Bringing Theory Alive

Bringing Theory Alive 

We all theorize, we just don’t necessarily realize that’s what we’re doing. This workshop will be an opportunity to notice our own theories about life and the world, so that we can be clearer about the assumptions and aspirations we bring to our interactions with those we work with (each other, communities, clients, and professionals from other fields).  We’ll also learn how some scholars/therapists/activists think about theorizing as a therapeutic and community activity.

Awareness can create choice. How can we develop habits of noticing the theories and ideologies that inform our daily ideas and actions, in order to create possibilities? How are our personal theories informed by our experiences with race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, ability and other social identity constructs in a racialized and hierarchical society?

We’ll play with tools from Narrative Therapy, Critical Incident Technique, and Theater of the Oppressed to help us notice our own thinking and to learn how to facilitate greater awareness for others.

This will be an experiential workshop: come to participate in dialogue with each other as theorists in your own lives. You can expect to learn some about group facilitation, too, as we’ll pause occasionally to notice our own group process and to discuss facilitation strategies that support people noticing their expertise in their own lives and worlds.

Goals:

1. Introduce and practice the concept of a brave space dialogue, both to establish connections with each other that participants can build on in the future, and to get some practice in the process of co-creating brave space.

1. Explore the idea that people are experts in their own lives, and the implications that this worldview has for your professional work with other people (if that applies).

1. Gain a basic introduction to group facilitation.