Storytelling Practitioner & Narrative Therapist

In a polarised world where a colonial and individualistic mindset is persistently present, various discourses and attitudes like “othering” are continuously emerging, and amplify the existing dichotomies separating people from each other, and their environment.

The attitude of exorcising and distancing the latter as something “other” to our culture and civilization is mostly responsible for the climate issues that we are facing today. As a parallel process, this mindset of “othering” prohibits people from connecting with each other in various contexts from interpersonal to organizational and national.

This experiential, interactive workshop sets a space for experimentation to safely connect with “the other” in the context of climate change, inviting narratives and stories of the non-human beings and things.

Yannis has worked for more than 25 years inside organizations in leadership and organizational development roles. He has been introducing the narrative theory and practice in several organizations, governmental and academic institutions. He is the co-author of “Transforming Organizations" and "Beyond Storytelling",
two books that elaborate on how to work with story-based approaches for individual growth, community building, and organizational transformation. He is a Scientific Coordinator at the Narrative Therapy & Community Practice Institute in Greece. Yannis is also a lifelong student of Nora Bateson’s philosophy that honors the complexity of life and he is a certified “Warm Data” Host by the International Bateson Institute.

CEO of Narativ

When a Fortune 500 company was facing tough questions from its Black employees after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in the US, leadership didn’t want to just check the box and leave it to HR to have private discussions with employees who weren’t satisfied with the status quo.

Instead, they worked with Jerome Deroy, CEO of Narativ in the US, to find and craft stories that would build a bridge between leadership and Black employees.

In this presentation, Jerome will tell the story of what happened and how personal stories created trust and a sense of possibility to a minority that was feeling increasingly marginalized.

In 2007, Jerome Deroy had left a position at BNP Paribas, Hong Kong, to pursue a career in filmmaking in New York when he met the co-founder of Narativ, Murray Nossel PhD. When Murray said he needed someone to take his company to the next level, Jerome jumped at the challenge.

Since then, Jerome has worked closely with clients as diverse as Capital One, Prudential, Johnson & Johnson and Warby Parker to craft business-relevant personal stories for sales, leadership, team building, and onboarding.

His vision today is to transform how people engage with their work and organization by empowering leaders and their teams to tell the stories that connect with their audiences and call them into action.

President of Koppett consulting company

When we discuss storytelling and building storytelling skills, we tend to focus on the individual, but story exists as a meaning-making activity beyond that solo endeavor. In this session, we explore the ways in which we can consciously and skillfully harness the power of co-created narratives to connect with others. We will explore how to:

• Identify and interrogate shared “ambient narratives”
• Co-create stories to build trust, strengthen group identity, solve problems and build positive cultures
• Use storytelling activities to exercise creativity and collaboration muscles

Whether you're a seasoned storyteller or a beginner, you'll come away from this session with new skills and insights that you can apply in both your personal and professional lives.

Kat Koppett is the president of Koppett, an organizational development company specializing in blending traditional organizational development tools and principles with cutting-edge improvisation and storytelling techniques to enhance individual and group performance. Her book Training to Imagine: Practical Improvisational Theatre Techniques to Enhance Creativity, Teamwork, Leadership, and Learning, is a seminal work in the field of Applied Improv and is used by professionals around the world. Kat has deigned and delivered programs for a diverse roster of organizations including Facebook, Apple, PWC, GE, JPMorgan Chase, and NASA.

Co-Directors of Evanston Family Therapy Center

In high-conflict situations, rather than working toward compromise or resolution, our focus is on helping each partner to understand (which is different than agreeing with) the other's experience (which includes their thoughts, feelings, and intentions). We will describe how we invite people into positions from which they can hear and understand (instead of defending, attacking, or preparing their next argument) each other's different story and different experience of the conflictual situation.

Jill Freedman, MSW and Gene Combs, MD are Co-Directors of Evanston Family Therapy Center. Internationally recognized for their advances in narrative theory and training, they have co-authored more than 30 journal articles and book chapters and 3 books, including Narrative therapy: The social construction of preferred realities.

Jill is on the international faculty of the Dulwich Centre and teaches in the Master's program in narrative therapy and community work offered by Dulwich Centre and the University of Melbourne. Gene, recently retired from his position as clinical associate professor at The University of Chicago, has served as a board member for the American Family Therapy Academy and on the editorial review board of Family Process.

