YOUR SPEAKER

David Newman works in independent practice at Sydney Narrative Therapy, is an honorary clinical fellow at Melbourne University School of Social work and is a member of the Dulwich Centre teaching faculty. Recent teaching assignments have included Brazil, Nepal, Turkey, Hong Kong and Palestine. David has just finished up working part time in a psychiatric unit for young people. David is passionate about effective and respectful ways of working with people around mental health and suicidal experience. He is the author of “How we deal with ‘way out thoughts’: A living document of ways of talking with young people about suicidal thoughts” (2016, Dulwich Centre Publications) and co-author with Marnie Sather of “’Being More Than Just Your Final Act': Elevating the Multiple Storylines of Suicide with Narrative Practice" in the book Critical Suicidology (2015, UW Press) and of the resource “Holding our heads up: sharing stories not stigma when a loved one has suicided” (2016, Dulwich Centre Publications). It is possible to find out more about David’s work by watching this presentation: https://dulwichcentre.com.au/assisting-young-people-to-find-their-language-through-the-language-of-others-knowledge-from-an-inpatient-ward-by-david-newman/

COURSE BRIEF

Based on the work of Michael White and David Epston, Narrative Therapy involves ways of understanding the stories of people’s lives and ways of re-authoring their stories collaboratively between therapist and the people whose lives are being discussed. With more in-session guidance and practice, this Level 2 Part 1 course delves more deeply into the concepts originally introduced within the Narrative Therapy Introduction course.

Session Key Concepts
• Externalization of the Problem: Where Person is Not the Problem, the Problem is the Problem
• Re-authoring Identity
• Working with Maps of Narrative Practices: Landscape of Action & Landscape of Identity
• Re-membering: Developing the Idea that Identity is Shaped by Social Connections and the ‘Club of Life’
• Use of Case Studies and Other Practical Examples • Outsider Witnesses
• Definitional Ceremonies
• Personal Agency • Gender Issues
• Addressing Trauma with NT
• Absent and Implicit: Enquiring Into Stories of Self Beyond the Problem Saturated Story

About Your Speaker

Carolyn Markey has considerable experience and great interest in counselling children, young people, and their families and caregivers in relation to a broad range of problems affecting their lives. She has worked in a variety of therapeutic contexts including major non-government welfare organisations, supporting accommodation for young people, and has also used narrative ideas in tertiary and adult education settings. Carolyn also has experience in the areas of family separation, effects of violence and abuse, school-related difficulties, and working with people affected by concerns about anxiety and depression. Carolyn enjoys using narrative ideas in group settings where people come together to talk about similar issues they are facing. These have included groups in which people wish to talk about sole parenting, living with the effects of violence and abuse, or groups of men wanting to take responsibility for abusive actions. Carolyn also has considerable experience supervising other practitioners in narrative therapy as well.

A Course Brief

This level 2 Narrative Therapy (Part 2) course with Carolyn Markey takes your existing knowledge of NT to a deeper level, providing a holistic framework reviewing theory, and using transcripts, video and live stop-start interviews to give practical help. Topics to be covered include: extending externalizing conversations; extending re-authoring conversations from problem to preferred stories; delving deeper into the absent but implicit concept; responding to trauma; scaffolding conversations; stop-start interview practice; and outsider witness practices.

Your Speaker

Mr. Mohammed Fareez is the Senior Assistant Director of the Ang Mo Kio Family Service Centre and Graduate of the Masters in Narrative Therapy and Community Work program in collaboration between Dulwich Centre and The University of Melbourne, Australia.

Course Brief

Based on the work of Michael White and David Epston, Narrative Therapy involves understanding the stories of people’s lives and re-authoring their stories collaboratively between the therapist and the people whose lives are being discussed. Are you looking for hopeful, effective and respectful ways of working with those who have mental health problems? Have you wondered what Narrative Therapy might look like in a mental health setting or when working with those with mental health problems? Then this workshop will offer clarity and inspiration for you.

• An Introduction to Michael White and David Epston - founders of Narrative Therapy
• An Introduction to Externalization of the Problem: Where Person is Not the Problem, the Problem is the Problem
• A Discussion of Therapeutic Posture for Narrative Therapy
• Re-authoring Discourses
• Maps of Narrative Practices: Landscape of Action and Landscape of Identity
• Re-membering conversations - helping clients reconnect with supportive friends and family
• Case study analysis
• The Club of Life
• Outsider Witnesses - helping clients feel validated, supported and empowered by their own narratives
• Definitional Ceremonies
• The Absent and Implicit

YOUR SPEAKER

Ian Poulier is a trained counsellor with extensive experience in counselling youth and young adults. As a counsellor, Ian believes it is important to understand the client in the context of their value systems. Applying a person-centred approach undergirded by a social emotional learning framework (SEL), Ian is continually challenged to bring the clients he engages with to be empowered to reach their fullest potential. He is currently working at The SEL Network LLP and a well-known facilitator and speaker at workshops, conferences, seminars, in both educational and corporate settings. He hosted TEENTALK on 93.8LIVE and mentored focus groups with different schools. He is also actively called upon to give advice and opinions by the journalists of the New Paper. Ian has been a professional Counsellor serving both local and international schools and in a VWO. He has coauthored a book, HeartWarmers, a collection of prose and poetry.

COURSE BRIEF

Grief Therapy has become vital in today’s world. With its relentless pace and rate of change, the world says, without emotion, “Hurry up, you gotta catch up. Otherwise, you’ll be left behind”. So we push ourselves along life’s highways, always going faster. But we don’t know where we are going. And then we experience a slow down - the loss of someone close, a mother, aunt, brother, or friend. It could also be the end of a relationship or the parting of ways that foretells we have ended a phase in life and need to move on. And COVID-19 too. They all spell GRIEF - the absence of someone we love, the loss of job and predictability and then we bury it in ourselves. Handling grief is critical. We need to know how to handle it ourselves before we can help others as counsellors or therapists. What are some valuable theories? How do we approach grief, given that we will all experience it? What is there to learn? Am I open to change? Who should I turn to? Will I allow myself to feel the pain, or do I just numb it?