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11th March 2009

Special announcement: International Training Programme in Narrative Therapy

Narrative Practices Adelaide announces a year long international programme in collaboration with:

The Narrative Teaching Partnership/Centre for Narrative Practice, UK;

Art Fisher, Canada & Allan Holmgren, DISPUK, Denmark

3 blocks of  2 weeks of intensive training in therapeutic practice based on narrative and post-structuralist ideas.

Click here for details.

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6th Feb 2009

Shine A Light Narrative Therapy Research Fund - Launch

The SHINE A LIGHT NARRATIVE THERAPY RESEARCH FUND and accompanying Website are now "live".

Click here for more information.

The website URL is: http://www.shinealightntresearchfund.org/
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1st December 2008

Training Programme 2009

Narrative Practices Adelaide announces a programme of training dates for 2009.

Click here for details.

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1st December 2008

European Conference of Narrative Therapy and Community Work

July 9th - 10th 2009 Brighton, United Kingdom.

The Centre for Narrative Practice is excited to announce the first European Conference of Narrative Therapy and Community Work.

A wide range of European countries are involved in working together to make this a special event. Countries involved include: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. And we hope there may be more to come. We are expecting that most of these countries will provide workshops, making this a truly European event.

Keynote speakers will include Allan Holmgren from DISPUK Denmark, and Maggie Carey and Shona Russell from Narrative Practices Adelaide. DISPUK is Europe’s largest agency that provides services specifically from a narrative perspective, whilst Narrative Practices Adelaide is the successor to Michael White’s centre in Adelaide. It was at Michael’s suggestion that we started to plan this conference and we had looked forward to his participation, so it will be especially good to have him represented in this way.

http://www.narrativepractice.com

For Italian translation click here___________________________________________________________________________________

10 November 2008

Announcement of New Projects

We are pleased to spread the word about several new ventures by Peggy Sax. In her book, Re-authoring Teaching: Creating a Collaboratory, and companion website, http://www.reauthoringteaching.com, Peggy shows how teachers, students and practitioners can take advantage of the exciting potential of the online medium to consult with each other, bring multiple voices into teaching, and learn about life experiences from people who seek our services. We highly recommend Re-authoring Teaching: Creating a Collaboratory not only for it's value related to the medium of online learning but also for the skillful articulation and exploration of narrative practice that Peggy Sax provides.

Now, Peggy is embarking on a new project – to bring together a vibrant international community of colleagues to actively study developments in narrative practice and collaborative inquiry, and to reflect on applications in our own work. You can read more about this study group, the “Narrative Practice and Collaborative Inquiry Study Group,” at http://www.reauthoringteaching.com/study_group_info.html.

Peggy is in search of eager, lifelong learners who can set aside time according to their own schedules to continue their studies and (if interested) earn continuing education credits. By participating, members have access to a private discussion board where they can review writings and recordings, and then join others in exchanging ideas and questions. There will also be exercises for practice and opportunities to consult with knowledged people outside the study group including some of the authors whose writings and recordings are among those posted on the private discussion board.

The Narrative Practice and Collaborative Inquiry Study Group has already started meeting online! Peggy welcomes others to join now at no charge. Beginning January 1, 2009, there will be a monthly fee for this service, with an additional charge if you request continuing education credits. Fee reductions by request are readily available for people with limited funds. Anyone can cancel the subscription at any time. For further information, please contact Peggy Sax at sax@reauthoringteaching.com.

Please visit the http://www.reauthoringteaching.com/ website, where you can learn more about these projects, order the book, join the mailing list, and sign the guest book.

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23rd May 2008

Narrative Practices Adelaide has its history based in the ADELAIDE NARRATIVE THERAPY CENTRE (ANTC), the centre that Michael White established in January 2008, a few months before his sad and untimely death in April 2008. From its inception Maggie Carey and Rob Hall joined Michael in the formation and early development of ANTC.

Because of legal difficulties involved with Michael’s will in relation to the ANTC website, it has become necessary for us to establish a totally separate identity - NARRATIVE PRACTICES ADELAIDE (NPA). We are doing this in order to allow the processes of dealing with Michael’s estate to follow their course and so that we can move forward with our work and with some of the plans and intentions that Michael had for a new centre.

Shona Russell, a long term colleague and friend of Michael’s has joined Maggie and Rob as an Associate of Narrative Practices Adelaide.

Narrative Practices Adelaide has a strong desire to continue with Michael’s aims and intentions in a way that would fit with the sentiment of what Michael had proposed. We envision a small, vibrant centre that collaborates with other centres and that acknowledges the rich and varied history of Michael’s work.

