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Workshop Presenters

Presenting in 1st Set of Parallel Workshops on Wednesday Morning: 

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Karl Tomm, MD FRCPC, is a Professor of Psychiatry in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. In 1973 he founded the Family Therapy Program which became the Calgary Family Therapy

Centre where he continues as the Director. Karl is interested in the application of systems theory, narrative theory, social constructionism, and

bringforthism to therapy. His work has focused on clarifying patterns of interaction in families, the effects of social injustices on relationships, the influence on therapists of the distinctions they draw, and the possible therapeutic effects of the questions asked in the doing of therapy.

Co-Presenting with Tamara Wilson

Workshop 1:

IPscope Review and Update

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Tamara Wilson is a registered psychologist in Alberta and currently practices as a full-

time family therapist at the Calgary Family Therapy Centre, where she also provides

clinical supervision and training. Tamara has a passion for Social Constructionism,

Systemic therapy, Nonviolent Resistance, and Narrative therapy. She is particularly

interested in socio-cultural discourses related to parenthood, race, ethnicity, and gender

and the ways in which they implicitly impact family relationships.

Co-Presenting with Karl Tomm

Workshop 1:

IPscope Review and Update

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Dr. Joaquín Gaete Silva is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, and a Registered Psychologist in Alberta, Canada. He currently holds a position as an Associate Director at the Calgary Family Therapy Centre (www.familytherapy.org), where he also practices family therapy and clinical supervision. He is interested in practicing, teaching and researching therapy as a vehicle to promote peace and social justice through human development and relational well-being. His practice and research is informed by cultural psychology, focusing on interpersonal conflict, problematic disruptive behavior, change process, and clinical supervision. 

Inés Sametband, PhD., is an Assistant Professor at Mount Royal University, a registered marriage and family therapist (AAMFT), and a provisionally registered psychologist in Alberta. Her practice as an instructor, researcher, and clinician is informed by discursive and collaborative family therapy approaches. Her research focuses on how locally relevant cultural ideas and practices influence family relations, and how they feature in therapy conversations. She is currently conducting a qualitative inquiry on how family therapists engage with clients in ways that recognize and are inclusive of clients’ preferred cultural memberships. 

Workshop 2:

'TIPs' to Move from Disquieting Disruption to Generative Participation 

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Dr. Jeff Chang lives and works in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is a professor in the Master of Counselling program at Athabasca University. Jeff is a member of board of directors of Calgary Family Therapy Centre, after having worked there as a therapist and supervisor. He writes, presents, and practices in the areas of family therapy, high-conflict divorce, clinical supervision, and children’s and school-based mental health. Jeff is the editor of Creative Interventions with Children: A Transtheoretical Approach (2012), and co-author of Basic Family Therapy (6th ed.) (2013).

Workshop 3:

Children's Stories, Children's Solutions

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Monica Sesma-Vazquez, PhD, RSW, RMFT (She/Her). Monica is a social constructionist-oriented family therapist, educator, supervisor, and researcher. She is an Assistant Professor and the Academic Coordinator of the Couple and Family Therapy Program in the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary. She works as a family therapist 

and supervisor at the Calgary Family Therapy Centre where she is also the ResearchCoordinator. Monica is currently a Board Member of the Taos Institute and the Canadian Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Her current research interests focus on children and families, and immigrants, refugees, and newcomers’ systemic issues.

Workshop 4:

Resistance, Reflexivity, and Revelations: What "Disquieting" Moments in Therapy Tell Us About Our Values

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Monica Sesma-Vazquez, PhD, RSW, RMFT (She/Her). Monica is a social constructionist-oriented family therapist, educator, supervisor, and researcher. She is an Assistant Professor and the Academic Coordinator of the Couple and Family Therapy Program in the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary. She works as a family therapist 

and supervisor at the Calgary Family Therapy Centre where she is also the ResearchCoordinator. Monica is currently a Board Member of the Taos Institute and the Canadian Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Her current research interests focus on children and families, and immigrants, refugees, and newcomers’ systemic issues.

Title:

Resistance, Reflexivity, and Revelations: What "Disquieting" Moments in Therapy Tell Us About Our Values

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Emily Doyle, PhD., RPsych is a Registered Psychologist in Alberta, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, and the Director of Training in the Master of Counselling program at Athabasca University. Her clinical focus includes systemic family therapy, narrative therapy, addictions and recovery, and counselling youth and adolescents. Her research interests include Institutional Ethnography, collaborative dialogical interactions, post-modernism in counselling and research, and discourse analysis.

