Workshops
Industry Leading Faculty, Current Topics
Caspersen workshop presenters are internationally-known speakers, authors, therapists and social workers practicing in a range of settings. Attend workshops online from anywhere or view a recording.
"For what purpose am I alive?": What are the ideas that informs the therapist faced with people suffering from suicidal thoughts?
Friday, October 2, 2026, 9 AM - 12:30 PM Central
Erling Fidjestøl, MA (Live Online from Oslo, Norway)
Participate Live Online or Access Recording
Early Registration rate of $85 (ends Sept 25), Regular Registration, $99
Student, Group and Foreign Currency Discounts Available
3.5 CEUs, See registration page for details
Description:
A young man (here named 'Azizi') in his 20s was referred to me by his teacher as Azizi had confided to him that he had made plans to take his own life. The plans were very specific; either to soak himself with gasolin and light up, or to drink a bottle of water and slide into the water by the Opera house in the center of Oslo.
In the first conversation with Azizi I learned of his dangerous and dramatic refugee travel route from Afghanistan to Norway. Only at the end of the conversation he brought me up to speed about his present predicaments which had made him draw the conclusion that life did not seem to offer good enough reasons to go on living. The manner in which he posed the question "For what purpose am I alive?" seemed retorically - as if the only reasonable answer could be: None.
In this workshop we will carefully go through the unaltered transcript of the second conversation looking at what ideas that are informing my questions as we go along - and bring these into discussion.
Objectives:
The session will allow us to go through some key practices in Narrative Therapy such as:
1. Re-Authoring Conversations
2. Re-Membering Conversations
3. De-centered Therapeutic Position
4. Working with trauma
About the Speaker:
Erling Fidjestøl (MA) is a narrative therapist stationed in Oslo, Norway ,where he tsince he past 20+ years has worked at Robust with children, young people and families. He is affiliated with the Family Therapy Studies at VID Specialized University in Oslo as a teacher and superviser.
Poetics, Politics and Identity: Life as Lived Art
Friday, December 4, 2026, 9 AM - 12:30 PM Central
Todd Disney, PsyD (Live Online from California)
Participate Live Online or Access Recording
Early Registration rate of $85, Regular Registration, $99
Student, Group and Foreign Currency Discounts Available
3.5 CEUs, See registration page for details
Workshop Description:
Beautification (making life art). What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is related only to objects and not to individuals, or to life. That art is something which is specialized or which is done by experts who are artists. But couldn't everyone's life become a work of art? Why should the lamp or the house be an art object, but not our life?” ― Michel Foucault
Poetics is often discussed in Narrative Practice, but is rarely defined or examined in terms of its ethical considerations or therapeutic implications. In this presentation, Todd Disney, Psy.D., takes us through an accounting of the Poetics of Identity and its therapeutic implications. This workshop will explore how poetics is both a political act and one that enhances the lived experience of those who consult therapists. This workshop will also examine the ethical considerations of “who” the artist is in Narrative practice and how we can scaffold questions to maintain focus on the day-to-day lived experiences of the people who consult us. We will also see how the productivity of everyday life displaces a person’s agency in appreciating the aesthetics of being in our lives.
Poetics can also help disrupt the reproduction of everyday life and invite a sense of aesthetics to life as it is being lived, thus making poetics a political act. In addition, poetics brings us into the immediate experience, as poetics (or word art) is meant to evoke a sense of human connectivity in the immediate moment. This could be a helpful metaphor for Narrative therapy to use in discussing other focuses of therapeutic engagement. Lastly, care will be taken to consider how poetics could be used in clinical engagement.
This workshop draws from a diverse range of influences, including Michel Foucault, Gaston Bachelard, Michael White, Kenneth Gergen, Henri Lefebvre, Kristin Ross, Molly Andrews, Arturo Escobar, and Roman Jakobson. This rich tapestry of ideas will provide a comprehensive understanding of the intersection of poetics, politics, and identity in therapy.
Objectives:
1. Understand the shift in continental philosophy from an analysis of power to a theory of aesthetics and how this can impact narrative inquiry
2. Develop an appreciation for the agentive power of everyday life as both a political act and an act of poiesis.
3. Learn practical ways to scaffold conversations that de-center the therapist while representing the client’s life as lived art.
About the Speaker:
Todd Disney, PsyD, is a psychologist, clinical supervisor, and presenter in both narrative practice and clinical outcomes. He’s been a dedicated narrative therapy practitioner for over 20 years, working with families, couples, and individuals. He was introduced to and developed a close relationship with an early narrative therapist, Lucia Gattone, at Sonoma State University, which was one of the early landing places for narrative therapy in North America. His most recent work focuses on examining the use of poetics through Narrative Therapy and how it can challenge problem identity development and also help foster rich story development through people’s lived experience. He refers to this development as Narrative Poetic Inquiry (NPI).