Acknowledgments and Future Directions
We would sincerely like to acknowledge the many thoughtful and encouraging responses that we have received from narrative practitioners around the world in relation to the continuation of the Adelaide Narrative Therapy Centre. The interest and support that people have expressed in what might happen with ANTC has been incredibly important to us in this sad time. The encouragement that we have received has helped us to keep looking for ways in which we might be able to continue on with Michael’s intentions and hopes, and the formation of NPA is a response to these messages of support and a step toward the furthering of some of these plans.

It is still early days in all of this, but we have been having many conversations amongst ourselves and with the wider community of teachers and practitioners, particularly those with whom Michael had developed close links over recent years.

It has been very heart warming to hear from the many people with whom Michael had spoken with excitement and anticipation about what ANTC might offer. It has also been more than a little daunting to think about how we might begin (as NPA now) to respond to the sense of responsibility we feel to see some of these plans come to fruition. There is no doubt in our minds that this will only take place through connection with like- minded others and through a sense of a wider network.

It is important to us at this time to acknowledge the long and productive history of Michael’s work as co-director of Dulwich Centre where he was based from 1983- January 2008. Many of us have formed our connections with and been inspired by Michael and his work during this period, and it will always be a significant part of the history of our ongoing relationship with narrative practice.

When Michael announced in January the beginning of a new centre for narrative teaching and practice here in Adelaide, he described his intentions in this way:

15th January 2008
The Adelaide Narrative Therapy Centre has been established for the further development of narrative practice.
This centre will provide counselling services to the community, and training workshops on a range of topics relevant to work with individuals, couples, families, groups and communities.
It will also provide a context for exploring the implications, for counselling practice, of recent developments in the fields of social and human enquiry.
This website will be further developed over the coming months, and will include items of significance to practitioners who are responding to requests for assistance with a wide range of problems and predicaments.

Our response as Narrative Practice Adelaide:

Establishing a network of practitioners.
One of Michael’s clear intentions was to further the links and connections with the many existing centres of Narrative practice.  He had envisaged such a network being a support between centres for the work that was already being done, as well as being inspiration for the further development of narrative practice. We have been actively considering ways of furthering this intention and look forward to hearing from interested people about how this network might take shape. We wish to establish links with other teachers of narrative practice to further support our ongoing work to put narrative ideas into practice.

Provision of therapy and counselling services.
Shona, Rob and Maggie have a long history of providing counselling and therapeutic services in their local community and they will continue this work. Their therapeutic work often links them with government and non-government community services and they value ongoing working relationship with a range of family and community agencies in Adelaide.
Shona and Maggie have recently moved into new consultation rooms in Hurtle Square in Adelaide These rooms  overlook the tree tops of this quiet square of Adelaide that is also known as the Forest of Dreams.
Rob also works from NADA counselling, consulting and training, which is  an independent therapy centre based at Hindmarsh in Adelaide.

Training opportunities.
Maggie and Shona have been involved in the teaching of narrative therapy and community work for many years, both in Australia and internationally. This is an aspect of their work that they value highly and that they look forward to continuing.
Maggie, Shona and Rob have all taught for many years as facilitators for the Diploma of Narrative Approaches for Aboriginal people (counselling, group and community work), a TAFE accredited diploma that is run through the Regional Centre at Nunkuwarrin Yunti of South Australia. One of the last meetings in which Michael participated the day before he left Adelaide for teaching overseas was with the education team at Nunkuwarrin Yunti. At this meeting Michael and Maggie discussed with the team the possibilities of creating a more visible link between ANTC and the teaching that was taking place in this course. NPA will be continuing this link.

Narrative Skills based workshops in Adelaide.
Maggie and Shona will offer skills based workshops in Adelaide. These workshops are a continuation of 5 day intensives which they currently run for other centres and training programmes. Workshops will be available for people new to narrative practice and for practitioners who wish to extend the skills they are already using. The focus of these workshops is in exploring the micro maps of Narrative practice as described by Michael White in his latest book Maps of Narrative Practice. The skills explored in the workshops will be relevant to working with individuals, families, groups and communities. Maggie and Shona have practical experience in each of these settings.

Preliminary notice of Narrative practice training programme 2009

Narrative Supervision
Shona and Maggie have a keen interest in supporting the work of other practitioners through consultation and supervision. Their focus is to assist practitioners to further develop and understand their work. They have experience in working with teams whose work relates to responding to trauma, human service community organisations as well as supporting practitioners who are using narrative therapy approaches in their work.  They will continue this work both locally and internationally through the wonders of Skype!!

Development of the NPA website
Plans are underway for the further evolution of this site to share developments in practice between centres around the world. We will keep you in touch with plans as they unfold.

New Initiatives 
Michael had been looking forward to extending on the ways in which narrative practice might contribute to the work with men who use violence in their relationships.  This has been the focus of Rob’s work for many years and he, Maggie and Shona have begun conversations about ways of progressing this initiative.

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