2019: Issue 3 Archives - The Dulwich Centre

Complete International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work — 2019 Issue 3

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 04:59:26 +0000

Extract from the introduction to this special issue
by Guest Editor Kristina Lainson

Welcome to this special issue of the International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. The first topic under discussion in this special issue is narrative therapy in relation to neuroscience, emotions and embodiment.

Some narrative practitioners have readily found a space for neuroscientific developments in their practice, whilst others suggest neuroscience is a poor fit for narratively informed conversations. Some practitioners have tentatively explored the possibilities but found themselves with unanswered questions, others remain unconvinced that neuroscience has relevance for their practice or the lives of the people with whom they meet. In this context, both highly experienced practitioners and beginning students of narrative therapy may find themselves grappling with big questions and plenty of uncertainty. This special issue aims to address some of these questions and create an opportunity for readers to engage rigorously with neuroscientific claims in relation to narrative therapy and highlight some consequent implications for practice. Articles included vary greatly in how they engage with ideas drawn from neuroscience, considering the theoretical, the practical and the philosophical. This issue is intended to be useful, accessible and interesting to readers with an interest in narrative practice, whatever the extent of their current knowledge about neuroscience.

The second topic under discussion in this special issue is attended to more briefly but is no less significant. It is the broader subject of how we in this field can create contexts for professional differences, debates and critique.

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Narrative responses to physical pains: An interview with Sister Seraphine Kaitesirwa

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:53:52 +0000

Sister Seraphine Kaitesirwa is a narrative practitioner in Kigali, Rwanda, where she works at a clinic for children and young people, some of whom experience concerns that show up as physical pains in their bodies. Sometimes, these pains have become named somatoform disorder. The pains can have serious effects for the lives of the children and young people, and their families, causing significant distress. Drawing on narrative principles, and with her appreciation for embodied experience, Sr Seraphine has developed a series of externalising questions and practices that invite the children and young people into a new sort of relationship with the pain, with remarkable effects. On a recent visit to Kigali, David Denborough caught up with Sr Seraphine, eager to hear more about her practice. The two were joined by Yishai Shalif and Cheryl White.

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Michael White’s particularist ethics in a biological age* — Philippa Byers

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:50:24 +0000

This paper offers a reading of Michael White’s ethics of narrative therapy as a form of ethical particularism that seeks particularity rather than generalities or rules of thought, speech, behaviour or action. The paper draws on insights from British novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch, and others, to characterise an approach to practice which does not privilege theory (which reaches in the
direction of generality) but is a restrained form of moral attention and receptivity to discovery in the words, phrases, stories and story fragments that are offered in therapeutic conversations. The paper suggests that a hallmark of the ethics of practice that Michael White offered in his writing is that personal and philosophical questions and interpretations are left open for discovery. For this reason, the paper suggests caution about introducing terms and concepts from brain and neurological sciences, and the implicit philosophical assumptions that come with that introduction, into narrative therapy and practice.

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Intensifying the preferred self: Neurobiology, mindfulness and embodiment practices that make a difference — Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:45:43 +0000

Neurobiology and mindfulness offer fascinating ideas for therapeutic conversations informed by narrative therapy. This article introduces two re-authoring practices that intensify the preferred self and enhance clients’ abilities to live according to their values in spite of traumatic experiences. The application of these ideas is described with the story of a young mother who, for over a year, fought for the survival of her newborn baby crippled by a life-threatening disease and who, when the infant recovered, fell into the grips of a debilitating depression (‘Critical Voice’). This depressive state lasted two years before narrative therapy was initiated. Given the neuroplasticity of our brains, how can we increase the likelihood that re-authoring conversations will be intense enough to neutralise the influence of fight or flight brain states, and gripping depressive neural networks, which have been strengthened for years? This article describes two neurobiology inspired ways to help our clients intensify the preferred self typically explored in narrative therapy: embodiment and positive affect development. Enriching narrative work with these practices increases the likelihood that we will succeed in a timely and enduring manner, in assisting people who have been suffering from long lasting, intense, viscerally embodied emotional problems and traumas.

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Narrative therapy, neuroscience and anorexia: A reflection on practices, problems and possibilities — Kristina Lainson

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:33:00 +0000

The effects of anorexia are serious and have significant consequences for people’s lives. A prevalent concern among professionals working within these realms include that available therapeutic approaches may have limited usefulness for some people, especially when anorexia has been in a person’s life for a long time. Both narrative therapy and neuroscience have contributed to ways of working with people’s experiences of anorexia. This article responds to a current, broader, conversation between narrative therapy and neuroscience by exploring some of the implications of each in the context of working with anorexia. By establishing a series of tensions between the principles and practices associated with certain neuroscientific models of anorexia and what is offered by narrative therapy, a case is put for eating disorder services to favour therapeutic approaches that attend to the politics of experience, and that privilege insider experience and knowledge. This article argues that these possibilities also extend into the realms of academic research, and that they have the potential to generate hope.

