Narrative Therapy, Trauma & the Affective Turn Series- Now Under Construction

In this course, Maggie Carey demonstrates narrative interviewing practices that she learned as a close associate of Michael White, co-founder of narrative therapy. Maggie was a founding member of Narrative Practices Adelaide, the center Michael started in 2008, just a few months before his untimely death. Alongside her colleagues Shona Russell and Rob Hall, she was involved in the teaching of narrative therapy and community work for many years, both in Australia and internationally. Prior to the establishment of NPA, Maggie was a cherished member of the Dulwich Centre teaching faculty. Now retired, Maggie thoroughly enjoys engaging with her home, gardens, family and community in Adelaide, S. Australia.

Danielle Drake, Ph.D., is Program Chair, Associate Professor, and an alum of the Counseling Psychology Expressive Arts Therapy program at CIIS. She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Fielding Graduate University, where her dissertation explored the use of creativity and spirituality among African Americans. Her research led to an initial validation of the Black Spiritual Creativity Scale (BSCS) which is now used in several research projects and studies. Her post-doctoral internship at the Rafiki Coalition focused on holistic health and wellness in the Bayview/Hunters Point community of San Francisco.

Dr. Drake’s clinical work engages clients in creative writing, music, and visual arts processes. She has also worked in Human Resources as a corporate recruiter and HR administrator, and in nonprofit management as a Grant Writer, Fund Developer, Program Director, and Executive Director. She is the author of Cast Iron Life: A Collection of Poems and Recipes, a spoken word artist, a former Oakland Poetry Slam Champion, and the host of a Public Programs conversation with Angela Davis.

SuEllen Hamkins, MD is a psychiatrist and author, as well as queer, cis-gender white woman who loves to dance, swim and lie around the living room with her partner, kids and friends. SuEllen’s passion is helping people cultivate their values and strengths in the face of challenges and difficulties. She fell in love with narrative therapy after attending a workshop by Michael White in 1998 and dove into intensive training in narrative therapy at the Family Institute of Cambridge. Since then, SuEllen has sought to bring narrative practices to the professional and personal arenas of her life, including narrative psychiatry, narrative approaches to college student mental health and narrative-informed activism to help mothers, daughters and their relationships flourish. SuEllen’s narrative peer supervision group, with whom she has met for twenty years, has provided treasured guidance and support in staying true to the core values of narrative therapy. Her book, The Art of Narrative Psychiatry, published by Oxford University Press, 2013, offers a lively and practical introduction to bringing narrative practices to work with people facing mental health challenges, identifying emotional attunement as a key feature of narrative practice. For thirty years, SuEllen has worked as a psychiatrist for college and university counseling centers. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry UMass Chan Medical School and cherishes her role providing psychotherapy and psychiatric treatment to medical students and teaching narrative therapy and offering psychotherapy supervision to psychiatry residents. SuEllen is a co-founder and co-author of The Mother-Daughter Project, and has created a series of videos on helping mothers and daughter thrive. As a faculty member of Reauthoring Teaching, SuEllen gave the 2015 workshop, Working with people facing severe and persistent problems, and has presented at the Collab Salon.

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.

Laure Maurin (Bordeaux, France) is specialized in education and early childhood. For more than 10 years, she worked as an educator for disabled children in a day hospital, a therapeutic and educational institute, and an emergency home for juvenile offenders. Trained in the early childhood sector, she taught for more than 7 years to childcare assistants on child development, caring education, welcoming children and having a child with a disability. Mother of four children (and grand-mother of 4), Laure shares her experience and skills for a positive and caring education.

Laure trained in narrative therapy at the Fabrique Narrative in Bordeaux, in Paris and with David Epston, David Denborough and Jill Freedman. She accompanies young people and teenagers in narrative therapy. Laure has been practicing yoga for over twenty years, trained at the French Yoga School for four years, and leads meditation and yoga workshops. She likes to accompany people with disabilities through body language and narrative practices. She hopes that each person can find, at his or her own pace, a better knowledge of his or her body, breath and being in its entirety.

Laure conducts workshops in France and Belgium to train narrative practitioners in her work.For the past three years, she has created a method of conversation based on the relationship one has with his body, linking her practice of narrative ideas, and her experience in yoga and hypnosis. She first proposes a narrative conversation about the relationship the person has with their body, following this conversation and after a protocol of re-association of the person with their body.She then interviews the body, as an outsider witness of the conversation it has just heard.At the end of the interview, the person in turn reacts to the words of the body that she has just heard.

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 a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, where he taught 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. Along with Ian Percy, he co-presented a Collab Salon on Narrative & Mindfulness Practice, which is now available to Collab members in our library of Past Salons. We are thrilled to welcome David & Ian as co-presenters for a June 13, 2017 workshop in Shelburne Vermont: Integrating Mindfulness & Narrative Practice.

Ian Percy Ph.D., (Perth, Western Australia) is a family therapist, supervisor, trainer and published author in narrative and mindfulness approaches. He has specialised in teaching narrative therapy since 1997. Ian has also studied and practiced various forms of meditation, including mindfulness approaches, for four decades. His PhD thesis researched similarities and differences in approaches to therapeutic mindfulness in Australia and Bhutan. The intersection of these influences led him to pursue an integration of narrative therapy and mindfulness which includes the concepts of attentional capture and attentional choice, and an ongoing commitment to the politics and ethics of mindful attention in therapy. Ian co-presented with David Paré at the May, 2016 Collab Salon on Narrative & Mindfulness Practice and the June 2017 workshop, Creating Spaces for Emerging Practices.

