Learning Center

What if, rather than focusing on presenting problems, symptoms, diagnoses and other traditional approaches to working with clients, we embraced a culturally democratic approach that invites clients to speak on behalf of their own healing? Discover how to go beyond listening and emphasizing, and learn how to collaborate with clients using their existing strengths, traditions and heritage.

Help your clients better navigate life after loss and cultivate the seeds of transformative growth with the rich trove of tools demonstrated in this four-volume series by renowned grief experts Robert Neimeyer and Carolyn Ng. Working with seven clients suffering a range of losses, they’ll guide you through a powerful meaning-based approach to grief therapy that goes far beyond normalizing, educating and symptom management, to nurture growth from grief. 

Watch expert Narrative therapist Stephen Madigan in an actual counseling session with a perfectionist 10-year old boy and his mother.

Ollie is a 12 year-old African-American boy who has been court-ordered to therapy after hitting his classmate with his belt. Watch Stephen Madigan, expert Narrative therapist, as he compassionately engages Ollie and his mother in a fascinating inquiry into their experience of racism, discovering there’s much more to this incident than meets the eye.

This video offers an introduction to the tools and techniques of Narradrama, a therapeutic approach that combines narrative therapy, drama therapy and creative arts.

Effective therapy with African American men requires an in-depth understanding of their current and historical struggles, and a willingness to confront topics which may require both therapists and clients to be uncomfortable. This groundbreaking online course combines numerous sessions and expert commentary that will increase your confidence and efficacy in working with Black men.

What do you do when you meet with a client who has no presenting problems? For many therapists, their approach is so pathology-oriented that such sessions can feel unfocused and disarming. Discover a Contemporary Narrative Therapy approach that shifts the focus to people, not problems, and invites you to engage with your client’s stories with a curiosity and creativity that cultivates hope and healing. 

One of the greatest challenges to working with grieving clients is helping to free them from the pain of the “event story,” or the circumstances and details of their loved one’s death — especially when the loss is traumatic. In this video, the second in a four-volume series, clinicians will learn to skillfully and compassionately help grieving clients gain some therapeutic distance from the event story of their loss through the process of restorative re-telling.

Working with grieving clients who enjoyed a positive relationship with their lost loved one usually centers around sadness, yearning, and separation distress. This video, the third in our four-volume series, will deepen clinicians’ skills in working with this form of “adaptive grief” while also helping other clients navigate the more challenging terrain of complicated bereavement, dominated by prolonged, and debilitating loss-related symptomatology. 

Therapists working with grief may become overly focused on the loss, missing out on growth opportunities for the client. This video, the final in our four-volume series, will further prepare clinicians to work with grieving clients by guiding them in the reconstruction of their identity and relationships as they begin to integrate their loss.    

How can you bring yourself to the room more fully as a person, offering more than just empathy? Discover how to become an active participant in the process of moving clients beyond the limits of their worlds as they know them. Using a Contemporary Narrative Therapy approach, you can help clients trace the profound impact of systemic racism, and redefine not just their own stories, but the limits they have set for themselves.

Do you want to know your clients beyond the constrictive labels of presenting problems, diagnoses and other traditional constructs of psychotherapy? Using a Narrative Therapy lens, Travis Heath will show you a culturally democratic approach to therapy that draws upon existing client strengths, traditions and other resources to foster deep understanding, insight and connection.

Understand the cultural and historical challenges African American men face daily, increase your confidence and learn key skills for establishing the strong alliance necessary to work with this population.

Appreciating what it means to be Black in a racialized society and the pernicious impact of racism on emotional development and identity is essential for therapeutic success with African American clients.

Honest exploration of the complexities and challenges of life as an African American man requires a unique combination of empathy and insight that you will gain by watching this in-depth therapeutic encounter.

This session demonstrates the core of ITR for treating trauma. Linda helps Diane to create a “Graphic Narrative” – a trauma story done in a series of drawings on separate pieces of paper, based on the Instinctual Trauma Response – ITR. A “before” and an “after” drawing serve as bookends to make the story complete and – most importantly – to finally bring the trauma to an end.

With the help of a creative narrative therapist a child and his mother chase away the ghost of anger.  

In this riveting interview with scholar and clinician, Makungu Akinyela, we learn the matters of Black therapy and that Black Therapy matters.

A Brazilian narrative therapist takes us on a journey through a lush garden of metaphors she uses in her clinical work to add enthusiasm and imagination to her questions.

Learn how to tap into the power of your clients' stories to promote meaningful change and deepen the therapeutic bond.

Narrative Clinician, Sasha McAllum Pilkington, shares poignant stories she co-created with hospice clients which honor and celebrate their lives.

A creative clinician shares her romance with – and successful use of – narrative letter writing in therapy to deepen the therapeutic bond with her clients.

Bridging the distance between herself, a Pakeha" New Zealander, and her client, a Maori" New Zealander, Sasha McAllum Pilkington shows how relationships can mean the difference between life and death.

Join Psychotherapy.net’s editor Lawrence Rubin in a fascinating conversation with clinician/educator/author Dr. Travis Heath as they deconstruct and rebuild the practice of psychotherapy. 

In part one of Spitting Truth from My Soul, Narrative Therapist Travis Heath and his client “Ray the Philosopher” use rapping to forge a bond of connection and hope.

In part two of “Spitting Truth from My Soul”, Narrative Therapist Travis Heath and his client Ray The Philosopher continue their healing beat. 

In the shadow of grief, Sasha Pilkington helps a couple embrace the gift of life along with their impending loss.

Following the loss of her husband, a client finds her way back to living fully for herself and her children through narrative storytelling.

A creative Narrative therapist helps a lonely, depressed client liberate herself from lifelong depression through poetry and imagination.

In the spirit of Irvin Yalom’s “Every Day Gets a Little Closer,” a therapist and her client share the richness of the therapeutic journey through collaborative writing.

Working with dying clients demands that clinicians honor their choices and desires in end-of-life care.

Hoyt discusses brief and narrative therapy, working within managed care, and why some stories are better than others.

A culturally sensitive therapist connects deeply with an indigenous client, using Narrative Therapy techniques and EMDR to support her in healing herself and her community. 

David Nylund takes us to the intersection of Narrative Therapy, subversion and a vision of queertopia.