Journal May 2026 Release_Full Edition - Flipbook - Page 4
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Narrative Therapy News and Training Opportunities
Trainings and Workshops
3rd Annual Contemporary Narrative Therapy Conference,
November 5th – 7th, 2026, San Diego, CA
What is a good question – and what does it do?
Narrative therapy has always taken questions seriously—not as techniques, but as
acts with consequences. CNTC 2026 opens once again with a keynote by David
Epston (presenting from New Zealand over zoom), an honor that reflects a
continuing conversation at the heart of narrative practice. Together with Michael
White, David has long argued that narrative therapy relies more than any other
therapy on the art of asking questions—questions of literary and ethical merit
that invite people into what they do not yet know but may come to know. This
year’s theme draws on Michel Foucault’s enduring provocation: “We know what
we do, but do we know what our doing does?” and brings into focus the shaping
effects of our questions—how they organize meaning, invite moral positioning,
and participate in the making of lives.
We are excited to announce that Cheryl Mattingly, will be one of our keynote
speakers at the conference. Cheryl Mattingly is a renowned medical
anthropologist whose groundbreaking work on narrative, morality, and lived
experience has profoundly shaped how story is understood far beyond
psychotherapy. Her book Healing Dramas and Clinical Plots has been deeply
influential in David Epston’s thinking—and in his call to return good storywork to
the heart of narrative therapy—making her presence as a keynote speaker a rare
and significant honor.
Across three days, conference presenters will labor this question in practice.
Through transcripts, therapeutic documents, and close reflections on their own
work, speakers will share the actual questions they ask—and trace what those
questions do in the lives of the people who respond to them. Opening the
conference, David Epston’s keynote will return us to the ethical heart of
Narrative Therapy News and Training Opportunities
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, May 2026 Release
www.journalnft.com