He has taught Narrative Therapy in various settings, including most recently at the 23rd Annual Therapeutic Conversations Conference and at the Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy, where he is the newest member of the faculty. Todd was also recently featured on the Radical Therapist podcast by Chris Hoff, where he discussed his ideas of poetics in narrative therapy. In addition, Todd is a board member of the art activist group Life on Art, which helps people break free from institutional identities and embrace their preferred identities through art and story development. He’s a certified trainer with the International Center for Clinical Excellence (ICCE), which specializes in clinical outcome research and its applications.
Todd lives in Northern California with his wife and three daughters. When he’s not driving them around to different activities, he enjoys reading, gardening, and hiking at the beach or Point Reyes National Park. lifeonart.org centerforclinicalexcellence.com vancouverschoolfornarrativetherapy.com Drtodddisney.com
From the ‘Shoulds’ to the ‘Coulds’ of Living: Tuning into Discourses to Reshape Our Life Stories
Friday, February 5, 2027, 9 AM - 12:30 PM Central
Gretchen Siglar (Live Online from Great Britain)
Participate Live Online or Access Recording
Early Registration rate of $85, Regular Registration, $99
Student, Group and Foreign Currency Discounts Available
3.5 CEUs, See registration page for details
Workshop Description:
Have you ever been in conversations where it felt like you were being recruited into a focus on deficits or 'failures'? This workshop offers a chance to practice recognising and deconstructing powerful discourses that can get hidden and normalised within daily conversations, while imposing influential judgments and expectations on people's lives. We will connect with Michael White's (2002) reflections on how stories about how people 'should' be living are held in place by culture, location, and time. We will consider how well these discourses 'fit' with a person's values and preferences, including our preferred ways of working with others. We will also practice ways of opening conversations that enable a shift from the judgments that social discourses impose, towards exploring what else might become possible.
Objectives:
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Have an introduction to some narrative theory underpinning working with discourses
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Explore some of the dominant discourses that show up most frequently in our work, and how they shape our practice
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Generate some 'tactics' for actively responding to these discourses
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Apply these ideas and practices to clinical conversations in different contexts
About the Speaker:
Gretchen is a Family & Systemic Psychotherapist and Social Worker, who has been working with people across the life cycle, for the past thirty years in Britain. Originally from the United States, she worked for some years there with people experiencing family violence, and older people facing risks to their independence. Gretchen has worked in a variety of public sector settings in the UK including adult mental health services, child protective services, oncology and palliative care, and hospice bereavement care. Now working in independent practice, she also provides clinical supervision, team consultation, and training to health and social care workers across the UK. Since 2016, Gretchen has been an active member of the Refugee Resilience Collective, a group of UK-based psychotherapists who work alongside grassroots NGOs that support refugees in the border zones of Northern France and other parts of Europe. Narrative practice has been a sustaining force in Gretchen’s work for more than twenty years, greatly supported by membership in a group of Narrative practitioners in London who meet monthly to read, learn and explore Narrative practice together.
Just Girls
Friday, March 5, 2027, 6 PM - 9:30 PM Central
Shelja Sen (Live Online from India)
Participate Live Online or Access Recording
Early Registration rate of $85, Regular Registration, $99
Student, Group and Foreign Currency Discounts Available
3.5 CEUs, See registration page for details
Workshop Description:
A typical social response is to dismiss girls as “Just girls.” As if they don’t matter, their voices can be silenced. Thus, through a play of words and a little punning, this initiative is called “Just Girls,” a solidarity of girls coming together for justice- to externalise what has been internalised, politicise what has been personalised and visibilise the invisibilised.
Just Girls uses the metaphor of a journey to navigate challenges, as well as “just steps” that have supported young girls in flipping the gaze on patriarchy, reclaiming their preferred identity, and fostering solidarity.
After attending the workshop, the participants will be able to use COURAGE (acronym) map in therapy or community work to receive stories of suffering and acknowledge micro-acts of resistance, care, and protest. And find innovative ways for meaning-making that invite personal agency, belonging and counter-stories
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
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Use the metaphor of a journey and "just steps"
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Use the COURAGE map in therapy or community work
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Find innovative meaning-making ways that invite personal agency, belonging, and counter stories
About the Speaker:
Shelja Sen is a narrative family therapist who has worked across contexts in India and the UK over the past 30 years. She is the co-founder of Children First, an organisation that works with children, youth and their families. Shelja is a columnist with the national newspaper, The Indian Express and an author of three critically acclaimed books. She is a Clinical Tutor at the University of Melbourne and an international faculty member at the Dulwich Centre Foundation, Adelaide. She is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Narrative Therapy & Community Work. Shelja is committed to building culturally aligned ethical practices that weave in an intersectional lens, social justice, and innovation. She is a storyweaver of the knowhow of the children and young people she has the honour of working with.