2022: Issue 2 Archives - The Dulwich Centre

Bringing narrative practices to work with Anangu people — Tjunkaya Ken

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 05:44:56 +0000

This paper reflects on a conversation between narrative practice and Anangu (Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people) culture, specifically with Anangu women from the Ernabella community. The focus is on amplifying the voices and perspectives of Anangu in relation to the effects of Western therapeutic practices, including narrative therapy. The Tree of Life metaphor was introduced to a group of Elders living on Country. These senior women provided insights into cultural resonances and adaptations that could be applied when working with Anangu to ensure the Tree of Life process aligns with Anangu cultural values and beliefs. To help piranpa (non-Aboriginal) practitioners better understand Anangu, the paper introduces the key cultural concepts of Tjukurpa and connection to Country, and outlines the effects of colonisation on Anangu. It also introduces the Anangu arts of kulini (listening, reflecting and sensing with the body) and milpatjunanyi (storytelling in the sand).

Ken, T. (2022). Bringing narrative practices to work with Anangu people. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (2), 18-24. https://doi.org/10.4320/ULHF5982

The post Bringing narrative practices to work with Anangu people — Tjunkaya Ken appeared first on The Dulwich Centre.

Working with young women facing pressure to marry — Swarnima Bhargava

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 05:34:29 +0000

Marriage is a tightly controlled aspect of women’s lives in India. It marks a woman as a ‘wellsettled’ adult. There are master narratives in India that govern when, whom and how women marry. This paper is a testimony to two young women resisting pressure to marry. It captures practices and ideas that were helpful in shifting our conversations from pathologising women and their families to challenging the larger sociopolitical master narratives that compel women to marry in pursuit of a thinly described ‘good life’. This paper illustrates women’s agency and knowledge about living an independent adult life. It invites ways of coming together with family to unite against pressure to marry.

Bhargava, S. (2022). Working with young women facing pressure to marry. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (2), 38–46. https://doi.org/10.4320/RLCG5609

The post Working with young women facing pressure to marry — Swarnima Bhargava appeared first on The Dulwich Centre.

Transforming the landscape of identity for people with social anxiety — Pooja Raina

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 05:24:55 +0000

People identifying with social anxiety experience extreme apprehension in social situations. They fear meeting new people and attending social gatherings. They find it difficult to converse with others. Constantly thinking about being judged can make them feel unworthy. This paper describes the use of narrative principles and practices with people dealing with social anxiety. Creating space between the person and the problem helped us discover multiple alternative narratives of life.

Raina, P. (2022). Transforming the landscape of identity for people with social anxiety. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (2), 47–53. https://doi.org/10.4320/TBLT2389

The post Transforming the landscape of identity for people with social anxiety — Pooja Raina appeared first on The Dulwich Centre.

From Tree of Life to the Sun of Life — Katie Christensen

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 05:16:31 +0000

Using the Tree of Life as an example, this paper presents folk psychology as a decolonising practice that elevates the experience, history and wisdom of individuals and collectives, rather than privileging the theories and standards of professional practice. It also demonstrates the possibilities that can emerge when we invite people’s own folk psychology metaphors to guide our practice.

Christensen, K. (2022). From Tree of Life to the Sun of Life. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (2), 33–37. https://doi.org/10.4320/ZWKQ6325

The post From Tree of Life to the Sun of Life — Katie Christensen appeared first on The Dulwich Centre.

Yarning as decolonising practice — Katie Christensen

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 05:08:05 +0000

Yarning has become part of decolonising my practice. Yarning is a way to divest from colonised ways of being and working and of showing respect for First Nations ways. It also supports me in grappling with what is irreconcilable within settler coloniser–Indigenous relations and moving towards returning land and life to Indigenous peoples. This paper shows how I have adapted Bessarab and Ng’andu’s (2010) model of yarning as a research practice and applied it to therapeutic conversations in combination with narrative practices including therapeutic letters and outsider witnessing. It describes work with Mim and Lucy, including transcripts of practice and therapeutic letters that embodied yarning as a decolonising practice.

