Unlocking the Power of Narrative Therapy

Deepen your knowledge and support your clients with narrative therapy.

Enhance resilience, self-awareness, and relationships for your clients. This training will explore the philosophical underpinnings and theoretical perspectives, externalization including metaphors, questions and conversations, reauthoring conversations and discovering how unique outcomes lay a path for healing. Here are two articles that can provide context about what narrative therapy is, and the benefits of it:

• What is Narrative Therapy: Read the Article

• 5 Benefits of Narrative Therapy:  Read the article

This two-part workshop will focus on the theory and practice of Narrative Therapy. The training is designed for both individuals who already have familiarity with the practice of Narrative Therapy as well as a great foundation for newer clinicians.

What we cover in these workshops:

• The philosophical underpinnings and theoretical perspectives of Narrative Therapy
• Externalization in detail including metaphors, questions and conversations
• We will employ both didactic and interactive approaches to enhance our learning.
• A brief homework exercise focused on systemic issues in externalisation will create a bridge between this webinar and the next.
• We will explore who and what supports problems in our clients’ lives and review participants’ discoveries from the homework exercise.
• We will then move into reauthoring conversations and discovering how unique outcomes lay a path for healing.
• Finally, we will briefly investigate definitional ceremonies and rituals as components of Narrative Therapy.

The webinars will be based on the presenter’s clinical practice as well as the work of Michael White, Cheryl White, David Epston, Ruth Pluznick, Stephen Madigan, Karl Tomm, Angel Yuen, Richard Maisel, Elliot Goldner and others. Handouts will be provided before the webinars to allow time for those with less knowledge of the method to become more fluent. Handouts, including journal articles and websites for additional learning, will be provided following the second webinar.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER:

Lawrence Murphy, MA

Lawrence’s interest in Narrative Therapy began when he attended the first Vancouver Narrative Therapy conference in 1993.

His team at Surrey Clinic, the BC government’s flagship outpatient addictions centre then began using narrative methods in their work. When Mr. Murphy moved to Saskatoon and began working in the EAP field he brought his knowledge of Narrative Therapy with him and used these methods working with youth, families and Indigenous clients.

With Therapy Online, Lawrence combined Narrative with text-based counselling methods that he and his colleagues created and developed a hybrid method for Internet-based therapy. Lawrence has been employing, teaching and training in Narrative work for more than 30 years.

He is presently working on a self-help book based on Narrative approaches.

Lawrence Murphy is the founder of Worldwide Therapy Online, the world’s first online clinical practice, established in 1994. In collaboration with the National Board for Certified Counselors, he and his colleagues authored the first ethical code for online counselling. Through Therapy Online’s Research Institute, Lawrence and his colleagues publish regularly in the academic literature, including their seminal 1998 work When Writing Helps to Heal: Email as Therapy, which has been cited more than 410 times in the academic literature. His most recent publication is a chapter in the Routledge Handbook of African Social Work Education.

Through Therapy Online’s Training Centre, Mr. Murphy and his colleagues have trained thousands of clinicians worldwide. And during the pandemic Lawrence delivered 144 half-day trainings to a total of more than 15,000 mental health professionals across Canada. He is a sought-after consultant, having worked with agencies and organisations including Health Canada, Singapore’s Institute of Mental Health and Anishinawbe Health Toronto. Lawrence has spoken as a presenter and invited keynote speaker at conferences throughout Canada and around the world.

Lawrence received his MA in Counselling Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 1995. He teaches in the Department of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University and in the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto. He is a full professional member of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association.