Psychologist, family therapist, narrative consultant, co-founder of the Center for Narrative Psychology and Practice (Moscow)

Narrative practice is based on a narrative metaphor, where people are presented as stories – a relatively small number of events selected from the whole variety of human experience, endowed with meaning and arranged in sequence in accordance with various plots.

Stories exist and are written in a social context, with the participation of many people, the results of negotiations between them; from the social context, we draw meanings that we attribute to the events of our lives.

In order for stories to be created, recreated and maintained, someone must constantly build connections between their conditional elements: events, meanings, people, communities, ideas.

People's stories resonate with each other - the external resonance triggers the internal one, and it triggers the external one again.

At every moment, stories have many authors, each person or community has the opportunity to create themselves as the main author of their story, the one who sees possible connections and resonances and the one who selects them.

The boundaries of each story are conditional at every moment, it is like a path of light in an ocean of possible elements and connections between them.

People and communities trapped in the stories they experience as problematic can look for a way out in building connections and finding resonance beyond the boundaries of the story that brings suffering.

Ekaterina will help you discover the methods of narrative practice that open up such opportunities.

Co-founder of the Center for Narrative Therapy and Practice. Psychologist, psychology teacher, family therapist, narrative consultant, work experience as a psychologist-consultant for 23 years, including 20 years in the narrative approach.

Works in a narrative approach individually, with families, couples and children since 2000. Member of the Russian Society of Family Counselors and Psychotherapists since 1998; Member of the Board from 2000 to 2012.

Head of the global storytelling consultancy Makingstories.net

Consider Simon & Garfunkel’s song: “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” What wisdom of storied graces are hiding in these lyrics? We’ll start by digging into the fertile graces that are building blocks for crafting healing bridges. Imagine suspension bridges lifting people above the rough waters of patterns that keep them from encountering new possibilities waiting on the other side of the bridge.

From poetic ponderings of lyrics and quotes, we’ll move to practical practices. We’ll walk through how to facilitate two challenging group processes for using stories to elicit multiple perspectives, enter novel frames of references, and generate emergent possibilities.

Terrence Gargiulo leads the global storytelling consultancy Makingstories.net. He is the former Chief Storyteller of Accenture and the author of eight books. His work as an internationally recognized organizational development consultant earned him the 2008 HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific HRM Congress for his ground-breaking research on story-based communication skills.

CEO, Soundbytes11, Organizational Consultant, Business Storytelling Coach

Building the skills to tell stories and share experiences has the power to change the way we see the world. They can inspire action, transform societies and help make the world a more equal place for us all.

On a personal level, when you share anecdotes, you give a glimpse of yourself, a sneak-peak into who you are. In a workplace, this helps build authentic connections and change the quality of the conversation at the organisation.

Organisations are having a tough time with change and it is going to get tougher - hybrid work, change management, DEI&B, employee engagement, customer centricity - we do it in a process driven approach but Numbers Numb and Jargons Jar.

The most impactful leaders are stepping into the role of connectors.

So, what can we do to use Stories to build that bridge of connection for people to be more human at work?

She likes to call herself the Chief Everything Officer at Soundbytes 11 and believes life is all about Connections and Serendipity. She helps leaders and teams drive business outcomes, get organisational commitment, build a personal brand and be more human at work through storytelling.

She is a people leader who has over 30 years of extensive international and leadership experience in both corporate and entrepreneurship, giving her an insider’s view on the challenges that organisations and teams face.

When she is not working with Clients, chatting with her children/family/friends or reading books, you will find her at the tennis court or working on a pottery wheel.

Internationally renowned Multimedia Storyteller and Change specialist

Whatever you know about yourself and the world are stories that you and many millions of others have made up. If the stories aren't doing it for you, you can change them or create new stories for yourself.

In this workshop we look at:

• The kinds of stories and what they are used for
• How the stories you tell and think about not only describe but create your experience of your past, present and future
• How stories impact important systems in your body and mind
• How you can change your stories to create different life experiences
• How to develop a strong sense of self and being better at making choices
• What makes your story powerful?

Steve Banhegyi is an internationally renowned Multimedia Storyteller and Change specialist with a substantial background in human behavioural dynamics, corporate culture and KM blending team and integrated systems thinking.

Founder of Becoming Restoried, Consultant and trainer in storytelling and conflict resolution

Where two or more are gathered, there will be conflict. This means that every person on earth has dealt with conflict. Which means that every person on earth has needed to reconcile. Zoomed into any moment of conflict and reconciliation, we can feel like we’re bouncing ferociously between connection and disconnection. Whiplash is a common experience. And yet, when we zoom out and see the fullness of the process, we realize that this is a natural part of the path of reconciliation. In this session, Michael McRay walks us through the ritualized cycle of reconciliation, the common pitfalls along the way, and how all of it is driven by story.

