Storytelling & therapy/counselling

Human beings are natural storytellers – but when things go wrong, the stories they tell themselves can be badly skewed. Telling stories is an ancient but hugely effective and immediate way of reframing, showing new possibilities, new ways of looking at things and also of talking directly to the imaginative mind, bypassing more conscious resistances.

Courses for practising and trainee therapists introduce and extend storytelling skills in intelligent, practical and effective ways with a framework of organizing ideas that avoids the traps of psychobabble.

The Transforming Power of Storytelling

This fascinating, highly practical one day course is designed to meet the needs of therapists, counsellors, health workers and others involved in using stories for change, healing and personal development. We currently run one day courses sessions for small groups of up to 10 people at The Brief Therapy Centre  in Tonbridge, Kent three or four times a year and occasional one day courses at public venues elsewhere in the UK. The next Tonbridge presentations is on Thursday 26th October, 2023 from 10 am to 4.30 pm. Course cost is £75 (£60 concessions). Please e-mail us at imaginaryjourneys@blueyonder.co.uk or call 01732 362356 to join this course or to put your name down for information about future  small group one day course, to find out more about forthcoming public course dates or if you would like to organize an in-house session at any suitable location.

Download course outline

Making Metaphors.

In this creative and stimulating day course for those with some prior experience of using stories and storytelling for change, storyteller and author Rob Parkinson examines the skill of instantly matching, adapting and creating new stories and metaphors to suit circumstances and clients or groups of all ages. This course is also presented from time to time at The Brief Therapy Centre, Tonbridge. The next presentation is planned for mid November 2023, date tbc.Please e-mail us at imaginaryjourneys@blueyonder.co.uk or call 01732 362356  for details of this course as soon as they are available or if you would like to organise an in-house session at any suitable location.

Other courses and publications

See also our course Storytelling as Guided Imagery.

The Human Givens College  runs excellent courses with Pat Williams in the use of storytelling and metaphor at locations throughout the UK.

The fascinating double CD Powerful Stories available from this site covers many aspects of the uses of stories in this area. These are also comprehensively covered in Rob Parkinson’s book, Transforming tales.

Powerful Stories is produced by Uncommon Knowledge who have previously organized storytelling courses with Rob in Brighton and Richmond. They also run a large website dedicated to hypnosis with many helpful free articles and downloads.

You might also like to visit www.hgwestkent.org and www.thebrieftherapycentre.co.uk.