The Ummeed Team will discuss using narrative practices when working with young people experiencing developmental disabilities and their families. Using examples from practice we will share how we are adapting the ideas with young people who have diverse ways of expressing themselves in preferred identity development, navigating various systems of power in preferred ways and in making possible family-centred care, where caregivers and children become partners in the journey of therapy.

Shona and Sarah will discuss key principles of their work in supervision that fit with bringing the politics of experience into supervision. These key principles include 1) positioning knowledge as discourse: using the skills of deconstruction and transparency; 2) co-constructed knowledges: valuing perspectives of supervisees and clients; 3) the use of questions verses directives, 4) valuing expansive conversations, and 5) promoting discursive agency.  Using these principles as a guide, Shona and Sarah will invite us to explore the politics of knowledge and power and consider ways to cultivate a social justice ethic in supervisory experience.

Following in the footsteps of Marcela Polanco's project to 'decolonize' what would appear to be commonplace 'cut and paste' MacDonalizations of narrative therapy in other languages, cultures and social circumstances, David and I have embarked on the journey of co-creating 'wasei' (remade-in-Japan) Narrative Therapy. So far we have attempted three workshops in Osaka and Tokyo(2017) and Osaka(2018). Along the way, we have found wonderful Japanese allies who also stand for 'language justice' and 'knowledge fair trade' (Polanco, 2016) and can provide us with honest feedback and continuous support. Although we as a team have traveled a good distance on a winding road, we still have a long way ahead of us to learn how to practice such a fair or 'kobinai' attitude ('kobinai' means the attitude of the less dominant who don't put themselves down or exalt the dominant, which is in this context Euro-American languages and cultures). This 'kobinai' attitude would be necessary for 'knowledge fair trade' to take root and thrive in Japan. Regardless, we would love to share some of our discoveries so far in the hope that it will encourage others in similar circumstances to re-imagine Narrative Therapy in their own local contexts.

Over the last several months with the support of the Mental Health Services. Aalborg University Hospital, Christoffer Haugaard and David Epston have been applying the same methodology e.g. co-researching that led to Maisel, Epston and Borden(2004): Biting the Hand that Starves You: Inspiring Resistance to Anorexia/Bulimia(New York, WWNorton).  Responding to a request to invent a narrative therapy-inspired approach to the so-called 'chronic mentally ill', they prefer the term 'those who are spoken to by voices'. This approach takes up where Michael White left off in the 1990s with the 'power to our journeys' approach. The image is copyright by artist Magda Hertzberg.

As part and parcel of marcela polanco's PhD thesis in Family Therapy at Nova Southeastern, she and David Epston set about the translation of Michael White's 'Maps'(2007). Through many twists and turns this led them to preparing a manuscript for a book tentatively titled: "Re-Imagining Narrative Therapy in the Americas." They will share with us some of their discoveries as they read and consider learnings from 'translation studies', 'decolonising methodologies'(Tuawai Smith) and creative transformations at the borders of cultures/languages.

This presentation begins with examining the contributions of the affective-discursive turn to the evolution of narrative therapy.  The affective turn - as described by Gerald Monk- is concerned with the connection between the mind, brain, and body, and its connection to the language of feelings, intentions, and choices which is both discursive and non-discursive. The turn to affect pays attention to what is beyond language and the discursive and focuses on what is located within the body. We will introduce participants to exemplars of the turn to affect by exploring non-linear practice: integrating EMDR and Somatic therapies with Narrative Therapy as developed by Lynne Rosen; as well, Ian Percy will briefly consider some applications of ancient mindful attention skills to assist in recollecting, enacting and sustaining embodied and relationally-just affect.