Coast Plaza Hotel 1763 Comox Street Vancouver, BC 604.688.7711

VANCOUVER SCHOOL FOR NARRATIVE THERAPY PRESENTS Therapeutic Conversations 13 Narrative Therapy: Lets Start All Over Again

April 27- April 30, 2016 | Vancouver,

WWW.THERAPEUTICCONVERSATIONS.COM CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

“I am hoping TC13 will take off from where TC12 left off in April 27th, 2016: Pre-Conference highlighting the re-imaginings of narrative therapy and - provide 8:00 am - 9:00 am Registration open inspiration for the third generation of ‘students’ and newcomers 8:00 am - 8:45 am Optional yoga or meditation while offering sustenance for veterans of our practice.” 9:15 am - 4:15 pm Preconference workshops - David Epston April 28th, 2016: Day 1 7:00 am - 8:00am Registration open 8:00 am- 8:30 am First Nations welcome and opening THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS 13 PRESENTERS 8:30 am - 8:45 am Discussion groups - Chené Swart REGISTRATION Makungu Akinyela – Atlanta, USA 8:45 am - 9:45 am Keynote Tom Stone Carlson – Fargo, USA 10:00 am - 12:30 am Morning workshops Student Rosa Elena – Vancouver, Canada 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Lunch break Preconference only $150 Erling Fidjestol – Oslo, Norway 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm Afternoon workshops David Epston – Auckland, 3 days, excluding preconference $400 4:30 pm - 5:15 pm Small group discussions 4 days, including preconference $500 Arthur Frank – Calgary, Canada Jill Freedman – Chicago, USA Helene Grau Kristensen – Copenhagen, Denmark Lorraine Grieves- Vancouver, Canada April 29th, 2016: Day 2 Early Bird General (ends March 17, 2016) Travis Heath – Denver, USA 7:30 am-8:15 am Optional yoga or meditation Preconference only $150 Lorraine Hedtke – Redlands, USA 8:45 am-9:45 am Keynote 3 days, excluding preconference $450 Kay Ingamells – Auckland, New Zealand Ian Law – Brisbane, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Morning workshops 4 days, including preconference $525 Stephen Madigan – Vancouver, Canada 12:30 pm - 2 pm Lunch break Bill Madsen – Boston, USA 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm Afternoon workshops Laurie Markham – Los Angeles, USA General (after March 17, 2016) 4:30 pm - 5:15 pm Small group discussions David Marsten – Los Angeles, USA Preconference only $200 Todd May-Clemson, South Carolina, USA 3 days, excluding preconference $525 Elize Morkel – Cape Town, South Africa 4 days, including preconference $600 Aaron Munro – Vancouver, Canada April 30th, 2016: Day 3 Ottar Ness – Trondheim, Norway 7:30 am-8:15 am Optional yoga or meditation David Nylund – Sacramento, USA 8:45 am - 9:45 am Keynote Sasha Pilkington – Auckland, New Zealand marcela polanco – Bogata, Columbia/San Antonio, USA 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Morning workshops Jack Saul – New York City, USA 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Lunch break Tom Strong – Calgary, Canada 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm Afternoon workshops Chené Swart – Pretoria, South Africa 4:30 pm - 5:15 pm Small group discussions Nina Tejs-Jorring – Copenhagen, Denmark Karl Tomm – Calgary, Canada John Winslade – Redlands, California

