Testimonials

- Sarah Paulson, Actor, describing her training work with Gail Noppe-Brandon.

COLLEAGUE & TRAINEE TESTIMONIALS (not clinical clients!)

The application of Coherent Narratology in the therapy context is a far more congenial and creative medium for growth than the usual alternatives.

- Dr. Robert Neimeyer, Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, author Constructivist Psychotherapy

I trained with Gail as a teenager, and still use this narratological method everyday. I’m a obstetrician/gynecologist, and begin every meeting with a new patient by asking them to tell me their story…what they tell me will guide the journey of their pregnancies, births and lives.

- Asia Edusa, MD (See Rita Charon whose seminal work in the development of a Narrative Medicine program at Columbia University came twenty years after Asia’s first encounter with narratology!)

No matter what subject I teach in the future, I will always use a Coaching model. I’ve learned how to motivate, encourage practice, enable discussion, and work through fears.

- Melissa Rocha, Teacher at the Dual Language Middle School

This method gives Seniors back their dignity, and their worth.

- Evelyne Chemouny, Director of Clinical Services, Caring Community

Gail Noppe-Brandon’s transformative work had long captivated and inspired me. My whole life I have written songs, literally for as long as I can remember. However, after becoming a mother of two and experiencing several profound personal losses, I had also lost my creative/musical voice. Never in a million years did I embark on this train expecting to end up where I did. All I can say is that I did it all, never missing a session, propelled forward by the inspiring process, enjoying every single minute of it and did not want it to end! Suddenly, months later, I find myself writing songs, feeling more confident all around than I’ve felt in years. Writing in my head, collaborating with others again, and succeeding in getting one of my songs placed on a major TV show… It wasn’t until five months after I had completed the workshop that I realized the obvious. I had found my voice again. For that I am truly, forever deeply grateful.

- Jenny Bruce, Singer/Songwriter

Everyone was appreciative of your presentation and thought it was an excellent piece of clinical work. It was moving and aesthetically engaging.

- Sandy Shapiro, PhD, Director Trauma Program, National Institute for Psychotherapies

I took Gail’s training and was immersed in a process filled with surprises and learning. Having been a fan of the work for a long time, I was surprised to encounter my own resistance to the process. [After the training], I opened to new voices from within me that challenged me to a point where a long buried memory of my mother’s death emerged and I was able to grieve the loss in an entirely new way. I wrote thoughts and ideas that had floated in me for many years with no precise place to anchor them. I finally emerged from the training to write a professional paper in my field that flowed with an ease that I never imagined I could achieve and for which I have received much positive feedback. I found my voice in a wonderful new and exciting way and hope to continue the process!

– Barbara Freedgood, LCSW

[This method] offers a dynamic intersection of art, language, communication and personal development.

- Dr. Emily White, Bank Street College

The focus on ‘the other’ [in this method] gets you back to who you are talking to, or better still… listening to; rather than giving advice or interpreting.

- Gail Kinn, LCSW, JBFCS

I’ve been more productive since taking this workshop…the notion that things can be ‘re-written’ was very liberating.

- David Smyth, LCSW, JBFCS

“The following words from Amazing Grace capture how I feel about creating Coherent Narratives…’I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see’. If there were a Nobel Peace Prize for psychotherapy, Gail Noppe-Brandon would deserve to win. I really mean it.

Friends and colleagues have often commented that I was constantly attending workshops and trainings. I’d been searching for a theory of therapy that I could believe in as a therapist, one that would offer real change and healing. I began in the 1970's with a three year institute in family therapy, continued in the 1980's with a three year feminist psychoanalytic institute, followed by training in CBT and DBT, to name but a few. Several years ago, with EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy), I finally found a couples therapy that I could believe in. My quest for an effective model of individual therapy, however, continued. In 2013 I attended a workshop given by Gail Noppe-Brandon on narratological work in therapy. I took notes and I wrote down, "You are not your story". Much to my surprise I decided I might want to go into training with her. Shortly after the workshop I set up a first meeting with Gail; it led to profound change in my professional life. Gail was so caring and sensitive as she listened deeply. She paid attention to every word and encouraged me to assign 'prompts' at the end of every session for my clients to write about before the next meeting. These prompts were words they’d used in session that had carried a lot of meaning. Recently I asked a client, with whom I had worked for many years before learning to work as a Narratologist, about her new experience with prompts.  She explained, "It's more natural, it makes more sense...if the goal of therapy is to help you live a different life it cannot be confined to one period of time (a session). It allows me to keep processing rather than feeling that I can't deal with what is painful until next session". Responding to prompts was life altering in their understanding and filling in the holes of their own stories. It was a privilege to be training with her and helping my clients create Coherent Narratives.  As I became more confident and more experienced in this approach, my belief in this model deepened. Whether starting with a new client, or changing over to this approach with an existing client, I always begin by asking them to: "Tell me your story." I learn what the client sees as the earliest thing that was most defining in his/her life.  During the session I write down what is being said. I learn what hopes the client has for therapy, and where they feel stuck. I listen deeply and have also learned how to ask the right questions that will help the client and I understand the ‘coherence’ of their stuckness, (that is, how and why they got and stay stuck there), and I become more and more aware of what is missing in the narrative. I pay attention to their trauma and I am totally transparent: I am not the expert, nor the authority, on their lives. I am there to help uncover what the client already knows but may not have access to. I am there to help facilitate a growing and expanding narrative. It is very exciting and moving to finally be able to offer, and witness, therapy that can actually lead to real change.

-Cheryl Pearlman, LCSW

The relevance [of this method] for couples therapy is that it will keep [relationships] alive: What do they each want? What is their relationship? Why is this conflict coming up right now? How and/or can the conflict be resolved?

- Colette Linnihan, LCSW, Instructor, National Institute of Psychotherapies

Writing with purpose, critical thinking, fluency, and making authentic human connections, are all skills that can be developed through the process that [Gail] follows.

- Kristen Plylar-Moore, Teacher at The Stephen Gaynor School

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