2012: Issue 4 Archives - The Dulwich Centre

Bridging the worlds of therapy & activism: Intersections, tensions & affinities— Vikki Reynolds interviewed by Sekneh Hammoud-Beckett

Dulwich — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 20:56:16 +0000

In this brief interview Sekneh & Vikki reflect on the precarious but possible connections of social justice activism and therapy, particularly narrative therapy. They offer the usefulness of a socially just orientation to therapeutic work in terms of the sustainability of therapists, and as a resistance to burnout. They take a position for therapists to act as activists to work for socially just structural change. They suggest embracing activist traditions of solidarity and building ‘solidarity teams’ to shoulder us up collectively to resist the structures of injustice that are rooted in capitalist and neo-liberal politics which are the context of people’s suffering and our work.

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Passing hope around: Youth messaging strategies for becoming drug-free— Warren Whyte

Dulwich — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 20:51:34 +0000

Collective narrative practice facilitates geographically separated groups of people to share their experience and wisdom in standing up to common problems. This article documents a particular collective narrative practice between a group of youth in prison at Burnaby Youth Custody Services and a group of youth in treatment for substance misuse at Peak House in Vancouver, Canada. The purpose of outlining this exchange of solution knowledges is to highlight certain practical and theoretical aspects of collective practices that were effective for the youth, in order to continue the narrative discussion for future practitioners. By assuming the youth had healing knowledges, by providing them with a relevant audience, and by offering them the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to others; this writer was able to facilitate young people in sharing their own solutions with each other in mutual encouragement against a common social issue. Exchanging collective narrative documents with other youth seemed to cultivate a sense of self-determination towards therapeutic work, a feeling of solidarity and belonging with similar strugglers, and a sense of hope and enthusiasm that change is indeed possible.

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Legacy: A writing and spoken word story project documenting the legacies of lost loved ones— Tanya Pearlman

Dulwich — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 20:48:40 +0000

Exploring the relationship between literary ideas, particularly as they pertain to personal storytelling, and narrative therapy, this paper describes a writing and spoken word story project that took place at a California high school. The high school participants had all experienced significant losses and this project explored and honoured the legacies of these lost loved ones.

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On Critical thinking— Mary Heath

Dulwich — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 20:46:30 +0000

This paper begins by defining critical thinking and setting out a personal history of the author’s journey toward becoming a critical thinker. It considers two common barriers to critical thinking: cultural disapproval of critique; and confusing critical thinking with criticism. In response, it argues that rigorous thinking offers benefits—and not only risks— to cultures as well as individuals. It considers where cultural resources supportive of critique might be found. Further, it argues that critical analysis should be understood (and undertaken) as a process of collaborative support for rigorous thinking rather than as a form of hostile criticism. Some dimensions of critical thinking are outlined, together with questions which might allow readers to apply them to specific contexts. The paper closes with some reflections on the process of writing in which some of these dimensions of critical thinking are applied to the paper itself.

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Explorations of the absent but implicit— Jill Freedman

Dulwich — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 20:43:31 +0000

The author describes her exploration of practices working with the absent but implicit, particularly in therapy with couples and families. She includes questions that may be helpful in naming the absent but implicit and describes how these conversations can support a context in which exploring discourses that support problems becomes especially relevant.

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