All of our presenters’ bios may be found online

2 THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS 13 THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS 13 3 WORKSHOPS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27TH: THURSDAY APRIL 28: DAY ONE G. Thinking, Theory and Practice: J. Recapturing the Heart and Beauty of Discussions on Gilles Deleuze, Narrative Practice through Narrative PRE-CONFERENCE Neo-liberalism, and Relationally Generosity and Embodiment: A Living KEYNOTE 8:45AM-9:45AM Interviewing Couple Relationships Ethics Approach to Teaching Narrative A. Walking In The Footsteps Of Stephen Madigan (Vancouver, Canada), Practice David Epston: An Off-Road Guide. Narrative Therapy On The Fringes Todd May (Clemson, USA) Tom Carlson (Fargo, USA) Kay Ingamells ( Auckland, New Zealand) marcela polanco ( Colombia/ USA) John Winslade (Los Angeles, USA) Chene Swart (Pretoria, South Africa). Discussant Erling Fidjestol (Oslo, Norway) Have you ever marvelled at the magic of David Epstons When problems can talk, dead people can speak, hope Three guys walk into a bar . . . Philosopher Todd May opens therapeutic questioning and longed to be able to bring his can taste, and heart, soul and mind can dance together the workshop with a fascinating discussion on the ideas of This workshop draws on our recent explorations of narrative practice into your own? More of an orienteering course in - a new discursive space is brought to life. In her keynote, French post-structuralist Gilles Deleuze. Narrative therapy generosity and narrative embodiment to help therapists to adventurous territory than a walk on a well-trodden route, the marcela will seek to transgress mainstream visual theorist John Winslade follows this up and connects the move beyond the limitations of ‘maps’ and move toward workshop will traverse specific practices viewed as foundational epistemological traditions of evidence to situate narrative ideas to neoliberalisms influence on therapists lives and a practice that is informed by a personal embodiment to the magic of David’s narrative therapy questions. An ideal therapy on the fringes. She will bring to the forefront of therapy. Stephen Madigan then guides their theoretical of the spirit, beauty, and ethics of narrative ideas and the workshop for students and newcomers to narrative therapy, but the discussion the ordinary weirdness of narrative therapy ideas into the practice of narrative therapies relational artistry that it inspires the artistry of narrative practice. will also appeal to experienced practitioners eager to invigorate conversations via her colombian magical realism. She will interviewing work with conflicted couple relationships. and expand upon the craft of their therapeutic questioning. stage the discussion in her colombian Macondo to speak the unspeakable, to locate the unlocatable, to touch the untouchable, to hear the inaudible, and to utter the ineffable. K.Remembering Ethics: Writing DAY 1 AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS 2PM-4:30PM Therapeutic Letters to Conflicted Couple B. Who Said They Are “Empty Vessels?” DAY 1 MORNING WORKSHOPS 10:15AM-12:45PM Relationships Detecting Moral Agency In Children Stephen Madigan (Vancouver, Canada) Laurie Markham & David Marsten (Los Angeles, H. Affirming The Ongoing Story Of Life Discussants Karl Tomm (Calgary, Canada) California) And Love In The Face Of Death And Grief. D. Crafting Poetic Counter-stories Ian Law (Brisbane, Australia) Kay Ingamells (Auckland, New Zealand) Lorraine Hedtke (Los Angeles, USA) Children are often made out as vulnerable through a Sasha Pilkington (Auckland New Zealand) “discourse of innocence”. A resulting obligation falls onto the Discussant David Nylund (USA) Through a new form of relationally interviewing relationships, shoulders of caregivers and professionals to do the important Discussant Tom Strong (Calgary, Canada) Stephen demonstrates a counter-practice to individualisms thinking and decision making for young people, at least until Drawing on David Epston’s unique narrative therapy influence on working with conflicted couple relationships. The