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Responding to David Denborough’s paper: A short interview with Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:30:01 +0000

Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin directs a narrative therapy, neurobiology and mindfulness training center in San Jose, California, and offers therapeutic services to children, adults and families. For more information, see www.mnbeaudoin.com

Kristina Lainson is a narrative practitioner from Aotearoa New Zealand and is currently a PhD candidate at The University of Melbourne. She is also a member of the faculty at Dulwich Centre. Kristina has been involved in a variety of Dulwich Centre projects and is a tutor on the Master of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. She can be contacted at: Kristina.Lainson@icloud.com

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A reflection on self-regulation and neuro-conceal — Emma van der Klift

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:25:57 +0000

Emma van der Klift is an Autistic speaker and advocate within the disability rights community. With her husband and partner Norman Kunc, she travels extensively throughout North America and abroad providing in-service and other training in the areas of inclusive education, employment equity, conflict resolution and other disability rights issues. She has written for numerous journals, contributed to edited anthologies and co-written a book with Norman Kunc titled Being realistic isn’t realistic: Collected essays on disability, identity, inclusion and innovation (2019). Her most recent book is Talk to me: What educators (and others) can learn about de-escalation from hostage negotiators (2019). Emma holds a master’s degree in conflict management and analysis, and is a certified mediator and negotiator.

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Narrative therapy, neuroscience and socio-emotional discourses: Comments — Tom Strong

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:21:26 +0000

Tom Strong is a professor, couple and family therapist, and counsellor-educator at the University of Calgary who researches and writes on the collaborative, critically informed and practical potentials of discursive approaches to psychotherapy. For more details on Tom and his research please consult: www.ucalgary.ca/strongt

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Feelings, thinking and action as a coherent whole: A reflection on ‘Travelling down the neuro-pathway’ — Jill Freedman

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:17:21 +0000

Jill Freedman is co-director of Evanston Family Therapy Center in the Chicago area, and is on the international faculty of Dulwich Centre. With Gene Combs she co-authored Narrative therapy: The social construction of preferred realities and Narrative therapy with couples.... and a whole lot more!

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Reflections on narrative, neuroscience and social engagement — Gene Combs

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:13:33 +0000

Gene Combs is co-director of Evanston Family Therapy Center. With his partner in all things Jill Freedman, he has practiced, written about and taught workshops in narrative therapy for the last three decades. He may be contacted at Evanston Family Therapy Center 1212.5 Elmwood Avenue, Evanston, IL 60202, USA. email: narrativetherapy@sbcglobal.net, website: narrativetherapychicago.com

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Reflections on narrative, neuroscience and social engagement — Karen Young

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:08:45 +0000

Karen is the director of the Windz Institute, operated by Reach Out Centre for Kids’ in Ontario, Canada. She has been teaching narrative and brief narrative therapy for over 30 years and is a therapist with 36 years’ experience working with children and families. She has particular expertise in the application of narrative in brief and walk-in therapies. Karen has a great deal of knowledge and passion for narrative practices and is one of the few trainers who can teach the traditional aspects of the approach and new evolutions in thinking.

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Travelling down the neuro-pathway: Narrative practice, neuroscience, bodies, emotions and the affective turn — David Denborough

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:04:12 +0000

In recent times, a complex interplay of factors has led to the social sciences grappling with neuroscience, affect/emotion and embodied experience in new ways. This paper engages with the following four questions: How does narrative therapy fit with neuroscience? How does narrative practice engage with emotion? How does narrative practice relate to the affective turn? How does narrative therapy engage with the body/somatic experience/embodied experience? Throughout this paper examples from Michael White’s therapy practice and contemporary examples of collective narrative practice are discussed.

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Refusing to separate critique from respect — Kelsi Semeschuk

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 00:58:14 +0000

This paper provides a brief exploration of the notion of critique within the field of narrative therapy. It raises questions, considerations and dilemmas about how practices of critique might be engaged in without contributing to the dissolution of important relationships. The author draws on some of her own experiences with the hope of articulating how critique and respect can exist alongside each other.

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Editorial — Kristina Lainson

admin@dulwichcentre.com.au — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 00:42:04 +0000

Kristina Lainson is a narrative practitioner from Aotearoa New Zealand and is currently a PhD candidate at The University of Melbourne. She is a member of the faculty at Dulwich Centre, where she is involved in a variety of projects and tutors on the Master of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. She can be contacted at: kristina.lainson@icloud.com

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