Conversations Inviting Change: A Free Introduction
Conversations Inviting Change: A Free Introduction
1 hour
The instructors
Overview
Conversations Inviting Change (CIC) is a narrative-based practice of witnessing narratives, paying attention to them, and questioning them creatively, which can make a person’s emerging story the central focus of health care, and facilitate positive change and healing.
CIC can be used in person-centred consultations, coaching and mentoring, team development, and conflict resolution, and more. CIC is an effective communication approach that helps people move on when they feel stuck and is ideal for difficult or challenging encounters.
This approach to health care consultations and peer supervision based on narrative studies, communication theory, and systems thinking was developed in the United Kingdom by John Launer and Caroline Lindsey. Since then, it has been introduced to thousands of people in the United Kingdom and abroad through one-day workshops and multi-day courses.
Learning Objectives
In this 1 hour lecture, you will be introduced to:
- Understandings of narrative theory as related to interactions with patients, colleagues, and others
- Narrative-based practices in health care and how they might be used in practice
- The concepts and principles of “Conversations Inviting Change” – an approach that was designed to bridge theoretical understandings of narrative to clinical settings.
Audience
This lecture is open to all health and social care professionals who are interested in narrative practice approaches to support their communication skills, person-centred care, and empower patients towards positive change.
The instructors
BSc(PT), MClSc, PhD, FCAMPT
Accredited Trainer of Conversations Inviting Change
Michelle is an experienced physiotherapist who is credentialled as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Manipulative Physical Therapists and a certified vestibular rehabilitation therapist. She co-owns a multidisciplinary clinic in Barrie, Ontario where she practices full-time.
Michelle is also an adjunct research professor at Western University, London, Ontario where she completed a PhD in 2022; the title of her dissertation is: “Searching for the ‘Good’ in Physiotherapist Practice: Toward an Ethic of Care.” This research supports the importance of balancing biomedical knowledge and technical skills with a person-centred approach to practice. Her research interests include health professional qualities and practices, health professional education, reflective practice, the therapeutic relationship, and person-centred approaches to health care. Michelle has been working with the Conversations Inviting Change (CIC) approach to narrative practice since 2021.
She is a CIC accredited trainer and committee member for the Association of Narrative Practice in Healthcare.
BA, RMT
Alison Gigliotti has been a Registered Massage Therapist since 1997, with a practice focused on complex and highly individualized care. Her practice includes people of all ages, with a clinical focus on the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction, headaches, ears, voice, swallowing, neck, and tongue. She also works with infants experiencing feeding difficulties, torticollis, colic, or the effects of birth-related injury.
Alison’s approach to care is collaborative and person-centred, grounded in a biopsychosocial understanding of health and wellbeing. She has studied Narrative Medicine and Conversations Inviting Change (CIC), experiences that have deepened her interest in how people make meaning of their health experiences and how therapeutic conversations can support change.
Working with infants and children, as well as people who are non-verbal or experience challenges with communication, means that communication and consent is central to Alison’s clinical practice. She is committed to finding creative and respectful ways to listen, communicate, and establish consent, adapting her approach to each individual and their unique needs.
Alison values collaborative therapeutic relationships and strives to create a clinical environment in which people and families feel heard, respected, and actively involved in their care.