Workshop 5:

Practical Strategies for Understanding Social and Institutional Barriers Faced in Family Therapy

Presenting in 2nd Set of Parallel Workshops on Wednesday Afternoon: 

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David Epston originated what has come to be known as narrative therapy along with his close friend and colleague, Michael White. This led in the first instance to White and Epston(1990) Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends and Epston and White(1992), Experience, Contradiction, Narrative and Imagination. More recently he has collaborated on other

publications: Maisel, Epston and Borden(2004), Biting the Hand that Starves You: Inspiring Resistance to

Anorexia/Bulimia; Marsten, Epston and 

Markham(2016), Narrative Therapy in Wonderland: Connecting with Children's Imaginative Know-how; NiaNia, Bush and Epston(2017), Taitahono: Stories of Maori Healing and Psychiatry, Heath, Carlson and Epston(2022), Reimagining Narrative Therapy through Practice Stories and Autoethnography and Tejs Jorring with June Alexander and David Epston(2022), Narrative Psychiatry and Family Collaborations. Over the years he has taught widely around the world.

Workshop 6:

Teaching/ Learning Contemporary Narrative Therapy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

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Alan McLuckie  earned his Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Toronto and an MSW (Clinical Specialization) from the University of Calgary. His areas of research include infant, child and adolescent mental health, parenting stress, clinical supervision, as well as family-based and psychosocial interventions.

Dr. McLuckie is an award-winning educator at the University of Calgary where he is an Associate Professor

with the Faculty of Social Work. He is a Registered Clinical Social Worker and Registered Marriage & Family Therapist who maintains a clinical practice at

the Calgary Family Therapy Centre.

Workshop 7:

Narrative Play Therapy

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Shannon McIntosh is a family therapist and clinical supervisor at the Calgary Family Therapy Centre (CFTC). An empath with excellent training, Shannon is devoted to strengthening relationships, building resiliency, and applying her fiery passion for advocacy, collaboration and creativity in her work. Shannon is inspired by systemic theory, narrative theory and social
constructionism. With deeply insightful thought and heart, she strives to empower families while honouring each client’s unique culture. Shannon upholds social justice, and enjoys using metaphors, expressive arts and experiential learning to bring forth relational healing. She feels 
fortunate to have applied her therapeutic skills with children, youth and families within Alberta
Health Services, as well as nonprofit organizations such as CFTC. Along with her commitment to CFTC, Shannon is a sessional instructor in the Faculty of Social Work at University of Calgary. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, singing, writing, and running along Calgary’s beautiful trails.

Co-Presenting with Tamara Wilson & Jeff Chang

Workshop 8:

Working with Families Struggling with High Discrepancy: Therapeutic Practices to Traverse
Relational Disquiet

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Tamara Wilson is a registered psychologist in Alberta and currently practices as a full-

time family therapist at the Calgary Family Therapy Centre, where she also provides

clinical supervision and training. Tamara has a passion for Social Constructionism,

Systemic therapy, Nonviolent Resistance, and Narrative therapy. She is particularly

interested in socio-cultural discourses related to parenthood, race, ethnicity, and gender

and the ways in which they implicitly impact family relationships.

Co-Presenting with Shannon McIntosh & Jeff Chang

Workshop 8:

Working with Families Struggling with High Discrepancy: Therapeutic Practices to Traverse
Relational Disquiet

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Dr. Jeff Chang lives and works in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is a professor in the Master of Counselling program at Athabasca University. Jeff is a member of board of directors of Calgary Family Therapy Centre, after having worked there as a therapist and supervisor. He writes, presents, and practices in the areas of family therapy, high-conflict divorce, clinical supervision, and children’s and school-based mental health. Jeff is the editor of Creative Interventions with Children: A Transtheoretical Approach (2012), and co-author of Basic Family Therapy (6th ed.) (2013).

