Learning Center

What if, rather than focusing on presenting problems, symptoms, diagnoses and other traditional approaches to working with clients, we embraced a culturally democratic approach that invites clients to speak on behalf of their own healing? Discover how to go beyond listening and emphasizing, and learn how to collaborate with clients using their existing strengths, traditions and heritage.

Travis Heath presents his work with three clients who have stood up to racism in their own unique ways and shares contemporary techniques to help your clients move beyond constricting narratives about pathology, race, and identity, to live in more authentic and meaningful ways. 

Do you want to know your clients beyond the constrictive labels of presenting problems, diagnoses and other traditional constructs of psychotherapy? Using a Narrative Therapy lens, Travis Heath will show you a culturally democratic approach to therapy that draws upon existing client strengths, traditions and other resources to foster deep understanding, insight and connection.

What do you do when you meet with a client who has no presenting problems? For many therapists, their approach is so pathology-oriented that such sessions can feel unfocused and disarming. Discover a Contemporary Narrative Therapy approach that shifts the focus to people, not problems, and invites you to engage with your client’s stories with a curiosity and creativity that cultivates hope and healing. 

How can you bring yourself to the room more fully as a person, offering more than just empathy? Discover how to become an active participant in the process of moving clients beyond the limits of their worlds as they know them. Using a Contemporary Narrative Therapy approach, you can help clients trace the profound impact of systemic racism, and redefine not just their own stories, but the limits they have set for themselves.

Join Psychotherapy.net’s editor Lawrence Rubin in a fascinating conversation with clinician/educator/author Dr. Travis Heath as they deconstruct and rebuild the practice of psychotherapy. 

In part one of Spitting Truth from My Soul, Narrative Therapist Travis Heath and his client “Ray the Philosopher” use rapping to forge a bond of connection and hope.

In part two of “Spitting Truth from My Soul”, Narrative Therapist Travis Heath and his client Ray The Philosopher continue their healing beat.