their apprenticeship as ‘adults in the making’ is finally over. practice and using an aspect of your own life as our sketch A narrative approach to grief challenges conventional workshop highlights one specific piece of relational interviewing Ethicist John Wall suggests that “children perhaps more than pad, we will play with how to bring counter-stories to life. concepts like “denial” and the insistence on “acceptance” - the practice of writing letters of invitation directly to the any other group are prone to having their ‘saying’ capabilities that enfeeble and limit responses. Affirming legacies conflicted couples relationship. Through video examples, he overshadowed by what is ‘said’ by others about them. They and strength for those who are dying opens territory to shows participants how recollecting the relationships ethical are the most easily marginalized segment of society”. With the E. Recovery: How to Engage Communities stand personally and politically where grief can take on history from the relationships point of view, acts to transport use of video and transcript, this workshop will challenge such a in Mental Health Care life and love sustaining meaning before, and after death. the relationship away from dialogues of conflict and towards ethical reconstructions and newly found relational possibilities. marginalizing view and call young people forward as intentional Ottar Ness (Trondheim, Norway) – Discussants Tom agents capable of moral deliberation and decisive action. Carlson (Fargo, USA), Tom Strong (Calgary, Canada) I. Cultural Democracy, Hip-Hop, and Ottar lead a unique three-year collaborative action research C. Insider Witnessing Practices project on collaborative practices in community mental health Cultural Variation in Narrative Practice David Epston (Auckland, New Zealand), and substance abuse care with a municipality in Norway. The Makungu Akinyela (Atlanta, USA) workshop highlights how he co-researched his work alongside Tom Stone Carlson (Fargo, USA) Travis Heath (Denver, USA) an entire municipality (including families, politicians, teachers, insiders, students etc), as a way to create communities of Insider Witnessing Practices are the counterpoint to Michael As cultural diversity increasingly becomes the norm, narrative care and concern. He discusses a variety of novel practices White’s Outsider Witness Practices. The actual method of therapy and other modes of therapeutic practice must move the community invented and continue to engage in. Insider Witnessing Practices will be demonstrated for the past inclusion and towards a model of people from non- first time through a theatrical performance produced and European communities speaking on behalf of their own healing directed by Chelsea Pace, professor of drama studies at F. Bringing Narrative Practices into in their own cultural languages. This calls for a model beyond multiculturalism and cultural democracy. This workshop will NDSU and co-authored by clients, student therapists and Frontline Agencies Tom and David. The therapeutic team created the workshop seek to demonstrate decolonization practices through the use in this way in the hope that this might convey to you what Bill Madsen (Boston, USA) – Discussants Jill Freedman of Testimony therapy and Hip-Hop Therapy that help facilitate clients, therapists, and others have described as the magical (Chicago, USA) & Ian Law (Brisbane, Australia) change using language and metaphors that are culturally near experience that IWPs would seem to bring about. The and draw on the knowledge of indigenous communities. results in this experimental IWP approach have so far have Narrative therapy offers concrete ways to put family- exceeded our wildest expectations. (Performing with Chelsea centered values and principles (strength-based, Pace, Emily Corturillo, Ana Huerta Lopez, and Miranda) culturally responsive, accountable partnerships) into practice. This workshop highlights some simple ways in which frontline, public sector agencies have brought practices such as visioning, externalizing, re-authoring, re-membering and witnessing into their everyday work.