Co-Presenting with Tamara Wilson & Shannon McIntosh

Workshop 8:

Working with Families Struggling with High Discrepancy: Therapeutic Practices to Traverse
Relational Disquiet

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John Burnham is a systemic psychotherapist working in the independent and public sectors of the UK. His practice includes therapy, supervision, training, consultation, and writing. His main clinical work is with children, young people, and families at Parkview Clinic in Birmingham where he is employed as a Consultant Systemic and Family Psychotherapist and formerly was Head of the Systemic Training Programme. As well as training in the UK he teaches in a variety of contexts including Scandinavia, Netherlands, Greece, Singapore, USA, and South America. He is sole author of the classic text ‘Family Therapy: First steps towards a 

systemic approach’ published by Routledge, and editor of the Special Edition of Human Systems known as ‘Voices from the Training Context’. His model ‘Approach, Method and Technique’ is widely used in a variety of training contexts. His professional passions include ‘thinking theory and talking ordinary’ and ‘turning practice into theory’.

Workshop 9:

'PPRR' a Map for Creating a Reflexive PPRRactice

Overcoming Problems - Creating Possibilities through ...Wrestling with Restraints and Embracing Resources

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Cheryl White works at Dulwich Centre as publisher, editor, teacher, training co-ordinator, conference host, and initiator of projects. 

Co-Presenting with David Denborough and Tileah Drahm-Butler

Workshop 10:

Stories of responding to relational disquiet from the Field of Narrative Therapy and Community Work 

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Tileah Drahm-Butler (she/her) is a Kullilli & Yidinji woman, and with Respect to  Darumbal. Tileah is a Social Worker and PhD candidate and has completed a Master  of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. Tileah has over 20 years of experience  working across Aboriginal Health and Social and Emotional wellbeing, and now works as an Emergency Department (ED) Social Worker at the Cairns Hospital. Tileah leads  the teaching of Narrative Therapy and Community Work through an Aboriginal lens 

and is a Dulwich Centre Co-Chair of Feminisms, Intersectionality and Narrative  Practice. Teaching Narrative Practice to First Nations people, and the yarns that take  place through these times, is what floats Tileah’s boat! Tileah’s PhD research intends  on transforming the Cairns Hospital ED into a place of cultural safety, bringing  together her passion for Aboriginal Narrative practice, community work and  Emergency care.

Co-Presenting with Cheryl White and David Denborough

Workshop 10:

Stories of responding to relational disquiet from the Field of Narrative Therapy and Community Work 

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David Denborough works as a community worker, teacher and writer/editor for Dulwich Centre. He is particularly interested in cross-cultural partnerships which limit the chances of psychological colonization and create possibilities for cross-cultural inventions

Co-Presenting with Cheryl White and Tileah Drahm-Butler

Workshop 10:

Stories of responding to relational disquiet from the Field of Narrative Therapy and Community Work 

Presenting in 3rd Set of Parallel Workshops on Thursday Morning: 

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Stephen Madigan MSW, MSc, PhD, is an award-winning narrative therapist, best-selling therapy author, Training Director of the Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy, content manager of VSNT.live, long-time supervisor to Norway’s High Couple Conflict Teams, and wrote the first ever doctoral dissertation on narrative therapy. His therapy work is studied in Graduate University programs across the world through various media forms such as the American Psychological Associations production of a set of six professional learning videos filming his live narrative practice, and the 1st and 2nd Edition of his book Narrative Therapy, published in 2011 & 2019 (3 rd Edition out in 2023). Stephen teaches, trains, consults, and supervises world-wide.

Workshop 11:

Relationships are Relational...

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Laura Fruggeri, Psychologist and Psychotherapist. She completed her training in systemic therapy with Luigi Boscolo and Gianfranco Cecchin with whom she has also collaborated ever since for many years. Former Professor of Psychology of Family Relationship at the University of Parma, she is now Director of the Bologna Centre of Family Therapy. She has been extensively teaching in UK, Europe, North and South America for more than three decades. Presenter at main national and international conferences. She is author of more than a hundred publications in Italian, English, French, Spanish, Danish and German.

