In her work as an executive and life coach, trainer in Narrative practices and consultant, Chené’s life purpose is to co-create transformational learning contexts and journeys. She invites and enables participants to re-write and re-author the stories of their lives and communities/organizations where they feel stuck or trapped. These alternative personal and communal/organizational narratives open the possibility to write and live into a new preferred future.
The Narrative approach
Chené completed her doctoral degree in Narrative Therapy and has applied the methodology and approach with great success in the fields of coaching, consulting and leadership. She has taken the Narrative work into diverse organizational contexts as well as in the NGO sector.
The Narrative approach begins with the idea that a word opens a world. How we speak and the story we tell becomes who we are. This means that we can create a new future by re-writing the stories we hold to be true. As a society we are enslaved and trapped by the problem stories that we tell ourselves and one another. Not only are we used to having these problem stories around, we also have a relationship with them that sets limits on what is possible for us and our institutions. The Narrative approach works with participants as co-journeyers to enable and generate new ways of being in the world, which in turn allows new constructions of identity and new ways of being in relationships in any form.
The key outcomes of these collaborative journeys are personal and communal agency, new ways of doing and being and transformed lives.
Career summary
Chené has a wide range of experience in the following fields: coaching, diversity and transformation work, facilitation, team development and training in the Narrative ideas and approach.
Her passion lies in developmental work - specifically in the fields of organizational development, leadership, diversity, transformation, and personal identity development. She has consulted to and worked for the following companies: John Deere; ABSA; Standard Bank; Adcock Ingram; Momentum; Anglo Platinum; FNB; Tiger Brands; ILead; Deutsche GesellschaftfürTechnischeZusammenarbeit (GTZ) and Heartbeat: Centre for Community Development.
The reach of the work
In the beginning of this year, Chené successfully piloted a Narrative Workshops in Cincinnati with consultants, community members, coaches and young people. After the workshop participants were asked what they found useful about the Narrative approach, ideas and process. These were some of the participants’ reflections:
There was a deep sense of connection in my group
More authentic possibilities emerged in my story
It was a freeing experience
The workshop helped me to start trusting my own competence
More was generated and could emerge in my story
I feel energized and experienced a boost in creativity
I just want to get back to work and create something
I could picture the alternative story for my life
A new road opened up for me
Unravelling the basic assumptions of my culture was very helpful
I experienced real energy around the possibilities for my life
I am taking ownership of my life now
Thickening the alternative narrative of my life with the sustainability of my support systems has been very helpful
My narrative is much clearer and I am ready to go public with it
I have been valued as a person and feel that I have more control over my life
I now know that I always have choices when it comes to the story of my life
Endorsements
“Chené has built a committed following in Cincinnati by her elegant way of facilitating the work and presenting the Narrative ideas in a simplicity that is easy to understand and also profound in its impact. I fully recommend her work. It is life changing for individuals and institutions.”
Peter Block is a citizen of Cincinnati, an author, consultant, and speaker in the areas of organization development, community building, and civic engagement for the past 40 years. He is also the recipient of the Organization Development Network's 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Based on my 20 years of experience in the field of organizational development, the skills that Chené brings are unique and rare. There are narrative therapists who work at the level of individual counselling, but it seems few who have the skills to bring this into an organizational context. Her work has powerful effects in re-writing and re-authoring the narratives of individuals and organizations.”
Charles Holmes is a citizen of Vancouver, a skilled facilitator, educator and convenor of dialogues that change the world.