Advanced Intensive 2026 - In Person in Evanston

With Jill Freedman, Gene Combs and various guest faculty members

Dates:

August 12 - 16, 2026

Location:

1212 1/2 Elmwood Avenue, Evanston, IL 60202. Doors open at 9:00am Central Daylight Time. We meet from 9:30am – 5:00pm with a 1 ½ hour lunch break at 12:30pm. Street parking available.

Tuition:

$750 USD

Limited to 12 participants

We are happy to offer this advanced exploration of narrative approaches face-to-face. We have designed this one-week intensive training for people who have extensive knowledge of narrative therapy (such as a year-long course or its equivalent) and have been practicing with a narrative worldview for a good while. If you fit that description and would like to more richly develop your knowledge and skills of narrative therapy we invite you to come spend these five days with us. Because we limit attendance to a small group, we can tailor this skill-building workshop to the interests and contexts of each group member.

Areas we have addressed in past workshops include:

Using narrative ideas in a variety of contexts — individual, couple, and family therapy, and community work
Weaving practices together in ways that follow the preferences of those we work with
Slowing down interviews during the workshop to explore the effects of different practices and to expand our understanding of the micro-practices of narrative therapy
The philosophical underpinnings of narrative work
The ethics of narrative work
Using narrative practices in a structuralist work context
Working with multiple ways of moving from problematic to preferred stories, including asking about the absent but implicit and focusing on initiatives and agency
Creating documents and linking lives to enhance the development of preferred stories
Developing experience-near questions to expose normalizing judgments and discourses
Using outsider witness practices
Considering helpful practices for responding to particular situations such as thoughts about death and the ongoing effects of trauma

We will meet for two 3-hour blocks each day. This will leave time for informal conversation over meals and exploring Chicago’s wide range of cultural activities in the evening.

In the weeks before we meet we will correspond with participants to learn of their work contexts, the practices they are excited to develop further, and the challenges they are facing in their practice. We will use this input to plan a set of experiences that meet as many specific requests, contexts, and challenges as we can during our time together. We will also share some of our newest work and provide structure for exercises and reflection.

click here to register