Christensen, K. (2022). Yarning as decolonising practice. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4320/RXKW8245

The post Yarning as decolonising practice — Katie Christensen appeared first on The Dulwich Centre.

Decolonising child protection discourses using narrative practices — Janneen Wanganeen

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 04:59:08 +0000

The ‘child protection’ system has been a key site of colonisation in Australia. This paper describes some of the decolonising initiatives of a First Nations practitioner working within the child protection system. This includes resisting dominant discourses such as those embedded in assessment policies and processes that sometimes have long-lasting and intergenerational effects: First Nations workers collaborated to develop an alternative rubric for considering the ‘needs’ of Indigenous families. The paper also describes the use of practices of welcome and yarning to show respect and elicit strong stories. In addition, the paper introduces the use of ‘narrative vision boards’, which use images to thicken preferred stories. In these ways, the paper seeks to contribute to the ongoing resistance of Aboriginal people to colonisation and the resurgence of Indigenous knowledge and culture.

Wanganeen, J. (2022). Decolonising child protection discourses using narrative practices. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (2), 9–17. https://doi.org/10.4320/OITI8153

The post Decolonising child protection discourses using narrative practices — Janneen Wanganeen appeared first on The Dulwich Centre.

Elevating children’s voices and encouraging intergenerational collaboration in communities impacted by natural disasters — Hailey Trudgeon

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 04:49:08 +0000

Many narrative practices can be employed in responding to the effects of natural disasters in communities. This article focuses on using narrative methodologies to encourage intergenerational collaboration in emergency preparedness and to elevate children’s voices. Metaphors can be used with children to engage in second-story development and to locate skills and knowledge that they hold. These skills and knowledges can be preserved and shared through collective documents.

Trudgeon, H. (2022). Elevating children’s voices and encouraging intergenerational collaboration in communities impacted by natural disasters. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (2), 54–60. https://doi.org/10.4320/GYYE6276

The post Elevating children’s voices and encouraging intergenerational collaboration in communities impacted by natural disasters — Hailey Trudgeon appeared first on The Dulwich Centre.

A Tree of Spirituality: Exploring insider knowledges of balancing Catholic and First Nations identities using narrative practices — Danita Martin

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 04:36:56 +0000

The Catholic church has been implicated in histories of colonisation and loss of identity for First Nations peoples. For many Aboriginal people, it is also a source of community, pastoral care and identity, and is held in complex balance with Aboriginal spirituality. This paper describes a process of seeking insider knowledges from Catholic First Nations school students about how they hold their Aboriginal spirituality with care alongside their Catholic faith identity, and how they navigate the Catholic education system. It shows how the Tree of Life process was adapted to include invitations to reflect about spirituality and religious identity. This provided space for identification of unique outcomes about what the students valued and how they hold on to what is important to them.

Martin, D. (2022). A Tree of Spirituality: Exploring insider knowledges of balancing Catholic and First Nations identities using narrative practices. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (2), 25-32. https://doi.org/10.4320/VWHV2408

The post A Tree of Spirituality: Exploring insider knowledges of balancing Catholic and First Nations identities using narrative practices — Danita Martin appeared first on The Dulwich Centre.

Narrative therapy in psychedelic harm reduction: Supporting safety, agency and meaning-making — Blake Johns

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 03:25:47 +0000

Narrative therapy has been absent from the burgeoning body of structuralist literature on the psychedelic renaissance. This paper argues that structuralist approaches limit the application of principles of client empowerment. It demonstrates applications of politicised narrative practices to supporting client safety, agency and meaning-making. Thin pathologising and/or structuralist descriptions of problems were deconstructed, along with the politics of problems and psychedelic contexts. Clients were supported to develop preferred stories and identities through second-story development, and to richly describe intentional states and/or preferred identities. When used in psychedelic harm reduction, narrative therapy can support safely, empowerment and rich meaning-making.

Johns, B. (2022). Narrative therapy in psychedelic harm reduction: Supporting safety, agency and meaning-making. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (2), pp. 61–71. https://doi.org/10.4320/MCBZ5745

The post Narrative therapy in psychedelic harm reduction: Supporting safety, agency and meaning-making — Blake Johns appeared first on The Dulwich Centre.