When

Tuesday, March 14, 2023 at 7:00 PM EDT
-to-
Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 4:00 PM EDT
Add to Calendar 

Where

This is an online event. 
 

 
 

Contact

Narrative Therapy Initiative 
Narrative Therapy Initiative 
617-821-9996 
narrativetherapyinitiative@gmail.com 

Authoring Your Life: A Narrative Writing Program 

Date: Every Tuesday March 14 - April 18th from 7pm - 9pm EST; and Saturday April 29th from noon to 4:00pm EST
Location: Online via Zoom
Instructors: Sarah Beth Hughes 
Maximum participants: 8

I am excited to invite eight people to join me for a writing program that Stephen Gaddis and I developed together in 2021. Sadly, Steve died in January 2022 and can’t join me in teaching this course.  It was such a joy to teach this together.  We taught together and supported each other in our writing practices.  He encouraged me to keep writing and teaching and I still feel him in me.  And I love that I have found ways for him to still be my writing partner and part of this course through my stories of him, our shared ideas, video clips, his writing, and my relationship with him. He will always influence me and how I teach.  I love to spread this influence out through these ideas about writing practices from a narrative worldview.   

Steve and I developed this write up together and I am keeping it as “we” in this description as I want to remind myself that he is with me in spirit if not in physical form.

Our course has been shaped by our passion for narrative ideas, practices, and ethics. Michael White believed that writing can help a person “experience one’s life as progressing.” Both of us have experienced that personally. We’ve also found that unlike anything else writing has helped us know what it can mean to become the primary author of our own lives. We love that writing can be profoundly meaningful and healing, and simultaneously playful and creative. Some of the spirit we intend to bring to this narrative writing program includes tenderness, attunement, intimacy, encouragement, enthusiasm, possibility, irreverence, discovery, and spontaneity.  

I have developed various prompts and exercises to assist you with thickening your stories. You will have chances to share your writings with an appreciative and supportive audience that we will develop together.

Among other things, we will be inviting you to write about:

  • Your relationship with writing
  • Problems that do not support you
  • What matters to you
  • Your preferred relationship with your “Self”
  • Membership for your preferred club of life

Starting March 14th, we plan to meet every Tuesday night for six weeks from 7pm to 9pm Eastern time. We will have a final gathering and co-witnessing on Saturday, April 29th from 12pm to 4pm Eastern time.

This program will be a live, interactive event using the Zoom web conferencing platform.  The program will be live streamed and recorded for NTI archives. By registering, you agree to be a participant in a live-streaming event that will be recorded for archive purposes only.  No segments of this program will be made available via video or audio.  If NTI utilizes this recording in the future, all participant activity will be deleted and/or explicit permission will be obtained before any such segments are released.  

Registration Fees:

  • Regular Registration Rate -- $650; a 10% discount is available if paid in full upon registration ($585). 
  • A $50 non-refundable deposit is required at registration to begin a payment plan.
  • Scholarships -- We are reserving two places for half scholarships. If you do not have the financial means for this program and would like to be considered for a scholarship, please email Darcey at narrativetherapyinitiative@gmail.com by March 1st. We will select two folks randomly and notify them by March 4th. Please also contact Darcey if you would like to discuss payment plan options. Note: Applying for a scholarship does not secure a registration slot. 
  • We are applying for 12 CEUs for LMFTs with NEAFAST and LICSWs/LCSWs with NASW-MA. Please note it is the participant's responsibility to check with the respective licensing board to determine if these approvals meet the requirements for licensure renewal.  If you need LMHC or Psychologist CEUs, we will assist you with the application process by providing you documentation of attendance and workshop information at no charge.  If you are a LMFT or LCSW/LICSW and will need a CE certificate, please order one in the registration form and let us know your professional license number. CE Certificates are $25.00. .  

Additional Information: 

Presenter Bios:

Sarah Beth Hughes: I live and work in a small hippy town nestled in the mountains of British Columbia. My loving relationship with Narrative Therapy began over 25 years ago, as I worked and travelled with Michael White as the bookseller for Dulwich Centre Publications. I may be wrong on this, but I like to think I have attended more Michael White trainings than anyone else in the world. Well, at least in North America. I have offered workshops on narrative practices in Canada and am part of the board and faculty of Re-Authoring Teaching. I am currently writing a book tentatively called Tender Therapy. It is part memoir, part therapy ideas, and part writing prompts. I am also working with Stephen Gaddis on his book, and we really enjoy and treasure our creative ways of collaborating.

In keeping with the spirit of including Steve, we are keeping his bio here.  

Steve Gaddis, LMFT, PhD, is the founder and director of the Narrative Therapy Initiative (NTI) in Salem, Massachusetts. Steve has studied, practiced, and taught narrative therapy since 1994. He earned his International Postgraduate Diploma in narrative therapy at the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, Australia, where he studied with Michael White. Steve also spent a year teaching narrative therapy in the graduate school of counseling at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. He has published and presented on narrative therapy nationally and internationally. Currently, Steve has a full-time narrative therapy and supervision practice in Salem, Mass., and he teaches narrative therapy at Boston College as well as independently through the NTI. Steve received his doctorate in marriage and family therapy from Syracuse University.