Michael McRay is the founder of Becoming Restoried. He’s a sought-after coach, consultant, and trainer in storytelling and conflict resolution. He’s a seasoned facilitator and mediator, and the award-winning author of I Am Not Your Enemy: Stories to Transform a Divided World. Michael received his master's in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation in Belfast, and has spent considerable time working in Israel and Palestine.

Story Activist, international consultant

Storytelling is a human superpower. Sharing stories is one of the fastest and most powerful ways to build understanding and connection between individuals and coherence in groups. When we build bridges – between diverse people, connecting areas of a business, as a means of strengthening communities – we can begin to unleash the gold that hides in the lived experience of every person. What we know as individuals then becomes what we know together and the key to wiser collective action.

Join Story Activist Mary Alice Arthur in this highly interactive session where we will use the power of small group storytelling to uncover and harvest what we know about thriving in change. You will walk away with a simple, but powerful tool and a deeper understanding of how story works.

Mary Alice Arthur is a Story Activist, using the power of story for positive systemic shift. She helps people who want to lead change discover and cultivate the story of their most flourishing future and create the capacity to bring that story to life. She is the author of 365 ALIVE! Find your voice. Claim your story. Live your brilliant life.

Co-founder of Narativ communication consultancy

Right now, Murray is conducting a narrative project sponsored by the U.S. Department of State to combat gender-based violence in El Salvador. At his talk Murray will share the results of his work and research!

Murray Nossel, PhD co-founded Narativ, a communication consultancy in New York and London, created the listening and storytelling method and directs The World Mother Storytelling Project. His focus on listening and story-based community transformation originated in work with dying AIDS patients in the early 1990s.

Subsequently Murray's worked with organizations including Open Society Foundations, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF, Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indigenes, and the International Transport Worker Federation to provide marginalized populations with a greater voice in structures that oppress them.

He currently directs a story based project to combat gender based/ violence in El Salvador, sponsored by the US Dept State

Nossel is co-author/ performer of the critically acclaimed Two Men Talking, an Oscar nominated documentarian and author of Powered by Storytelling (McGraw Hill 2017).

Award-winning storyteller and coach focusing on the power of narrative to bridge differences

Can storytelling change our response to differences? When Israeli-born Noa Baum moved to the U.S. and unexpectedly formed a friendship with a Palestinian woman, she realized the importance of listening to the story of the "other" - even if that other is the enemy. Noa will share her experience and discuss what makes storytelling a unique and powerful tool to transforms perceptions, and connect across conflict in our communities and workplaces.

The Washington Post describes Noa Baum as someone who "spreads cultural truths that eclipse geopolitical boundaries...". Born and raised in Israel, Noa is an award-winning storyteller, author, public speaker, and coach focusing on the power of narrative to bridge differences, foster collaboration and ignite passion in organizations and communities. She presets internationally from The World Bank and US Defense Department to prestigious Universities, festivals, and congregations.

Noa is the author of a memoir A Land Twice Promised: An Israeli Woman’s Quest for Peace (also on Audible) and a children’s book How the Birds Became Friends.

PhD, narrative specialist and a pioneer in organizational storytelling

This webinar is focused on why stories can make a huge difference in the lives of traumatized people and how to help those people tell their stories. We will cover the two rules for working with trauma victims and their stories, basic guidelines, listening and story behaviors for the story practitioner, methods for helping traumatized people tell their story, pitfalls to avoid, and outcomes like connection and change for the storyteller, audiences, and sponsoring institutions.

Karen Dietz, PhD is a narrative specialist who has worked with Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs. For 9 years she worked with traumatized foster youth and survivors of human trafficking to help them tell their stories. She is a pioneer in business storytelling, a TEDx speaker, the co-author of Business Storytelling for Dummies, and a contributor to nine books on business storytelling. She received her MA and PhD in Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania.

Executive coach, neuro-linguistic practitioner, author of 9 books

Due to loadshedding and possible power down Graham will be present with us in a form of an interview this year. In this interview you will learn about Graham’s and his partners story-bridging process that they have developed, how it works in practice – at individual relationship, group, community, organisation and nation-state levels. Graham shared examples of how this model works and key philosophies and critical success factors that allow the model to work best.

Graham Williams has an accent on being different.

