Welcome to the Narrative Practice Research Network
For narrative therapy and community work research
The Narrative Practice Research Network is a joint initiative of Dulwich Centre and The University of Melbourne’s Department of Social Work.
We support and promote research about narrative therapy and community work and the use of research methods informed by narrative practice.
We create connections, conversation and collaboration among researchers and practitioners in diverse contexts.
The Narrative Practice Research Network aims to:
Facilitate networking
exchange and collaboration among researchers, and between researchers and practitioners, who share a commitment to narrative practice
Promote innovation
in narrative practice, and share research that will benefit groups and communities facing mental health difficulties as the result of significant hardships
Support development
of narratively informed research methodologies and promote research practices that are congruent with narrative practice ethics and ethos
Extend the evidence base
for narrative therapy and community work (including practice-based evidence)
Nurture the next generation
of postgraduate students and early-career researchers who are working with narrative practice
Provide mentoring
for practitioners and community organisations seeking to undertake research on or with narrative practice.
Latest news
Free online course: Indigenous research and evaluation methodologies
In this free online course on Indigenous research and evaluation methodologies, you can explore approaches that challenge dominant research and evaluation paradigms and support relational, culturally responsive, and decolonising ways of researching with people, communities, and their stories.
Introducing our new scholar in residence
We are delighted to announce that renowned postcolonial scholar Professor Bagele Chilisa has agreed to become the NPRN’s inaugural Scholar in Residence.
NPRN public seminars in Rwanda
The Narrative Practice Research Network was proud to present two public seminars in Rwanda in May 2026: one with Professor Bagele Chilisa from Botswana, and one with Dr Jane Awi and Dorothy Wanega from Papua New Guinea.
Calls for papers
Current opportunities to submit papers or expressions of interest for journals and conferences
Calls for research participants
Current opportunities to contribute to research projects about narrative therapy and community work.
Online event: Meet the Author with Mark Mulkoff
Dulwich Centre’s Meet the Author session will feature Mark Mulkoff discussing his paper “How might one practice? Producing possibilities through co-research as a daily practice of a minor science”. This paper is from the special issue of The Qualitative Report curated by NPRN.
Narrative therapy
Narrative therapy and community work centre people as the experts in their own lives. Practitioners seek to elicit the values, abilities, commitments and survival knowledges that people and communities have to get through hard times and reduce the influence of problems in their lives. People join together to co-research the operations of problems in their social contexts.
Narrative Practice Research Groups
The Narrative Practice Research Network welcomes and supports the creation of specialist groups to assist members to connect and collaborate. Groups can have a research focus, be a community of practice or reading group, or facilitate local networking.
