Faculty

Pierre  Blanc-Sahnoun, MBA,  is a “Narrapist”, Coach, therapist, trainer and supervisor of coaches, corporate poet and teacher of the Australian Narrative Approach in France and Europe. As one of the oldest French coaches, he is the Founder and Director of White Spirit Narratives; the Founder and Pedagogic Director of La Fabrique Narrative, a Columnist at Management Magazine. He has published 17 books. With 25 years of experience in professional support and professional development consulting,  Pierre currently accompanies leaders, Executive teams and professional communities with narrative practices.

Elena Baskina (Moscow, Russia) is a co-founder and counseling psychologist at the Charity Foundation for Psychological support, «Будущее Сейчас». The Foundation embraces narrative practitioners committed to changing the way psychologists communicate and think of people who they are helping. The Foundation’s team implements and develops Narrative Practices in different context. Elena is teaching both the on-line and off-line courses on narrative therapy, An Introduction to Narrative Therapy, Principles and Skills for Collective Practices, Responding to Trauma. Her therapeutic practice involves working with women, who live with the effects of infertility, losing children and family members, traumatic experiences, anxiety and depression. Since 2010 Elena has run the support groups and developed collective narrative practices for various contexts.

Maggie Carey, (Adelaide, South Australia) is a founding member of the Narrative Practices Adelaide teaching faculty. She is the originator of the online course, An Introduction to Rich Story Development, and currently working with Rob Hall and Shona Russell on the next course in our Rich Story Development Series. A repeat presenter for our Refreshing the spirit of the work workshops, we were delighted to welcome Maggie back to Vermont in June, 2016 for  two events including  Responding to trauma and difficulties in people's lives.  Maggie  has  been involved in the practice of narrative therapy since the early 90′s and in the teaching of it for the past 10 years. Maggie’s therapeutic practice has seen her working alongside young people at risk, with women and children who live with the effects of violence and abuse, and with people having experienced trauma, particularly as refugees. (You can read more about Maggie by clicking here.)

Tom Carlson (Fargo, USA) is a professor and director of the Couple and Family Therapy Doctoral Program at North Dakota State University and is the co-editor (along with David Epston) of a new journal dedicated to the reimagination of narrative practice called the Journal of Narrative Family Therapy. Tom has been practicing and teaching narrative ideas for over 20 years and has published several articles on narrative therapy that focus on helping therapists and the people that we work with to live out the spirit, values, and ethics of narrative ideas in their personal and professional lives. Tom is the developer of an alternative approach to narrative couples therapy called Relational Accountability (published in the International Journal of Narrative Therapy & Community Work) which invites couples to nurture stories of love and compassion in one another through the intentional living out of narrative ethics in their lives and relationships. Most recently Tom partnered with his friend and colleague David Epston in developing an emerging performance based narrative therapy practice called Insider Witnessing Practices that seek bring forth the beauty and dignification of people’s lives in dramatic ways.

Narrative ideas came to Amy Druker when she was seeking a way of working that did not insist on the de-politicizing of people’s suffering. She was particularly drawn to the idea of shining a light on the narratives that had been rendered invisible by dominant or ‘official’ narratives told (and often circulated) about the people she worked alongside as a harm reduction worker. She was conscious of the harms caused by the circulation of these ‘official’ narratives — and by being ‘storied’ in particular ways by persons in positions of power/authority. Amy was captivated by the task of seeking out the subordinated stories about a person’s resistance, hopes, values, commitments, purposes in life (the stories that could not have been predicted if we only knew the dominant story), and by the idea that people always resist injustices. Amy’s practice (and life) is guided by a commitment to social justice and the questioning of taken-for-granted ways of thinking about things (including the ‘doing’ of therapy, and the imposition of expert knowledge).For more information about her approach to therapy and/or clinical 'supervision' co/learning, please see her website: www.amydruker.

David Epston (Auckland, New Zealand)is the co-originator with Michael White of what has come to be known as ‘narrative therapy and community work’. The collaboration between David and Michael began in the late 1970s, as continued for many years. David’s best known publications are White and Epston(1990), Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends; Freeman, Epston and Lobovits(1997), Playful Approaches to Serious Problems: Narrative Therapy with Children and their Families and Maisel, Epston and Borden(2004), Biting The Hand That Starves You: Inspiring Resistance to Anorexia/Bulimia, Narrative Therapy in Wonderland: Connecting with children's imaginative know-how (with David Marsten & Laurie Markham) along with other collections of papers and book chapters.  David has given several Vermont workshops and masterclasses on the poetics of inquiry: What is a good question? Where do questions come from? How are good questions related to good stories? What guides inquiry in narrative therapy? David is an eagerly anticipated guest presenter on The Collab Salon.   In June 2017, he returned to Vermont to co-present (along with Tom Carlson) a  June 15th workshop on InsiderWitness Practice  and to cohost a gathering of Narrative Educators. To learn more, please visit our newly created Curated Resource Page: David Epston: Where the buses don't run yet. and visit Educators Camp Followup.

Jenny Freeman has met with people ages 3 to 93 in collaborative practice, group and school settings, and loves the creativity that emerges in collaboration, with the interweaves of narrative and just therapies with expressive arts, somatic, EMDR, energy and transpersonal approaches. Jenny presents internationally, co-owns narrativeapproaches.com and has contributed to the field; Playful Approaches to Serious Problems: Narrative Therapy with Children and their Families, Freeman, Epston and Lobovits (1997); Enter the Magic Sleep Garden (2007), audio & booklet; A Living Legacy, in Whispers and Vanities: Samoan Indigenous Knowledge and Religion (2014); The Turtle With Wings in The New Language of Change:Constructive Collaboration in Psychotherapy; Destination Grump Station: Getting off the Grump Bus, In Nyland, D. & Smith, C., (Eds.), Narrative Therapies with Children and Adolescents. Jenny worked at Walden School, Berkeley, CA over the last 6 years on community needs, served as instructor/director at John F. Kennedy University, & provides student training therapies for the California Institute of Integral Studies. Currently, she is writing a book on interspecies communication and pressing environmental issues, as well as researching and writing articles on how our field can respond to climate change.