In his work in 45 countries over the years he has mixed narrative, anecdote, metaphor, archetypes, imagery, small group circle work and conversations-that-count as practical and critical contributors to successful organisational interventions.

In a divided, polarized world his purpose is not to convince, coerce, persuade, nor convert – but rather to use story to bring harmony, healing, and wholeness; to transcend walls and build bridges to form solid relationships where there is friction (in one-on-one relationships, families, communities, organisations, nation-states) even though viewpoints held by the different parties may be different.

Graham plays the tenor sax and reads a lot.

Adjunct Professor of Narrative Leadership at Hult International Business School, consultant, storyteller

In these troubled times, it takes both courage and imagination to face the imperiled future of our species and of the more-than-human world. Many of the stories we tell ourselves are too small to make a difference. This session will draw on the groundbreaking work of Joanna Macy to help us tell the stories that really matter. Bring something to write with.

Geoff Mead, PhD is Adjunct Professor of Narrative Leadership at Hult International Business School, consultant, storyteller, and the author of two seminal books on the power of stories and storytelling: Coming Home to Story: Storytelling Beyond Happily Ever After (Vala, 2011) and Telling the Story: The Heart and Soul of Successful Leadership (2014, Jossey-Bass). He also writes fiction, memoir and poetry.

Managing Director at Anecdote, world’s leading business storytelling company

Stories are powerful communication tools. They are especially useful in helping people understand and remember our messages. But their are two sides to every misunderstanding and progress is difficult when we don't understand the other person. 

Obviously, listening to their stories is a powerful way to build bridges and increase understanding. But it's not so easy to get someone to share their stories, especially when power or conflict is present. This presentation will examine how to create the conditions where people are prepared to share their stories.

He left the Air Force in 1998 after a 20-year career as a logistics officer. His foray into the consulting world took an unexpected twist when he stumbled across the incredible natural power of stories. This led to a major change of career to focus on discovering how organisations and leaders can tap into this power and achieve outstanding business results. Mark's time is divided between growing Anecdote's international Partner network which now includes over 50 Partners in 25 countries and delivering Anecdote's workshops and consulting projects.

Researcher, consultant, writer helping communities and organizations work with their stories since 1999

For thousands of years, people have told stories to build bridges across boundaries. And for all of that time, people have also told stories to destroy bridges and reinforce boundaries through condemnation and manipulation. In the story-work approach I know best, participatory narrative inquiry, several methods are available to help people who are separated by boundaries come to understand each other better.

However, as with all story work, each of these methods can also be twisted into – or slide unnoticed into – manipulation and condemnation. In this talk I will explain how you can use story-based boundary-bridging methods in your community or organization while guarding against the unintentional strengthening of destructive boundaries.

Cynthia F. Kurtz is a consultant, researcher, software developer, and author. Originally an ethologist, she discovered organizational narrative in 1999 at IBM Research, where she worked to help IBM develop internal and client services centered around organizational stories. She built on that work at IBM's Institute for Knowledge Management and at the consulting firm Cognitive Edge before launching her independent consultancy in 2009.

Cynthia has consulted on over 100 narrative projects for clients in government, for-profit, and non-profit sectors. Cynthia’s textbook (Working with Stories in Your Community or Organization: Participatory Narrative Inquiry) and companion software (NarraFirma) are widely considered vital resources in the field of participatory story work.

Founder of Narrative: The Business of Stories

Small data stories have helped diverse organisations become inclusive, helped brands fighting to survive, thrive and even made a terrorist share intelligence to save lives.

The best of stories that bridge boundaries are catalysed by curiousity behind small data.
In this 35 min talk Anjali will take you through projects where small data stories have bridged boundaries.

Anjali is the founder at Narrative: The Business of Stories, a multinational story practice working with brands such as Meta, LinkedIn, Airbnb, Bytedance TikTok, Microsoft & Shell. The practice focuses on helping individuals and organizations find, curate and tell their transformation story.

Anjali has spoken on Business Storytelling in New York, Russia, India, Singapore, Japan, Egypt, Australia, and many other Southeast Asian countries. She is the best-selling co-author of “Unleash Your Voice” and “Success Mindsets Anthology” (Wall Street Journal and a USA Today Bestseller).

Her new book, “Strategic Storytelling” is launching in 2023 published by Hachette Book Group, a leading US International trade publisher and a division of the third largest trade and educational book publisher in the world, Hachette Livre.

