Conversations Inviting Change

Overview

A narrative-based approach to encounters in health and social care that can enrich all professional work.

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.

Traditionally, Conversations Inviting Change courses comprise a mixture of theoretical knowledge and practical application of the approach in ‘peer supervision’ groups. The theoretical knowledge may include more comprehensive explanation of the material introduced in the introductory lecture and demonstrations of the CIC approach by course facilitators. ‘Peer supervision’ refers to conversations between two people, often a mentor or trainer and a mentee or student, in which they discuss their complex cases or dilemmas. Over more than 25 years of CIC training, John Launer learned that peer supervision is the best medium both for learning narrative-based practice and for developing the skills for using it with patients. In the course, students are divided into small supervision groups to practice the techniques themselves with coaching from a trained facilitator. This approach helps professionals develop new interactional skills for clinical practice and reflect on their experiences through skillful questioning.

This course comprises a total of 6 sessions:

3, 2-hour sessions that include theory and opportunities to practice in pairs or small groups.
3, 2-hour sessions for additional practice facilitated by instructors

CIC training uses real cases, not role-modelling. Each participant is encouraged to bring ‘cases’ for confidential discussion. Cases may be in relation to work as a clinician, clinical educator, team member, or manager. Cases need to be current, real, the participants’ own story, individual, and causing concern. Because conversations remain confidential, this course will not be recorded.

Learning Objectives

In this 6 session course, you will:

Develop understandings of narrative theory as related to interactions with patients, colleagues, and others
Understand narrative-based practices in health care and how they might be used in practice
Understand the concepts and principles of Conversations Inviting Change
Practice using the concepts and principles of CIC in pairs or small groups
Reflect on the application of the CIC approach, dilemmas, and experiences

Why this Course Matters

Some of the hardest moments in practice aren't technical: a patient who feels stuck, a conversation that keeps circling, a colleague you can't seem to reach. CIC gives you a structured way into those encounters.
You'll practice with your own current cases, not scripted scenarios, so what you learn connects directly to your work.
Small-group peer supervision with a trained facilitator gives you room to reflect, try new questions, and get coaching as your skills develop.
Narrative approaches support communication, empathy, and reflective practice, the skills at the heart of person-centred care.

CIC reaches beyond the treatment room, into mentoring, team development, and difficult conversations with colleagues.

Audience

This course 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.

Dates and Details

This course runs has 6 sessions on the following Wednesdays (all with a start time of 7 PM EST):

January 13
January 27
February 10
February 24
March 10
March 24

Registration includes access to all 6 sessions, as well as the associated resources. Because conversations remain confidential, this course will not be recorded.

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The instructors

Michelle Kleiner
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.

Alison Gigliotti
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.

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