Program Description: Our stories are powerful. They make sense of our life experiences and identities. Thus, it matters who is doing the authoring and what gets included, highlighted, and left out. In this skills-based institute, participants will immerse themselves in the radically respectful approach of narrative therapy that allows people to uncover and embrace new stories of self. Participants will learn key processes and techniques to support clients in deconstructing messages and symptoms they may have internalized as truths and to engage in meaning making. Mauricio will explain and model the key processes and techniques of narrative therapy that attends to language, discourse, and social context. Participants will also engage in experiential practices to explore our own “untold” stories, emotionally enter and reauthor stories, or bring new meaning to stories we carry.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:
- Name and engage in at least three clinical practices to help client see symptoms as a problem rather than seeing themselves as the problem.
- Apply narrative metaphor, externalizing, and double listening to understand identity negotiation and its performance.
- Define and give at least one example of deconstruction, decentering, and re-authoring practices in narrative therapy.
- Define the concept of “sparkling moments” and apply at least one practice to help clients to identify these in their own stories.
- List examples of intentional open-ended questions that deconstruct or peel back assumptions that a client may have of their identity.
- List and describe at least 3 underlying assumptions of narrative theory.
- Explain the Statement of Position Map and its use in externalizing a problem and exploring a person’s preferred relationship with a problem.
- Explain how to use consciousness-raising about socio-political levels of a problem in ways that allow people to have a stronger voice about their experience.
Trainer: Mauricio Yabar, MSW, M.Ed. is a clinical assistant professor at UNC Chapel Hill School of Social Work and finishing his doctorate in social work at Virginia Commonwealth University. Mauricio has 10 years of experience, including in agency and private practice settings working with adults and teens who are struggling with substance use, trauma, sexual offending and compulsive sexual behaviors. He has conducted research on issues related to LGBTQ+ mental health and homophobic bullying. He draws on social constructivism and narrative theory to inform his clinical work, research, and teaching.
References:
- Bull, B., Byno, L., D’Arrigo, J., & Robertson, J. (2022). Parents of non-binary children: Stories of understanding and support. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 34(1-2), 125-152. https://doi.org/10.1080/08952833.2022.2029331
- Carter, A., Anam, F., Sanchez, M., Roche, J., Wynne, S. T., Stash, J., Webster, K., Nicholson, V., Patterson, S., & Kaida, A. (2021). Radical pleasure: Feminist digital storytelling by, with, and for women living with HIV. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50(1), 83-103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01822-8
- Conti, J., Heywood, L., Hay, P., Shrestha, R. M., & Perich, T. (2022). Paper 2: A systematic review of narrative therapy treatment outcomes for eating disorders—bridging the divide between practice-based evidence and evidence-based practice. Journal of Eating Disorders, 10(1), 1-138. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-022-00636-4
- Darnell, C. (2018). Using narrative practices in a group sex therapy context. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 33(3), 286-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681994.2017.1329522
- Farrell, I. C., & Gibbons, M. M. (2019). Using narrative therapy to assist College‐Age Latino immigrants. Journal of College Counseling, 22(1), 83-96. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocc.12116
- Ghabrial, M. A. (2017). “Trying to figure out where we belong”: Narratives of racialized sexual minorities on community, identity, discrimination, and health. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 14(1), 42-55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-016-0229-x
- Gómez, A. M., Cerezo, A., & Ajayi Beliard, C. (2020). Deconstructing meta-narratives: Utilizing narrative therapy to promote resilience following sexual violence among women survivors of color. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 46(3), 282-295. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2019.1677836
- Hammoud-Beckett, S. (2022). Intersectional narrative practice with queer Muslim clients. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 43(1), 120-147. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2022.2016664
- Maeder, R. (2020). Queer invitations: Fostering connection between queer young people and their loved ones. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (1), 11-23.
- Matta, T. (2021). Treating caregiver grief with narrative therapy. Innovation in Aging, 5(Supplement_1), 1050-1051. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igab046.3750
- Nylund, D. (2019). Moments to treasure: Narrative family therapy with trans children and cisgender parents. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (2), 16-23.
- Ocampo-Rigor, M. T. W., Fernandez, K. T. G., & Tupaz, E. F. (2022). Narrative therapy interventions for depressive symptomatology. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 41(2), 54. https://doi.org/10.1521/jsyt.2022.41.2.54
- Su, T., & Parker, M. L. (2022). Narrative couple therapy with sexual minority couples: Exploring sexual intimacy. Contemporary Family Therapy, 44(4), 333-343. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-022-09644-7
- Yabar, M. P. (2021). Narratives in sex offender management laws: How stories about a label shape policymaking. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 48(1), 33-56.
UNC Chapel Hill – Clinical Institute Program