Workshop 12:

When the Disquiet is in the Therapist-Client Relationship: the Need for an “Epistemological

Competency” in the Psychotherapeutic Practice

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Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese is a Samoan family therapist, community worker, and researcher. She is

Coordinator of the Pacific Section at the Family Centre. One of her outstanding research achievements is the development of fa’afaletui methodology, which is a research method that is sensitive and responsive to cultural norms and methodologically rigorous. The work was funded by the Health Research Council and subsequently published as a ‘Qualitative Investigation into Samoan Perspectives on Mental Health and Culturally Appropriate Services’ Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry in 2005, Vol. 39 (4). She is one of the founders of ‘Just Therapy’, an internationally recognised approach to addressing cultural, gender, and socioeconomic contexts in therapy. She has been a Joint recipient of the American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA) Award for a Distinguished Contribution to Social Justice and the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy Special Award for Distinguished Contributions to Family Therapy.

Co-Presenting with Tafaoimalo Loudeen Parsons, Monica Mercury & Carol Halliwell

Workshop 13:

Ascribing meaning in therapeutic conversations: The contexts that make the difference

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Tafaoimalo Loudeen Parsons is a member of the Pacific section of the Family Centre. She is an

experienced Pacific family therapist, community development worker and researcher. In 2009 she

was a joint recipient of the World Bank Prize in the Development Market Place Global Competition

on Climate Change Adaptation. She has been a co-author on numerous Pacific focussed research and

evaluation reports for government Ministries. She also contributed substantially to the Pacific part of

an international publication Waldegrave, C., King, P., Maniapoto, M., Tamasese, T., Parsons, T., and

Sullivan, G. (2016) “Relational Resilience in Māori, Pacific, and European Sole Parent Families: From

Theory and Research to Social Policy”, Family Process, Vol. 55, No. 4. 673–688.

Co-Presenting with Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese, Monica Mercury & Carol Halliwell

Workshop 13:

Ascribing meaning in therapeutic conversations: The contexts that make the difference

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Monica Mercury (Te Iwi Morehu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Hainamana – Māori tribal affiliations)

holds a Master of Education degree from Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington.

Monica was an educator in the primary sector for many years and comes from a whānau with a long

history in whānau Māori, social and community development via Indigenous-inspired activities.

Monica is The Family Centre Whānau Therapist-Counsellor and a Kaupapa Māori researcher. She is

currently part of the Awhi Whānau team – The Māori branch of the Family Centre Social Policy

Research Unit implementing ‘For Māori as Māori by Māori’ research projects.

Co-Presenting with Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese, Tafaoimalo Loudeen Parsons & Carol Halliwell

Workshop 13:

Ascribing meaning in therapeutic conversations: The contexts that make the difference

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Carol Halliwell has worked in public service for over 40 years as a social worker, family therapist and

trainer.

She has been the Consultant Lead Systemic Family Psychotherapist in UK National Health Service West

London Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service for 15 years and has taught on Systemic Family

Therapy courses at the Tavistock Centre in London for 20 years, as well as teaching and presenting

nationally and internationally.

 

The journey my practice has been on has been deeply influenced and shaped by narrative approaches

and the ideas from Just Therapy team.

I enjoy the conversations that arise from teaching, supervising and therapy. They enrich and stretch

my thinking and widen my view of the world.  The ethical, political and spiritual positions we take are

rarely visible in our UK work. Narrative approaches and the work of Just Therapy team’s contribution

help me make this more visible.

Co-Presenting with Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese, Tafaoimalo Loudeen Parsons & Monica Mercury 

Workshop 13:

Ascribing meaning in therapeutic conversations: The contexts that make the difference

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David Nylund, MSW, PhD is a professor of Social Work at California State University, Sacramento. He is the Clinical Director and co-founder of the Gender Health Centre, a grass roots agency in Sacramento that serves the trans and queer communities. David is on the faculty of the Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy. He is widely published in the areas of cultural studies,

queer theory, family therapy, and narrative therapy.

Workshop 14:

Relational Therapy with Transgender Youth and Their Families

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Lance Taylor, R.Psych. I began my study of Solution Focused Brief Therapy with Steve de Shazer, Insoo

Kim Berg at the Brief Family Therapy Centre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. These learnings have been

nurtured through 30 years working in Community Mental Health services as a therapist, supervisor,

manager, private practitioner and trainer. In therapeutic conversations with clients and collaboration

with colleagues, I seek to simplify my practice and description of the solution focus. I relish the

resonance with the bringforthist practice framework at the Calgary Family Therapy Centre and enjoy the

fruitful meeting between the solution focus and the IPscope.

