306357 (v.1) Social Work 664 - Narrative in Practice

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Area:	Department of Social Work and Social Policy
Credits:	25.0
Contact Hours:	3.0
Lecture:	1 x 1 Hours Weekly
Tutorial:	1 x 1 Hours Weekly
Seminar:	1 x 1 Hours Weekly
Syllabus:	Counselling can be understood as a process where clients are encouraged to tell and re-tell stories they believe to be true about themselves, other people and the world. Narrative practices recognise that people create meanings about their experiences inlife through the creation of these stories. Such 'identity stories' influence the meaning given to present events, the interpretation of past experiences, and the prediction of future possibilities. Practice-based and will typically follow a cyclical format from lecture and discussions, to demonstrations of skills, student experiential practice and reflective commentaries. Students will be exposed to the ideas that inform a poststructuralist narrative perspective with particular attention to the composing of identities. Attention will be given to the creation of questions, especially landscape of action and landscape of identity questions. Students will be encouraged to listen with an interpretive ear to the way people tell their stories, and discussion will center on how stories are produced through negotiating competing socio-cultural discourses.
Unit Outcomes:	On completion of this subject, students will have - Considered the central ideas and practices of narrative counselling/therapy and appraised the development of a narrative based practice. Critically examined how people are powerfully constituted throughdominant cultural discourses, and how lived experience is told and retold through stories. Gained intermediate skills in deconstructing dominant problem stories, and engaged in the re-authoring of alternative and preferred narratives in counselling/therapy. Participated in role-plays and exercises illustrating some of the key features of narrative practice such as mapping the problem, externalising conversations and bringing forth preferred stories. Gained an appreciation of the wider philosophical, political, moral and ethical aspects of a narrative approach through selective readings of seminal texts..
Text and references listed above are for your information only and current as of September 30, 2003. Please check with the unit coordinator for up-to-date information.
Unit References:	Abels, P. and Abels, S.L., (2001), Groups and Communities in Understanding Narrative Therapy - A Guide book for the Social Worker, NY, Springer Publishing Co. Berger, P.L. and Luckmann, T. (1991), The social construction of reality. London, Penguin. Bird, J. (2000), The heart's narrative: therapy and navigating life's contradictions. Auckland, Edge Press. Bruner, J. (1986), Actual minds, possible words. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Bruner, J. (1990), Acts of meaning. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Carey, M. and Russell, S., (2003), Outsider Witness Practices - Some Answers to Commonly asked Questions, The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work (1), 3-16. Epston, D. (1989), Collected papers. Adelaide, Dulwich Centre Publications. Epston, D. and White, M. (1994), Experience, contradiction, narrative and imagination. Adelaide, Dulwich Centre Publications. Flaskas, C. (1999), Limits and possibilities of the postmodern narrative self. The Australian and New Zealand journal of family therapy, Vol.20, No.1, pp. 20-27
Unit Texts:	Morgan, A. (2000), What is Narrative Therapy? An easy to read introduction. Adelaide, Dulwich Centre Publications. Payne, M. (2000), Narrative Therapy: An introduction for counsellors. London, Sage.
Unit Assessment Breakdown:	Essay 40%, Essay 60%. This is by grade/mark assessment.
Year Location Period Internal Area External Central External 2004 Bentley Campus Semester 2 Y     2004 Bentley Campus Short Period 7 Y