Poh is a Chinese Malaysian Australian woman who comes to her practice through multiple experiences and relationships as a narrative therapy practitioner, social worker, co-researcher of trauma/displacement, writer, teacher, film protagonist and creative consultant.
Dean Lobovits, M.A. is a Marriage and Family Therapist practicing in Berkeley California and an Adjunct Professor at John F. Kennedy University. He authored legislation governing MFT’s in California and served for 14 years on the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists Ethics Committee including six years as Chairperson. He has published a website www.narrativeapproaches.com and authored a book and articles on Narrative Therapy and Ethics and Law for psychotherapists. Other publications include (1995) Public Practices: An Ethic of Circulation. with R. Maisel and J. Freeman. In S. Freidman, (Ed.), The Reflecting Team in Action. New York: Guilford Press. Dean is the creator of the upcoming course in our Narrative in Action Series, Dilemma, Distraction, and Discourse: Ethically Informed Psychotherapy Practices.
Laurie Markham is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who works across a broad range of issues with individuals, couples, youth, and families. She has presented on hierarchies of power and published in Family Process and The Journal of Feminist Family Therapy. Her fondness for young people and their families dates to her 10 years as a public school teacher. She is co-author of the soon to be completed Narrative Therapy in Wonderland: Imagining New Possibilities with Young People and Their Families with David Epston and David Marsten. David and Laurie have been featured guests on The Collab Salon on Imagining new possibilities with young people and their families. Laurie was the first university faculty to create an independent study arrangement with a student for the online course, Narrative Therapy: Foundations & Key Concepts.
David Marsten first stumbled upon Narrative Therapy in 1991 while training in Brief Therapy at MRI in Palo Alto, CA. Over a period of months he became intrigued by Narrative and has since made it his bookish and imaginative home. He developed a Narrative training program at Jewish Family Service of Santa Monica in 1992, and in 1998 moved on to establish a non-profit training and counseling center, Miracle Mile Community Practice, with the aim of furthering Narrative ideas in the Los Angeles area. He has taught for many years and presented internationally on topics ranging from internalized patriarchy to couples, and young people and families. He has co-authored several articles and is currently nearing the completion of a book, Through the Looking Glass: Narrative Therapy in Wonderland, with David Epston and Laurie Markham. David and Laurie have been featured guests on The Collab Salon on Imagining new possibilities with young people and their families. In our Narrative in Action Series, David is developing the online course, Narrative therapy with young people and families: Partnering with virtuous and imaginative partners.
Gerald Monk PhD (San Diego, California) is the former Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program in the Department of Counseling and School Psychology at San Diego State University. He is a practicing Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, AAMFT Supervisor, and a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. His research and teaching interests include Affective therapy, narrative mediation & conflict resolution, constructionist & discursive theories, restorative practice, and mental health recovery.
Linda Moxley-Haegert, (clinical psychologist and marriage and family therapist) has practiced narrative therapy ideas since 1991 including: for 9 years, work with adolescents expelled from school in a special program designed to keep them in school; for 35 years, work with children and their families in children’s hospitals; and humanitarian work with training of caregivers in narrative ideas in Rwanda, Burundi and Chad. Currently, Linda works with both youth and adults who experienced traumatic events and is developing her private practice called Narrative Journeys (see Psychology today). She has published her narrative ideas in the International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, Journal of Health Psychology and COGNICA. She has presented on Friday afternoons at Dulwich Centre (Hopework – in French and English) and will soon present ‘Leaving a Legacy and Letting that Legacy Live’ (palliative care project in both French and English). A book chapter (in French), to be published in France, will present the narrative community work she developed with parents of children who died. Having started learning narrative ideas through Michael White workshops, Linda presented‘Recuperating Michael White and Recuriositizing Narrative Practice at the 12th Therapeutic Conversations conference in Vancouver. We are delighted to welcome Linda as a featured guest for The Collab Salon.
Alison Newton, a psychologist (Adelaide, Australia), works in a narrative approach with women who have been subjected to abuse by their partners. She was the first family therapist in Australia to document and present a therapeutic approach to dealing with domestic violence. Alison developed her collaborative approach while working in a community health setting in an area considered disadvantaged.
David Paré, Ph.D., is a Counselling Psychologist and director of the Glebe Institute, a Centre for Constructive and Collaborative Practice in Ottawa. He is also a full professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, where he teaches counselling and psychotherapy. David has written widely and presented internationally on the subject of narrative and postmodern therapies, as well as offering training and supervision in these areas. He is the author of The Practice of Collaborative Counselling and Psychotherapy (2013, Sage), and co-editor of two books about collaborative practices in counselling and therapy. He is in the final phases of completing an edited book with Cristelle Audet on Social Justice and Counseling. David has maintained a mindfulness practice for the past 30 years.
Ian Percy (Perth, Western Australia) is a family therapist, supervisor, trainer and published author in narrative and mindfulness approaches. Inspired by the writings of Michael White, David Epston and Alan Jenkins, he took a social constructionist and narrative turn in his practice some 25 years ago, intrigued by the power of cultural discourses and language to shape our lives and relationships. Ian has also studied and practiced various forms of meditation for four decades. The intersection of these influences led him to pursue an integration of mindfulness and Narrative Therapy, which includes attending to gestures and postures as expressions of distress, as statements of position, and as openings to preferred storylines. He is interested in notions of attentional capture and attentional choice, and the politics and ethics of mindful attention in therapy. Ian co-presented with David Paré the May, 2016 Collab Salon on Narrative & Mindfulness Practice and the June 2017 workshop, Creating Spaces for Emerging Practices.
Sasha McAllum Pilkington is a counsellor at Hospice North Shore in Auckland, New Zealand. She first met David Epston in 1986 when he agreed to be her supervisor while she was working for a mental health service in Auckland. Sasha then undertook training with David and Johnella Bird and has been learning and practising Narrative Therapy ever since. In recent years Sasha has developed a passion for writing stories that illustrate narrative practice (see Pilkington, 2014, 2016, 2017) and is now writing a book with co-authors Arthur Frank and David Epston illustrating Narrative Therapy in palliative care. She presented the October 2018 Vermont workshop, A Narrative Approach to Therapeutic Conversations at the End of life.
marcela polanco, was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, land of her Muiscan ancestors. Currently an Assistant Professor in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at San Diego State University, her supervision, teaching, research and therapy are informed by the work of Latin American academic and social activist on decolonial and anti-racist Andean feminisms. She is also inspired by an ethics of solidarity. Until recently, she directed the Psychotherapy Services for Spanish Speaking Populations Certificate and the Master’s in Family, Couple and Individual Psychotherapy at Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas. She is member of the international faculty team at the Dulwich Centre, Adelaide, Australia. As a featured guest of the Collab Salon, marcela presents, Stories that honor cultural integrity. She is currently an Assistant Professor, Marriage & Family Therapy, San Diego State University
Beth Prullage, LICSW, is the Director of Clinical Programming at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital in Holyoke, MA. She has worked at Providence for ten years in a number of clinical positions, including the Director of Social Services, and as the Senior Clinician on the Child and Adolescent Unit. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Social Work and Faculty Field Advisor at Smith College School for Social Work, where she teaches courses in Clinical Practice, Narrative Therapy and Family Therapy.