Workshop 15:

Bringing Forth Wellness with the Solution Focused Framework

Presenting in 4th Set of Parallel Workshops on Thursday Afternoon: 

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Dan Wulff and Sally St. George. We have enjoyed working at the Calgary Family Therapy Centre and the University of Calgary for

the last 15 years, endeavoring to integrate social work and family therapy and research and

practice. Social constructionism has been our philosophical and theoretical home and has

nurtured our family therapy practice to focus on social justice, envision families within larger

systems, and support research innovations that are less expert-driven and more collaborative

and distributed.

Workshop 16:

Relational Disquiet as Pivotal in Our Development of SCIPs and SNIPs

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Sheila McNamee is Professor Emerita of Communication at the University of New Hampshire

and co-founder and Vice President of the Taos Institute (taosinstitute.net). Her work is focused on dialogic transformation within a variety of social and institutional contexts including psychotherapy, education, healthcare, organizations, and communities. She is author of several books and articles, including Practicing Therapy as Social Construction (with E. Rasera & P. Martins, Sage Publications, 2022), Design Thinking and Social Construction (with C. Camargo-Borges, BIS, 2022), Research and Social Change: A Relational Constructionist Approach (with D. M. Hosking, Routledge, 2012), Relational Responsibility: Resources for Sustainable Dialogue (with K. Gergen, Sage, 1999), and Education as Social Construction: Contributions to Theory, Research, and Practice, co-edited with T. Dragonas, K. Gergen, E. Tseliou (Taos WorldShare, 2015). Professor McNamee has written extensively about alternative visions of social research.

Co-Presenting with Jack Lannamann

Workshop 17:

Dialogic Coordination within Relational Disquiet

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John Lannamann is an Emeritus Associate Professor of Communication at the University of

New Hampshire and an Associate of the Taos Institute. From 2005 through 2017 he was a member of the graduate faculty in the Program in Social Psychology at the University of Parma, Italy. Professor Lannamann’s work explores the implications of social

constructionist approaches for understanding embodiment and technology. Another theme in his recent work is the exploration of dialogic coordination in therapeutic settings and in end-of-life communication patterns. His published work assessing the possibilities and limitations of social constructionist approaches to the study of human interaction

appear in Theory and Psychology, Human Systems, Family Process, Journal of Family Therapy, 

Communication Theory, Communication Monographs, The Journal of Strategic and Systemic Therapies, and a number of other scholarly journals and books.

Co-Presenting with Sheila McNamee

Workshop 17:

Dialogic Coordination within Relational Disquiet

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Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese is a Samoan family therapist, community worker, and researcher. She is

Coordinator of the Pacific Section at the Family Centre. One of her outstanding research achievements is the development of fa’afaletui methodology, which is a research method that is sensitive and responsive to cultural norms and methodologically rigorous. The work was funded by the Health Research Council and subsequently published as a ‘Qualitative Investigation into Samoan Perspectives on Mental Health and Culturally Appropriate Services’ Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry in 2005, Vol. 39 (4). She is one of the founders of ‘Just Therapy’, an internationally recognised approach to addressing cultural, gender, and socioeconomic contexts in therapy. She has been a Joint recipient of the American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA) Award for a Distinguished Contribution to Social Justice and the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy Special Award for Distinguished Contributions to Family Therapy.

Co-Presenting with Tafaoimalo Loudeen Parsons & Monica Mercury 

Workshop 18:

Co-creating cultural understanding of loneliness and wellbeing, and therapeutic responses to them

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Monica Mercury (Te Iwi Morehu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Hainamana – Māori tribal affiliations)

holds a Master of Education degree from Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington.

Monica was an educator in the primary sector for many years and comes from a whānau with a long

history in whānau Māori, social and community development via Indigenous-inspired activities.

Monica is The Family Centre Whānau Therapist-Counsellor and a Kaupapa Māori researcher. She is

currently part of the Awhi Whānau team – The Māori branch of the Family Centre Social Policy

Research Unit implementing ‘For Māori as Māori by Māori’ research projects.

