practices beyond the traditional therapy settings?

Sunday, May 18, 2025, 4:00 -7:00 pm EDT

Confirmed Conversationalists include Daniel Angus, Jenny Freeman, Yiannis Kafkas, Peggy Sax, Kitty Thatcher, Frankie Hanman Siegersma, Akansha Vaswani-Bye

Facilitators: Charley Lang & Poh Lin Lee

What travels with you, what is encountered, and what are ethical considerations when you engage with such innovative practices as peer support, home visiting, ecotherapy, and co-centering.

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Series Conversationalists

We are thrilled to bring together a team of colleagues contributing to this  series

Daniel Angus

Daniel Angus (Sydney, Australia) is a Psychologist and board-approved clinical supervisor who splits his time supporting early career helping professionals, seeing clients in his private practice, and fulfilling his commitments to a range of organizations, one of which is as Deputy Commissioner for the New South Wales Mental Health Commission. Daniel was formerly managing Headspace Services, a busy adolescent mental health service supporting young people in both a Primary care setting and those with first-episode psychosis in Western Sydney. More recently, Daniel held a National position with Canteen Australia providing support to Canteen’s Psychosocial Staff employed to support young people impacted by Cancer. Daniel has worked in a range of public and non-government services and continues to provide consultation to various boards and committees. Daniel has a strong interest in creative recovery, is focused on collaborative treatment approaches, and has trained specifically in Narrative therapy, and is particularly passionate about creative and engaging approaches to adolescent mental health.

Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin
Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin, Ph.D., deeply cherishes nature and values being a mother, wife, activist, consultant, teacher, and compassionate practitioner. She was born and raised in Canada, is French speaking, loves cross-country skiing, dancing, rock climbing, and hiking snowy mountain peaks.

Marie-Nathalie directs Skills for Kids, Parents & Schools (SKIPS), a 9-month intense narrative therapy, neurobiology and mindfulness training program in California where she works with children, adults, families, and school communities. Prior to immersing herself in narrative therapy in the early 1990s, Marie-Nathalie had trained in Human Biology and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. She now brings together fields that have influenced her life and work for the last 30 years, and as a result has pioneered narrative clinical practices to respond to distressing emotions and traumatic experiences. She has written over 50 professional articles and many books such as the popular The SKiLL-ionaire in every child: Boosting childrens socio-emotional skills using the latest in brain research (2010), written for parents, teachers and counselors (French, English, Spanish). She has also co-authored Collaborative Therapies and neurobiology: Evolving practices in action (Beaudoin & Duvall, 2017), and Mindfulness in a busy world: Lowering barriers for youth & adults to cultivate focus, emotional peace & gratefulness (Beaudoin & Maki, 2021). Her latest book, co-authored with Gerald Monk is currently in press with WW Norton and titled: Narrative practices and emotions: 40+ ways to support the emergence of flourishing identities. It combines her lifelong passion for the immense possibilities inherent to our bodies and brains, with novel narrative practices inspired by Interpersonal Neurobiology, Sensorimotor Therapy, and Positive Psychology. With a background in improvisational theater and dance, Marie-Nathalie is well-known for her thought provoking and engaging presentations. Her websites are www.mnbeaudoin.com and www.skillsforkids-SKIPS.com.

John Beckenbach

Dr. John Beckenbach, NCC, LPC (TX) is a Core Faculty in the Masters in Applied Psychology program at Antioch University. An experienced clinician, he specializes in counseling adult survivors of sexual trauma and abuse. Working from a post-modern position, his research area includes examining social justice and reconciliation processes, sexual trauma care, and couples counseling.

Gabrielle Brady

Gabrielle Brady is an award-winning Australian/ British Director and Screenwriter based in Berlin. Gabrielle’s debut feature film ‘Island of the Hungry Ghosts,' made in collaboration with narrative therapist Poh Lin Lee, was nominated for an Independent Spirit award, Cinema Eye Spotlight award and won the Best Documentary award at the Tribeca film festival, Mumbai International film festival and the Australian independent film awards. The film has been shown at major international film festivals as well as in cinemas worldwide and has received over 40 international prizes.

Gabrielle's work has been featured at the Museum of Moving Image NY, the Institute of Contemporary Arts London, and The Eye in Amsterdam. Her work has been selected as a ‘Critics Pick’ by the New York Times and described by the Guardian as ‘Fierce and compassionate.’ Gabrielle has recently completed two short films for gallery distribution, ‘Remain’ and ‘River Undain’ commissioned by the Art Gallery of NSW Australia and the Prototype platform. Gabrielle is in production on her next feature-length documentary project, ‘The Wolves Always Come at Night’, and is in development on her first feature fiction project, ‘Bird Colony’ (W.T). Gabrielle studied Documentary Direction for three years at La Escuela Internacional de Cine (EICTV) in Cuba. She has previously studied Theatre Performance. She is a Berlinale Doc Station and Talents Alumni.

Maggie Carey

In this course, Maggie Carey articulates and demonstrates narrative interviewing practices that she learned as a close associate of Michael White, co-founder of narrative therapy. Maggie was a founding member of Narrative Practices Adelaide, the center Michael started in 2008, just a few months before his untimely death. Alongside her colleagues Shona Russell and Rob Hall, she was involved in the teaching of narrative therapy and community work for many years, both in Australia and internationally. Prior to the establishment of NPA, Maggie was a cherished member of the Dulwich Centre teaching faculty. Now retired, Maggie thoroughly enjoys engaging with her home, gardens, family and community in Adelaide, S. Australia.

Piper Clyborne

Piper Clyborne is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has over 20 years of experience working with diverse populations in a multitude of clinical and non-clinical contexts from a