4 THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS 13 THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS 13 5 WORKSHOPS FRIDAY APRIL 29TH: DAY TWO N. Writing Therapeutic Letters: How To DAY 2 AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS 2PM-4:30PM SATURDAY APRIL 30TH: Begin, Evolve And Sustain A Therapeutic DAY THREE Letter Writing Practice. P. Going a Long Way in a Short Time: KEYNOTE 8:45AM-9:45AM Nina Tejs-Jorring (Copenhagen, Denmark) Narrative Work with Agencies and Schools Sasha Pilkington (Auckland, New Zealand) Jill Freedman (Chicago, USA) KEYNOTE 8:45AM-9:45AM Narrative Values Discussant David Nylund (Sacramento, USA) Discussants Nina Tejs-Jorring (Copenhagen, Denmark), Todd May (Clemson, South Carolina, USA) John Winslade (Los Angeles, USA) The workshop offers participants the necessary push to make What Socio-Narratology Might Offer their own letter writing practices part of the foundation (instead We often think of narrative in terms of stories, asking whether Jill has developed a unique method of using narrative questions Narrative Therapy of an add-on!) of their narrative therapy practices. Participants our lives are lived as stories or can be thought of as stories. to respond to the concerns and hopes of those consulting Arthur Frank (Calgary, Canada) are offered creative ways of overcoming obstacles to There is, however, another way of thinking narratively. We with her - while honouring their own skills and knowledge. therapeutic letter writing and - are taught the style, intentions might think of lives as characterized by what I call narrative And her use of therapeutic documents helps thicken and My trajectory has been from the study and brief practice and possible further uses of their letter writing practice. values. Narrative values, like intensity or curiosity or spirituality, maintain preferred stories. Although Jill created this method of family therapy to an engagement with experiences of are themes that can be said to characterize a life. This talk of working in social service agencies and schools, it is also critical and chronic illness. Both are linked by people’s need will introduce the concept of narrative values (from Todd’s applicable in work with a variety of organizations and groups. to tell stories. What I call socio-narratology asks what stories recent book entitled A Significant Life - human meaning in a O. Competing Stories: Narrative Theory & do for people and what stories do to people. It seeks to silent universe), and then discuss how they might be brought Clinical Practice balance two recognitions: that all stories are borrowed and to bear in thinking about what makes a life meaningful. Q. Working With Refugee Populations adapted, and people are infinitely artful in making stories their David Epston (Auckland, New Zealand) Through Narrative and Performative/ own. It leads to asking: Is that the story I want to live with? Arthur Frank (Calgary, Canada) Expressive Practice DAY 2 MORNING WORKSHOPS 10:15AM-12:45PM Michael White said that there are neither true nor false stories. Jack Saul (New York City, USA) DAY 3 MORNING WORKSHOPS 10:00AM-12:30PM Instead, stories compete. Frank’s work on socio-narratology Discussant Arthur Frank (Calgary, Canada) L. Narrative, Testimony And Cultural deals with competition between what he calls “companion Democracy stories”. He will illustrate that idea with the Greek story of In this presentation Jack looks at the development of T. Co-Authoring Our Professional Story Philoctetes, who faces two competing companion stories. individual and collective narratives of the refugee experience Tom Strong (Calgary, Canada) Makungu Akinyela (Atlanta, USA) Epston takes the competition between stories into the clinical through social theater. This is an approach that puts Discussants marcela polanco (USA/Columbia) practice realm showing a tape of a dying boy who tells two emphasis on the relational impact of trauma and mobilizing Discussants Chene Swart (Pretoria, South Africa) & Elize Morkel (Cape Town, South Africa) stories that compete. Their joint concern is that while true/ family and community resources in promoting adaptation. John Winslade (Los Angeles, USA) false may not be a useful dichotomy for stories, there are He will also explore how we can use our own stories as a This workshop will discuss the similarities and differences good and bad stories. Therapy often edges into moral inquiry, resource to understanding and working with refugees. This interactive workshop adapts a narrative approach to between narrative therapy and testimony therapy and as questions of good and bad stories become inescapable. your intentional yet still emergent career (story) as a narrative the notion of cultural democracy as it relates to why this Therapy does not legislate criteria for good stories, but it practitioner. Our career and its emergence is not our story distinction is significant. The workshop explores why does reinforce some stories, thus taking a moral stance. alone, and needs to incorporate emergent concerns, privileging the cultural voice of colonized cultures to allow R. Queering Social Services Agencies institutional settings, passions, personal wellness, relationships, them to tell their own stories, is an important tool of liberating Lorraine Grieves (Vancouver, Canada), Aaron Munro and ideas (our “co-authors). Reflecting upon our career therapy from colonizing models of cultural domination. (Vancouver, Canada), David Nylund (Sacramento, USA) stories, the workshop invites participants into discussions about how to stay fresh and intentional in narrative practice. This workshop will highlight three agencies informed by queer ethics -- BC’s Provincial Health Authority; “RainCity Housing’s” M. Narrative Therapy in Wonderland Queer, Trans and Two-Spirit program for queer homeless U. Weaving the Collaborative Spirit Laurie Markham (Los Angeles, USA) youth based in Vancouver ,and “The Gender Health Center” in of Therapy into the Tapestry of David Marsden (Los Angeles, USA) Sacramento, an agency serving the needs of the transgender and queer communities. Presenters will share and discuss Organizational Culture Discussants Kay Ingamells (Auckland, NZ), ideas on how agencies can incorporate Narrative Therapy Bill Madsen (Boston, USA) Ottar Ness (Trondheim, Norway) ideas and therapeutic practices as fundamental guiding values. Nina Tejs-Jorring (Copenhagen, Denmark) While a child’s imagination is known to delight, it is not readily considered pertinent to any therapeutic dialogue Collaborative Helping maps are a narrative-based tool, where serious matters are at hand, and even less likely to S. Maturana’s Theory of Knowledge and its designed to help practitioners think their way through complex situations and organize conversations about challenging be thought vital to problem redress. With the therapist’s Relevance to Therapeutic Conversations help and the support of family, young people can be issues. This workshop draws on the work of a Danish family entrusted to meet problems creatively. The presenters Karl Tomm (Calgary, Canada) therapy team to help participants weave the use of these maps illustrate the benefits of linking the real with the imaginary Discussant Stephen Madigan (Vancouver, Canada) into work with families, supervision, and team functioning. through the use of transcript, therapeutic letters, and video. A theoretical understanding about how human beings as ‘cognizing living systems’ come to ‘know what they know’ may provide a useful foundation to explain how therapeutic change occurs through conversation. Karl will present his understanding of Maturana’s theory and explore its ramifications for the therapeutic process. Stephen will then raise some questions and engage Karl in a further clarifying dialogue.