Co-Presenting with Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese, & Tafaoimalo Loudeen Parsons

Workshop 18:

Co-creating cultural understanding of loneliness and wellbeing, and therapeutic responses to them

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Tafaoimalo Loudeen Parsons is a member of the Pacific section of the Family Centre. She is an

experienced Pacific family therapist, community development worker and researcher. In 2009 she

was a joint recipient of the World Bank Prize in the Development Market Place Global Competition

on Climate Change Adaptation. She has been a co-author on numerous Pacific focussed research and

evaluation reports for government Ministries. She also contributed substantially to the Pacific part of

an international publication Waldegrave, C., King, P., Maniapoto, M., Tamasese, T., Parsons, T., and

Sullivan, G. (2016) “Relational Resilience in Māori, Pacific, and European Sole Parent Families: From

Theory and Research to Social Policy”, Family Process, Vol. 55, No. 4. 673–688.

Co-Presenting with Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese, & Monica Mercury 

Workshop 18:

Co-creating cultural understanding of loneliness and wellbeing, and therapeutic responses to them

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John Burnham is a systemic psychotherapist working in the independent and public sectors of the UK. His practice includes therapy, supervision, training, consultation, and writing. His main clinical work is with children, young people, and families at Parkview Clinic in Birmingham where he is employed as a Consultant Systemic and Family Psychotherapist and formerly was Head of the Systemic Training Programme. As well as training in the UK he teaches in a variety of contexts including Scandinavia, Netherlands, Greece, Singapore, USA, and South America. He is sole author of the classic text ‘Family Therapy: First steps towards a 

systemic approach’ published by Routledge, and editor of the Special Edition of Human Systems known as ‘Voices from the Training Context’. His model ‘Approach, Method and Technique’ is widely used in a variety of training contexts. His professional passions include ‘thinking theory and talking ordinary’ and ‘turning practice into theory’.

Co-Presenting with Alison Roper-Hall

Workshop 19:

Social GgRRAAAACCEEEESSS...S: A workbook for working with difference

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Alison Roper-Hall. With a degree in psychology and a masters in neurophysiology, Alison spent nearly ten years in brain research at Cambridge and Oxford Universities before training in clinical psychology. She

anticipated specializing in neuropsychology but instead saw the relevance of systemic thinking from her understanding of neural systems and trained in systemic psychotherapy. Working in the NHS, based on her home turf of the West Midlands during the 80s, she first pioneered applying systemic ideas in work within older adult services. Later she took on the task of

developing psychological services across the lifespan in Primary Care in Birmingham UK. These services were systemic both in their organization and in offering a range of systemic therapies for individuals, couples and families. Alongside her clinical and managerial work, Alison has been a key member of the Birmingham Systemic Training Programme. Since leaving clinical

work she has been enjoying neglected areas of her life such as painting, travelling, sewing, and exploring and writing about her family history.

Co-Presenting with John Burnham

Workshop 19:

Social GgRRAAAACCEEEESSS...S: A workbook for working with difference

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Cheryl White works at Dulwich Centre as publisher, editor, teacher, training co-ordinator, conference host, and initiator of projects. 

Co-Presenting with David Denborough Adbul Chaffer Stanikzai

Workshop 20:

What Would You Have Done? Stories of Complexity from the Field of Narrative Therapy and Community Work 

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David Denborough works as a community worker, teacher and writer/editor for Dulwich Centre. He is particularly interested in cross-cultural partnerships which limit the chances of psychological colonization and create possibilities for cross-cultural inventions

Co-Presenting with Cheryl White and Adbul Chaffer Stanikza

Workshop 20:

What Would You Have Done? Stories of Complexity from the Field of Narrative Therapy and Community Work 

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Dr Abdul Ghaffar Stanikzai worked as a medical doctor in Afghanistan for ten years and also has considerable experience as a Human Rights activist. During his time at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, he established the Women & Youth Civil Society Organization in a remote and conservative area of Afghanistan (this was particularly to support women who were suffering domestic violence); founded the first ever woman shelter for those women who escaped their homes due to domestic violence; created a Juvenile Correction Centre (to foster the rehabilitation of youth in Afghanistan); and implemented policies and procedures whereby local Afghanis could present grievances to international military forces and local police in the hope of holding both to account. He now lives in Adelaide where he works for Dulwich Centre Foundation with families and communities on projects including ‘How do you deal with sad memories that cannot be erased’ and ‘Surviving the ocean of depression’.

Co-Presenting with Cheryl White and David Denborough

Workshop 20:

What Would You Have Done? Stories of Complexity from the Field of Narrative Therapy and Community Work 

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