Leadership Talent and Storytelling Strategist

It doesn’t matter what level you might be in an organization, the ability to tell your own value story is vital to being seen as credible and having a seat at the table. Most leaders find it incredibly difficult to talk about their value. Most rely on meaningless and depersonalized templated elevator pitches that often feel inauthentic. I work with leaders to create their unique leadership value story.

This session will explore how we can coach leaders to develop uniquely personalized value stories driven from deep self-awareness. We often need to bridge our past, current and future self-stories. I will offer a systemic framework that establishes four key goals; and how to accomplish them when helping leaders develop impactful leadership value stories. This session will cover how I worked with female leaders to develop meaningful value stories that went beyond the traditional gender comparison stories. The right story can break new ground, initiate new conversations and break down barriers.

Dr Bruce Pereira trained and worked as a highly specialist clinical psychologist in the UK National Health Service with a primary focus on narrative, relational and systemic approaches. His doctoral research explored how people make sense of and negotiate meaning through relationships and the impact that narratives have on behavior, relational continuity and sense making. His Post-doctoral studies explored leadership and how organizational narratives drive and maintain toxic leadership culture & behavior. He worked at Accenture as an Organizational Change and HR Transformation Manager and Learning and Leadership Development Leader focusing on global transformation and leadership development initiatives.
Today he drives organizational culture change conversations & leadership development through Storytelling; Behavioral Science; & Leadership & Narrative Coaching. He helps leaders to develop personal and organizational storytelling capacity, strategies and approaches.

Founder of the Washington’s Center for Narrative Studies

“Building Bridges” through stories is so timely. Our world is experiencing the opposite - stories weaponized to build walls of distrust or incite violence. To reclaim the stories that can repair the world, we must first deconstruct the stories that trap us in our own blind spots, like success, power, or strength. This seminar will invite us to self-reflect on the “Story we have about story.” and weigh our own contribution to a world gone mad. We will be invited to embrace a more critical understanding of our practices. If no story is innocent, we as storytellers must realize we are playing with fire. Stories can burn bridges or build them. How do we become better story masons?

Paul Costello is an Australian teacher and forever student of narrative therapy pioneer, Michael White. Paul founded Washington’s Center for Narrative Studies- Storywise.com 30 years ago with the mission “to shape the stories that are shaping us.” Challenging stories that fuel war, he built international peace programs for Northern Ireland-Ireland, South Africa and Israel-Palestine, seeking a new story of leadership. Challenging the failure of kids to learn, he pioneered a way to write a new story for struggling students in the local school district. Most recently, he has wrote “Our Stories Rise Up”, about how to use the memory of COVID as a resource for resilience and interrupt the trauma cycle that is not inevitable.

Pioneers of organizational storytelling and narrative technologies study, co-founders of True Storytelling Institute

What is the point of Conversational Storytelling Interviews (CSI'S)?

The point is not you, it is not your story. It is not them, it is not their story. The point, the purpose, is not the stories themselves that emerge from this process. The point of CSI's are the threads that connect: connecting the people, connecting the stories, connecting both people and stories to shape the "in-between" spaces.

CSI fosters the weaving of a new web of "our" story. In this workshop-style session, we will explore 3 key areas:

• how to initiate CSI's;
• how to nurture and extend CSI's;
• analyzing and using CSI's for 4 purposes: research, problem identification, problem solution, and action/future planning.

Finally, we will review a complete "Re-Storying" process rooted in the work of White and Epston, from problem identification through to resolutions.

Grace Ann Rosile (PhD, University of Pittsburgh) is Professor Emeritus of Management at New Mexico State University. She studies organizational storytelling, Ensemble organizing and “together-telling” storytelling processes, indigenous ethics, and pedagogy. She is author of numerous academic articles and book chapters, most recently focused on Ensemble Leadership through Ensemble Storytelling. She is co-founder (2010, with David Boje) of the New Mexico Quantum Storytelling Conference, co-founder (2020) of the True Storytelling Institute, and founder of HorseSense At Work, offering management development and teamwork training. She also developed and produced 7 educational films and edited a book (2016) on “Tribal Wisdom for Business Ethics.” She is co-author (with Boje) of "How to do Conversational Storytelling Interviews for your dissertation" (Elgar Publishing, 2020).

