Stories have long held the power to enrich our lives, shape the way we perceive and interact with the world, and reveal the wonders of the human spirit.  So, too, can they play an important and potent role in education, counselling and therapy by helping young people develop the skills, values and resources to live a happy, flourishing life. 

Examining the values of communicating with metaphors in teaching, parenting, therapy and counselling, George Burns provides inspirational story ideas that you can adapt to share with your students and clients for coping with life’s challenges and enhancing well-being.  He explains how to tell stories that engage the child, how to make those stories metaphoric, and where to find sources for such tales. 

The workshop will include informative background, illustrative case examples, and simple, pragmatic exercises to help you quickly apply these methods for enhancing educational and therapeutic outcomes with your own clients.  Among other things, you will learn about the power of stories to teach, heal, inspire and change; guidelines for effective storytelling; how to use your storyteller’s voice; and where to find sources for developing effective story ideas.

George W Burns, Perth WA

George Burns is an Australian clinical psychologist whose innovative work as a practitioner, teacher and writer is recognised by the frequent invitations for him to teach throughout Australia as well as in Europe, America, Asia and Africa.  He has authored many articles, and contributed chapters to a number of books including The Science of Well-being (2005) and Hypnosis and Treating Depression (2006). 

His has published six books, including the much-acclaimed Nature-Guided Therapy (1998), best-selling 101 Healing Stories: Using metaphors in therapy (2001), 101 Healing Stories for Kids and Teens (2005) and Standing Without Shoes: Creating happiness, relieving depression, enhancing life (Burns and Street, 2003) that was honoured with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  His most recent, Healing with Stories,is an outcome-oriented, edited collection of case-based applications from the masters of metaphor.  George is currently working on his seventh book, this one being a casebook about applied positive psychology in clinical practice. His books are available in seven languages. 

He is director of both the Milton H. Erickson Institute and Hypnotherapy Centre in Western Australia, and conducts a busy private practice.

George has written the following books

Healing With Stories:  Your casebook collection for using

therapeutic metaphors.

2007, Hoboken, NJ:  John Wiley & Sons.

This stellar collection, from some of the world’s most prominent therapists, takes you inside their thinking and processes for working with metaphors.  They represent the panorama of metaphor practice in psychotherapy today with considered, humorous and compassionate case examples that step you through the intricacies for replicating their work into your own.  The winner of high accolades, this book is immensely helpful and essential clinical tool. 

101 Healing Stories: Using metaphors in therapy

2001, New York: John Wiley & Sons

This international best-selling text is translated into Spanish, Chinese and Indonesian.  It examines the healing value of metaphor to communicate effective therapeutic strategies, and provides 101 inspirational story ideas for effecting change.  The author explains how to tell stories that

engage the client, how to make them metaphoric and where to find sources for such tales.     

101 Healing Stories for Kids & Teens:  Using metaphors in therapy.  

 2004, New York: John Wiley & Sons

A new volume about using metaphoric stories with children and adolescents in which the reader is guided through the processes of effective storytelling, the planning and presenting of healing tales, and the resources on which to build stories.  There are more than 101 examples of outcome-oriented stories for resolving various common childhood issues.  Translated into Chinese, Spanish & Italian.    

Standing Without Shoes: Creating happiness, relieving depression, enhancing life.

2003, Sydney: Prentice Hall

Co-authored with Dr Helen Street and with a Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, this new and exciting book takes an empowering, simple-to-follow, practical approach to

increasing happiness and well-being.  It proposes that depression – at least in part – can be successfully treated and prevented by creating happiness.  Available in Spanish and

Portuguese.

Nature-Guided Therapy: Brief integrative strategies for health and Wellbeing.

1998, Philadelphia: Brunner/Mazel

Winning high professional acclaim, Nature-Guided Therapy is rich in case histories, multi-disciplinary research and step-by-step therapeutic procedures.  An immensely practical guide for clinicians, it incorporates research from other disciplines that rarely finds its way into the areas of therapy and counselling.  Questioning and expanding our usually accepted paradigms of therapy, it offers a refreshingly new approach.

Contact details:            George Burns

62 Churchill Avenue

SUBIACO

WA 6008

AUSTRALIA

Ph        +61 (0)8 9388 2733

Fax       +61 (0)8 9388 3740

Email    georgeburns@iinet.net.au