Rob Hall  (Adelaide, Australia), a social worker, has been working in the area of gender violence and abuse since 1980.  Rob co-presented with Alison Newton the 2012 workshop in Vermont, Responding to Abuse Within Families and Building Ethical Resistance.  Together with Maggie Carey and Shona Russell, he is involved in the development of our Rich Story Development series. Rob first worked in an emergency counselling service exploring approaches to inviting men to take responsibility for their violence and to find ways to ensure the safety and well being of people they had abused. He then joined a colleague, Alan Jenkins, in the further development of work with men who have perpetrated abuse. They formed a partnership, in this work, with Maxine Joy and Alison Newton and established an independent therapy centre. Since 1994, Rob has also been working with adolescents who have been sexually abused with a focus on Aboriginal adolescents, their families and communities. Rob has shared these explorations of practice in many seminars and workshops. In 2008, Michael White invited Rob to be an associate with his Adelaide Narrative Therapy Centre. Michael’s associates Maggie Carey, Shona Russell and Rob formed Narrative Practices Adelaide after Michael’s untimely death. You can read about Rob’s work in the online article posted on the Pratiquesnarratives.com website: Pitfalls and challenges in work with men who use violence against their partners.

SuEllen Hamkins, MD is a psychiatrist and author. SuEllen’s passion is helping people cultivate their values and strengths in the face of challenges and difficulties. Her work centers on three main areas: narrative therapeutic practices, college student mental health and mother-daughter relationships. She is Assistant Director of the Center for Counseling and Psychological Health at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry UMass Chan Medical School. SuEllen is a co-founder of The Mother-Daughter Project, and has created a series of videos on helping mothers and daughter thrive. Her most recent book is The Art of Narrative Psychiatry, published by Oxford University Press, 2013.  As a faculty member of Reauthoring Teaching, SuEllen gave the 2015 workshop, Working with people facing severe and persistent problems, and presented at the Collab Salon on Working with People Who are Living with Serious and Relentless Problems or Mental Health Challenges. 

Barbara (B) Herring (Los Angeles, CA) holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University where she specialized in LGBT Affirmative Psychotherapy.  She is actively working as a private practice intern under the supervision of Lucy Cotter at NCC as well as working as an intern at Teen-Line. Barbara’s traineeship was at Being Alive a HIV/Aids Service organization.  Barbara is highly competent and sensitive at working with a diverse range of individuals, regardless of cultural background or where they may fall on the gender and sexuality spectrum, she has created and implemented workshops on Race and Privilege in the Therapy Room.  She presented the May 2018 Collab Salon, Acknowledging the Effects of Difference: Race & Privilege in the Therapy Room, and led the Delving into Difference Consultation Group. She also presented the December 19, 2021 Collab Salon: An Introduction to Narcissism and Narcissistic Abuse Through the Narrative Lens. She hopes to continue to broaden her platform as a consultant for clinicians around intersectionality and difference as well as Narcissistic Abuse.

Kay Ingamells M.S.W., (Auckland, New Zealand) has been working with individuals, children, young people and families since 1990. Kay began her career working with troubled young people and children in residential care and in specialist agencies,  then spent nine years working in child and adolescent mental health. For the past ten years she has lectured in narrative therapy in higher education at undergraduate and post-graduate level and has been running a private therapy and counselling practice for children, families, young people and adults. For the last 12 years she has been supervised by the co-inventor of Narrative Therapy, David Epston, and has taught alongside David for the last 5 years. Kay has published several articles. She is currently writing and presenting about her apprenticeship with David Epston. She also provides one-on-one and group training called ‘Training Through Transcripts’, to narrative practitioners committed to bringing David’s practices into their own work.

Charley Lang, MFT (Los Angeles, California) created the online course, Queer Counseling & Narrative Practice and cohosts The Collab Salon. He is co-founder of Narrative Counseling Center, providing resource-oriented consultation services for individuals, couples, and families, in addition to strength-based psychotherapy training for interns and therapists in the Los Angeles area.  As Director of the Psychology and Addiction Studies Concentrations at Antioch University, he teaches numerous courses, including  Narrative Therapy in Practice, Human Sexualities, Shakespeare Deconstructed and Madness in American History & Film. For many years he was Director of the Postmodern Therapy Training Program at the California Family Counseling Center and mental health supervisor at the AIDS Service Center in Pasadena.  Always on the lookout for new and engaging alternative stories, Lang produced and directed several documentary films, including the HBO award-winning Gay Cops: Pride Behind the Badge (gaycopsyoutube). 

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.

Lynne V. Rosen, LCSW (Los Angeles, 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.  Lynne co-presented(with Larry Zucker) the Collab Salon, Tales of Integration: Narrative Therapy, EMDR, Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) and Somatic-Oriented Therapies . Through Faculty Offerings, Lynne is now offering The Em-bodying Conversations Consultation Group. Along with David Paré & Ian Percy, Lynne will co-present a two-day workshop, Extending the Histories of Narrative Practice: Creating Spaces for Emerging Approaches (June 12-13, 2017). Lynne is also a contributor to The Curated Resource:  Honoring History, Bridging with other approaches.