David earned his Ph.D. from University of Illinois in 1978, and became assistant professor at Anderson School of Management, UCLA, then restarted his career as a walk-on temp, and did become full professor at Loyola Marymount University, earning six teacher of the year awards. Moved to New Mexico in 1996, and become winner of the New Mexico State University (NMSU) Distinguished Career Award, and currently holds its highest rank as Regents Professor. He retired in 2018 from New Mexico State University, earning Regents Professor, and Distinguished Scholar Professorship, and is currently Professor Emeritus

Leadership storytelling consultant, author of nine books, including “Circle of the 9 Muses”

In a polarized world, it is such a simple and powerful act to ask someone to tell you a story. But stories are sensitive things, and the language and context we use are important. In this presentation, you’ll discover the subtle art of “story prompts…” You’ll get a glimpse at how leaders in the world’s most influential organizations are using story circles for sense making. You’ll review nuanced language that will produce the powerful stories you seek. And, most importantly, you’ll come away with a vision for inviting healing stories in your work and your world.

For more than 20 years, David Hutchens has been helping leaders all around the world find and tell their stories. He is the author of nine books, including "Circle of the 9 Muses: A Storytelling Field Guide for Innovators and Meaning Makers." His new book is titled "Story Sprint: Find, Develop, and Activate your most Valuable Business Stories… In Just A Few Hours."

Founder of Story Dynamics, Storytelling coach

Bridges are built, in part, through noticing shared values. But not all values are equally worth pursuing. One criterion for "worth pursuing" is the potential effects on our future!

How do stories fit in? We all know that stories can teach values through their content. But the very process of telling stories—even the process of teaching storytelling itself—can convey particular values that can be critical to a changing society.

Get a whirlwind introduction to a series of activities you can use to focus on such values embedded in the storytelling process—values that, I believe, will be necessary for helping our society reach a brighter, more humane future.

Doug Lipman began as a teacher of highly resistant adolescents with behavior problems. One day he told them a story; they responded deeply.

Ever since, Doug has been helping others experience the power of storytelling:
in their lives, in their efforts to empower others, and in their organizations. Doug has taught, coached and performed across the globe.

In 2017, Doug Lipman was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for “sustained and exemplary contributions to storytelling in North America.”

CEO of Leadership Story Lab

Not a day goes by where we don’t need to persuade someone, especially those who do not share our worldviews, priorities or values. Most of us know the importance of telling our own stories. Knowing and helping others tell their stories, however, is just as important if we want to stand a chance to influence and persuade others.

In this fast-paced, interactive 30-minute session, veteran Story Facilitator and family business biographer, Esther Choy, will lead you through a series of Crazy Good Questions, peel back the design principles behind each one, and show you how to craft your own Crazy Good Questions so you can connect with everyone, everywhere.

Since 2010 Esther Choy has worked with clients in industries as wide ranging as airlines, CPG, healthcare, investment, manufacturing and tech. A family enterprise biographer, Esther has combined the science of persuasion and the art of storytelling to help her clients find more meaningful ways to connect with their audiences.

Her business storytelling book, Let the Story Do the Work, quickly shot to #1 New Release on Amazon in 2017. She’s currently a contributor for Forbes’ Leadership Strategy channel and whose thought leadership have appeared in leading media outlets such as the New York Times and Entrepreneur.com

Esther is an adjunct faculty member at Kellogg School of Management and, in partnership with Kellogg’s Ward Center for Family Enterprises, she hosts the Family IN Business podcast.

Head of the largest Russian training program for narrative practitioners "Narrative Workshop"

In 2022 not just the comfort of a past life that has been destroyed. The truth has been damaged too. The impossible has become possible. The old rules and scaffolds have stopped working.

Uncertainty in the world requires more certainty in yourself. Everyone needs answers — why I'm fine, why I'm a good person, why I deserve respect.

The principles of collective narrative practice will guide how to get these answers in a working group. The main task of the “Tree of Life” practice is to help people who have lost their supports to regain their dignity.

We are more ready to be responsible for our decisions when we value and respect ourselves. Self-esteem increases resilience and allows you to overcome difficulties.

During the "Tree of Life" practice, people talk about the roots of their power, about skills and knowledge, about how to respond to gifts and difficulties to the world. It helps to define once again what is right and what is wrong and build new foundations: what to respect yourself for and what is recognized by others. This is an important guide to live and work in a new world.

Olesya Simonova is a narrative practitioner, narrative supervisor, head of the largest Russian training program for narrative practitioners "Narrative Workshop". Since 2013, she has been conducting collective narrative practices and adapting them in Russia.

In this work, the fullness of feelings is achieved: "I am. I am worthy of recognition. I am respected". And there remains a strong influential trace of the practice. This format supports the participants and, most importantly – what we all really need now – satisfies the need for self-respect and recognition of dignity.