Stuck in the Story: How to Use Narrative Therapy to Help Our Clients Get Unstuck - 5 CEUs

To access the discount form for registering for multiple workshops or participants, please click here.

When and Where:

• Date: Friday, October 3, 2025
  • If you cannot attend this workshop on 10/3, you can register for the previously recorded on-demand version here: https://www.theknowledgetree.org/p/narrative-thera...
• Time: 11:00am - 5:00pm Eastern Time
• CE Hours Included: 5 Core (please see below for details)
• Location: Live Interactive Webinar (“Synchronous”) on Zoom
• Investment: $120 before Friday, September 19th at 5:00pm Eastern Time, $135 after
• Presented by: Linda Buchanan, Ph.D. (see bio below)
• Workshop Recording: A recording of this workshop is available to review for 60 days after the presentation. However, participants must attend live to receive the "Synchronous" CE Certificate.
• Instruction Level: Intermediate
• Target Audience: Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists, Psychotherapists, Other Mental Health Professionals

Learning Objectives:

In this workshop, you will learn how to:

• Educate their clients on the various factors that affect the nature of narrative.
• Utilize a template designed to enable their clients to increase mindfulness of the false narratives that they have developed, which may be preventing them from having a satisfying life and decreasing their ability to utilize therapy effectively.
• Utilize a template designed to enable their clients to re-evaluate their false narratives and write a new narrative that is more effective and true to their authentic selves.
• Utilize specific mindfulness strategies from a variety of sources, such as ACT, DBT, and CBT, for rewiring the old story and replacing it with the new narrative.
• Identify and use strategies that prevent them from getting stuck in their clients’ stories.

Workshop Description:

The narratives of our clients are often full of fallacies that can negatively impact efforts toward recovery. These narratives are affected by the environment as well as the inherent sensitivity of the child and the age of the child when stressors were experienced. Stories that our clients tell themselves can contain false scripts which interfere with their ability to understand their needs and may create severe ambivalence about getting their needs met (specifically around the needs of comfort and efficacy). Additionally, every time a thought, feeling, or behavior is repeated, the neural pathways are strengthened, making it very difficult to believe affirmations or truths that others voice to them.

This presentation will provide a step-by-step procedure for dealing with this problem. Useful definitions of schemas, narratives, and scripts will be given so that techniques can be chosen to aid in dealing with each of these phenomena. The presentation will also provide very specific strategies for helping people increase awareness of the narratives which they have developed and understand the factors that have combined to influence their narratives. Attendees will be given handouts that clients can fill out to serve as a template for writing their old story in narrative form. Additionally, they will be given handouts that enable their clients to write a new story that utilizes aspects of their authentic selves. These strategies will focus on identity and values. Finally, since insight is not enough to change the brain, participants will be given specific strategies that are well-designed for rewiring the brain to be receptive to the new narrative. Strategies will be chosen from ACT, DBT, and CBT.

Presented by: Linda Buchanan, Ph.D.

Dr. Linda Buchanan is a psychologist who has been working in the mental health field for over 30 years. She received her master’s degree from Georgia State University and a Diploma from the Psychological Studies Institute (now known as Richmont University) in Christian Counseling from which she received the Distinguished Alumnus Award for her work in founding ACE. Dr. Buchanan then went on to receive her Ph.D. from Georgia State University with a specialty in family therapy. Dr. Buchanan founded Atlanta Center for Eating Disorders in 1993 which was acquired by Walden Behavioral Care in 2017. She now primarily focuses on consulting and writing. Her book A Clinician’s Guide to Pathological Ambivalence was published in 2019, the content of which she has presented at national and international conferences. She has also self-published three workbooks (one serves as a client companion to the Clinician’s Guide) which can be found on her website at www.lindapaulkbuchanan.com. Additionally, she has published four research articles on the treatment of eating disorders including two outcome studies of the treatment provided at Atlanta Center for Eating Disorders and two book chapters. Dr. Buchanan serves as a peer reviewer of American Psychological Association (APA) Journals and writes a blog called From One Therapist to Another, writing about experience gained in 35 years of clinical practice. She has been married for over 30 years and is the mother of two adopted sons.

Workshop Schedule (Eastern Time):

• 10:30am - 11:00am | Sign-In and Welcome
• 11:00am - 12:30pm | Session
• 12:30pm - 12:40pm | Break
• 12:40pm - 1:55pm | Session
• 1:55pm - 2:35pm | Lunch Break
• 2:35pm - 3:35pm | Session
• 3:35pm - 3:45pm | Break
• 3:45pm - 5:00pm | Session
• 5:00pm | Continuing Education Certificates Available

What people are saying about this workshop:

• "The presenter was an obvious master of Narrative Therapy. She was able to make the concepts available to everyone. I like the experiential exercises." - AOR, LPC
• "I loved the connections made to IFS, Polyvagal, DBT, CBT, etc. I also loved the empty chair exercise with the sentence stems! I will be applying this method in my practice." - MK, APC
• "This was very informative and practical! I really appreciated the demos and stories to accompany the content." - MM, LCSW
• "Well done, instructor was excellent. Will be looking to her for more workshops." - JRM, LPC

5 Core CE Hours Included - Details by License Type Below:

• PSYCHOLOGISTS: The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company maintains responsibility for this program and its content. For more detailed information on the current CE ruling in Georgia, or if you are licensed in another state or country, please click here.
• COUNSELORS: The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP), ACEP No. 7153. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Knowledge Tree is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Please click here for more detailed information.
• SOCIAL WORKERS: This workshop is approved for 5 Core hours through the Georgia Society for Clinical Social Work (GSCSW), approval #073325. If you are licensed in another state or country, please click here for more detailed information.
• MARRIAGE & FAMILY THERAPISTS: This workshop is approved for 5 Core hours through the Georgia Association for Marriage & Family Therapy (GAMFT), approval #142-2025. If you are licensed in another state or country, please click here for more detailed information.

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We are an approved vendor for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for easy reimbursement of educational expenses for VA employees.

Neither the Knowledge Tree nor its speakers have received any commercial support for this program or its contents and will not receive any commercial support prior to or during this program.