A Brief Introduction to our Work
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THE CENTER FOR NARRATIVE STUDIESWashington DCI am always at a loss to know how much to believe of my own stories. Washington Irvingbut we were born into a family story, given a name, a gender and a role before we even knew what they all meant. We all live within larger cultural stories that can plot our lives right through to their final act, without any say from us. Who tells our story?And when we die, someone else gets to tell the world who we were. What we think is "our story" is more often our voice echoing other storytellers who have usurped our narrative authority. And we are the last to know. The Quest for IntegrityAuthorship over one=s life is what integrity is all about, but it only comes when we claim and win the naming rights to our own life. Stories that do not grow out of the inner authority of our experience or carry the weight of our reflection do not rightly belong to us. Yet, how easily we allow other people=s stories to colonize our experience and claim our voice. This lifelong quest for integrity, to reclaim the naming rights to our own lives, is the ongoing work of the Center for Narrative Studies in its work with individuals, families and communities. Approaching life as a literary art
Narrative Team Process
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 | What stories tell us who we are? |
| What do we claim of our past? |
| How do we honor our present? |
| How can we shape our future? |
| What stories do we need to keep alive to keep us alive? |
Features of the program include establishing a Storywise web site for the group and designing and producing a book of the community's treasured narratives. We also help develop rituals and celebrations to enhance the corporate life of the group, such as Foundation Days, Anniversaries and Rites of Passage.
The Living Stories has the power to renew established groups and create unity and a sense of purpose in newly-formed groups. It is especially exciting for any organization that is celebrating an anniversary or milestone, or in the middle of change.
2-Stories in Conflict, Stories in Common
When people are in conflict, they often seek some form of conflict resolution. Yet as any reader knows, a good story needs conflict. The goal of this Narrative Program is to take the conflict out of the relationship it threatens and place it back into the narrative. The story of conflict is transformed back into the originating conflict of stories.
The Story of Difference
Popular wisdom says conflict arises out of difference. People have different experiences and draw on stories to make sense of them. But differences are the very essence of a good story. In narrative, differences are honored rather than repudiated. Through the power of personal witness, participants unite around the shared experience of respectful listening. People no longer hear each other as competitors for the same listening space.
More significantly, difference is no longer experienced as division but as an invitation into a richer storying of life.
The program encourages the participants to be their own story-keepers. Formed into intimate story circles, participants share narratives they consider personally significant. Each circle then determines what it will present to the larger group. Everyone learns to be part of a listening team that honors every narrative. In this way, the group discovers its own wisdom and comes to its own conclusions about how to untangle the story of conflict from the conflict of stories.
The Work of Reconciliation
Stories in Conflict, Stories in Common is effective for groups and individuals who want to move toward reconciliation. It can be particularly powerful for people who have felt trapped in storylines that keep them from making connections with others. The Center is currently running this program for Catholic and Protestant university students from Northern Ireland.
3-Listening for Grace
This is a one to three day workshop for groups such as congregations, charitable organizations, volunteers and others seeking spiritual renewal. Together we discover how to hear the grace that is already at work in our lives and in the life of the group, and come to recognize the sacred stories embedded in the ordinary of our everyday.
A contemporary midrash
We borrow from the ancients and the post-moderns, from biblical interpretation and midrash, from scholars and storytellers, to uncover new possibilities for meaning in our own familiar stories. What makes a story sacred is not what it says, but how it is listened to.
Listening for Grace is the means by which we regain a connection to the spiritual in our often soul-starved lives.
4-Narrative Listening Teams
People tend to tangle their lives in endless story webs. Any story, good or bad, has the power to become our prison. The Narrative Listening Team is a practical application of modern literary theory that enables individuals to step outside their stories. The storyteller becomes aware of herself as an author of a text, a teller who makes aesthetic decisions about the characters, setting and plot of the story of her life. For participants, it results in renewed curiosity about how our stories work for or against us, and a new commitment to claiming back the naming rights to our own life and experience.
Cost-effective applications
We offer The Narrative Listening Teams for individuals and as a model for groups such as counselors, managers, ministers and educators who are interested in learning and applying a narrative approach to their work. It is also a cost- effective method for group supervision and peer group counseling and has been used as part of group spiritual direction and as a teaching method.
How We Can Work with You
Leading the programs We enjoy working with different groups and individuals. We are happy to collaborate with you to modify any of the above programs to fit your specific needs. We oversee the program and can train others to lead it. We charge a set fee for service, depending on the activities and materials you wish to include. Costs for travel and accommodations are not included.
Training We will train you in the narrative process and prepare your organization to conduct programs like Living Stories and the other programs described above. We also offer seminars and workshops on a regular basis. Training and workshops are available for a set fee for service. Our affiliate Institute for Narrative Therapy offers distance learning courses in narrative theory and process.
Consulting We see applications for the narrative process in any setting or situation. We would be happy to consult with you at any time. We charge for our consulting services based on an hourly rate.
About Us
The Center for Narrative Studies is a research and training institute. As a research center, we map the trends in narrative thinking as it applies to therapy, management, professional development, education and spiritual renewal. As a source for personal and community renewal, we seek to foster a more compassionate engagement with the ways we tell the stories of our own lives and listen to the stories of others.
Paul Costello is an educator and writer from Australia, where he has worked for many years developing curriculum and method in creative writing and religious education. In more recent years, his work has involved homeless youth. He founded Rosie's Friends on the Street, a youth volunteer corps that operates in six major cities in Australia. He also directs the Washington Ireland Program for Service and Leadership, a summer intern program that brings Protestant and Catholic university students from Northern Ireland to Washington DC. He holds degrees in literature, theology, education, and an MFA in Creative Writing from American University.
Kathie Hepler has been an English teacher, freelance writer, scriptwriter and producer of award-winning films, and a communications consultant for an international consulting firm. She currently teaches writing at Wesley Theological Seminary. She has a Masters in Literature from American University.
If you have any questions, please email us at paul@storywise.com
We'd love to hear from you.