Lynne V. Rosen, LCSW (Pasadena, California) has been engaged in therapeutic work for over 25 years in medical, residential, inpatient, community and private practice settings. She found her therapeutic and philosophical home in the early 90’s when she traveled to New York to hear Michael White and David Epston. Most recently, she has focused her attention on integrating Narrative Therapy with EMDR, Somatic Therapies and Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) with clients who are living with the effects of Trauma, Eating Problems and other difficulties that compromise relational well-being. Her favorite proverb is an African one: “Until lions have historians, tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter.” Lynne has had a long-standing interest in bringing forward lions’ tales, stories and experiences at the margins, where there is wisdom and knowledge that can transport us all. She continues to feel passionate about teaching, supervising and public conversation work and for many years, she had the privilege of working as Core Faculty and Director of the Postmodern Therapy Training Program at PGI and Co-Founder of WPLA (Women’s Project Los Angeles).

Shona Russell (Adelaide, South Australia) made narrative approaches to therapy and community work her focus for 25 years through her work in non-government organizations and in independent practice. Along with Gaye Stockell and Peggy Sax, Shona presented two workshops in Vermont, and is involved in the development of our Rich Story Development series. She was an active member of The Dulwich Centre teaching faculty, where she and her close colleague Maggie Carey played a primary role in developing the skills practice component of the International Training programme. In 2008, Shona joined Michael White, Maggie Carey and Rob Hall in Narrative Practices Adelaide. Shona taught workshops on narrative supervision for many years and was particularly interested in bringing to life the practices of narrative therapy in supervision contexts. She has authored and co-authored a range of articles. While Shona is now retired, her influence on our field will continue for many years into the future.

Shoshana Simons, (she/her/femme) PhD, RDT (Registered Drama Therapist) is a Professor and former Program Chair of CIIS’s MA in Counseling Psychology, Expressive Arts Concentration, and Interim Chair of the Community Mental Health Concentration, where she teaches Family & Couple Dynamics, Multicultural Counseling & the Therapeutic Relationship & Narrative Expressive Arts Family Therapy, a voice actor and arts-based coach & consultant with Key of Life Academy. She is also adjunct faculty at the Northwest Creative & Expressive Arts Institute, Seattle, WA, where she offers a Certificate in NarrARTive Expressive Arts in Coaching. Shoshana has 35+ years of experience working in multicultural settings with children and adults in the fields of play, education, antiracism, counseling psychology, organizational development, and community work.

Originally from London, UK, Shoshana came to the USA in 1990 to complete a clinical traineeship at The Stone Center, Wellesley College, MA. She returned to the Stone Center in 1998 as Training Director for The Open Circle Program, training elementary school teachers to implement a ground-breaking SEL curriculum using a whole systems approach.

Shoshana has worked as a therapist in the UK and USA. She has taught in the fields of counseling psychology and intercultural relations at Goddard College, VT, University of Vermont, and Lesley University, MA.

Shoshana’s interests include narrative and systemic expressive arts practices, indigenous healing traditions, Jewish mysticism and Jewish shamanic healing, the role of expressive arts in leadership, and arts-based research methods.

Shoshana holds a MA degree in Sociology & Social Policy from London Metropolitan University, a MA degree in Human Development, and a PhD in Human and Organizational Systems from The Fielding Graduate Institute, CA. She graduated from the Omega Transpersonal Drama Therapy Program in Boston, MA and Wisdom of the Whole Coaching Academy.

Navid Zamani: “I’m an Iranian-American man who was born and raised in Southern California. I was raised in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas, until I moved to Davis, CA to continue my studies. After acquiring my BA in Psychology and minor in Music from UC Davis, I moved to San Diego to continue my studies at San Diego State University in Marriage and Family Therapy. I have resided in San Diego since 2010 and have fallen in love with the cultures, geography, food and music.

There are threads in my life that have been constant, and initiatives that have developed due to opportunities at the time and/or my location. Music has always been a big part of my life, and I continue to enjoy playing the piano/keys and the drum kit. I am an avid surfer, and enjoy outdoor activities with my wife, such as camping, hiking and biking around San Diego. Reading and writing have always been a pleasure of mine, and academia became a natural fit in this way. Gardening is also one of my obsessions and I also really love my dog. All of these hobbies are situated within a framework of experiences that come along with identifying as a heterosexual male, an Iranian-American and the experiences of biculturalism that accompany that, my ability to speak Farsi and English, my education, and the values I hold.

I grew up observing the charitableness of my family, and connected with the sense of urgency and gratitude that they experienced from helping others. I watched my mom always donate her time and money to the underprivileged and underserved. I watched my aunts (who are educators in Iran) advocate and stand up for students who often didn’t have a voice. I am continuously grounded by the love and compassion my wife models in her daily life. I truly believe that my community’s health impacts my health, and I am dedicated in supporting those in need.”