6 THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS 13 THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS 13 7 WORKSHOPS V. Cultural Interpretations Of Narrative Y. Clinical Governance And Accountability: Therapy: A Colombian And South African Running A Counselling Organisation In An Perspective Era Of Compliance Elize Morkell (Cape Town, SA) Ian Law (Brisbane, Australia), marcela polanco (Columbia/USA) Lorraine Grieves (Vancouver, Canada)

South African society has been deeply scarred by the trauma We need to be accountable for what we do both as and injustices of apartheid. Colombian society continues therapists and as the organisation that employs them. As a to experience the ripple effects of centuries of human manager responsible for the clinical quality and governance rights violations in the midst of economic, political, and of counselling services: how do you achieve accountability humanitarian trafficking of agreements with international and quality without erasing creativity? And - who gets organizations that deepen the scars. Elize and marcela will to decide when a desired outcome has been achieved? discuss how therapists have interpreted the ideas offered by Narrative Therapy in their local cultures to generate hope and possibilities on a personal, professional and political level within various contexts of their troubled societies. Z. Unreasonable Conversations: The Poetics Of The Absurd marcela polanco (Colombia/USA) W. Case Stories As An Emerging Approach Discussant Rosa Arteaga (Vancouver, Canada) To Teaching The Artistry Of Narrative In this workshop, marcela will attempt to forge ahead Practice therapeutic conversations that are motivated by interventions Tom Carlson (Fargo, USA), David Epston (Auckland, and/or techniques in narrative practice. In doing so, she will New Zealand), Travis Health (Denver, USA), propose a location of practice that aspires to conducting herself with a conversationalist partner in a linguistic Sasha Pilkington (Auckland, New Zealand) embrace. Informed by what she calls a poetics of the absurd, she will situate an unreasonable treatment of language Narrative case stories represent an approach to teaching from where words have no past but come to life in their narrative practice that privileges a living telling of narrative moment of enunciation. This is, through meanings that practice that is free of theoretical jargon so that readers can would make one lick their fingers after tasting them when ‘see’ and ‘feel’ the intentionality of the therapist/storyteller and passing through their tongues. marcela will contextualize how it guides their practice. This workshop will follow a case her proposal into her Colombian hopes to engage with story approach to teaching narrative practice that is intended narrative therapy from a fair-trade of knowledge perspective to spark the imagination and creativity of the reader in hopes so as to maintain her cultural integrity in her practice. that they can learn how to be mappers (rather than mere map followers) of the spirit and artistry of narrative practice. Z2. Discovery Learning: Narrative Therapy Questions And Therapeutic Letter Writing. DAY 3 AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS 2PM-4:30PM Stephen Madigan (Vancouver, Canada) David Nylund (Sacramento, USA) Discussant Erling Fidjestol (Oslo, Norway) X. Still Alive: Constructing Identities & Legacies Following The Death Of A Baby. David and Stephen guide the participant learner through Helene Grau Kristensen (Copenhagen, Denmark) an up close creative experience regarding the design, Lorraine Hedtke (Los Angeles, USA) politic, and grammar of narrative therapy questions and therapeutic letters. It is through the discovery When a baby dies, particularly when he or she is born, we are learning method that participants begin to embody a often at a loss as to how to help. This workshop addresses the confidence in their narrative practice - and watch their delicate conversations needed to demonstrate how relational therapeutic craft burst into higher forms of know-how.. narratives live on after the death of a baby. Using remembering practices, we will explore how a deceased child’s ongoing identity can continue to inform sustaining narratives.

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