Daily Schedule

Speaker Handouts

Speaker Papers

Speakers - Thursday, May 17

Full Day Intensives

1) Johnella Bird • TALK THAT SINGS: EXTENDING THE NARRATIVE TRADITION

We can read about ‘treatment approaches’ for people suffering from ‘post traumatic stress disorder’ or depression, or anorexia, or anxiety states. Yet our therapeutic conversations rarely reflect these descriptions. This practice based workshop addresses the question of how we can use these approaches as guides, while we make discovery with people (clients). The workshop outlines specific ways for therapists to orient therapeutic conversations towards finding people’s resources, strengths and abilities while incorporating their struggles, disappointments and despair.

Johnella Bird is a counseling practitioner and co-director of The Family Therapy Centre in Auckland, New Zealand. Johnella is the author of ‘The Heart’s Narrative’ (2000), ‘Talk That Sings’ (2004) and, ‘Constructing The Narrative In Super-vision’ (2006).

Johnella Birds's Handouts

Researching Experience by Taking Up the Inside/Outside Position
By Johnella Bird

Johnella Birds's Papers

Working with Children, Young People and Families
By Johnella Bird

2) Peter Fraenkel • The Ways of Engagement: Collaborative Methods for Building Successful Community-Based Programs for Multi-Stressed Families

Families struggling with poverty and social marginalization need to be engaged as experts who help to shape and evaluate any community based program. In this preconference workshop, you will learn the ten steps of the Collaborative Family Program Development (CFPD) model, used to build a successful, longstanding program for homeless families and domestic violence survivors in New York City, as well as a program to support first-generation Latina immigrants and their families. With videotape examples from these programs as illustrations, and several hands-on exercises, you will learn how to build a strong, supportive team with all members of the agency; how to make sure the program is culturally sensitive; how to design and conduct empowering and informative program development interviews with family members - and more!

Peter Fraenkel is Director of The Center for Time, Work, and the Family at the Ackerman Institute for the Family; and Associate Professor, Clinical Psychology, The City College of the City University of New York in New York City.

Peter Fraenkel's Papers

Engaging Families as Experts:
Collaborate Family Program Development
By Peter Fraenkel

Multiple Family Discussion Groups for Families That are Homeless
By Peter Fraenkel

3) Stephen Madigan • THE LANGUAGE OF OUR LIVES: THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS WITH INTERNALIZED PROBLEM DIALOGUES

The workshop investigates and locates the outside influences affecting internalized problem dialogues. We will examine why it is so difficult to escape this internalized chit-chat and how come it is so common to most of us living here in North America. We will also explain how problem dialogues belong to none of us in particular and all of us cooperatively. Discussed are the internalized languages of depression, loss, self doubt, less-than-worthiness, anxieties, couple conflict, etc. The power, politic, and secret codes of internalized problem communications are uncovered through post-structural theory and live therapy demonstrations.

Stephen Madigan is the director of training at Yaletown Family Therapy in Vancouver and the Toronto Narrative Therapy Project. In June 2007, the American Family Therapy Academy will honour Stephen with their Distinguished Award for Innovative Practice in Family Therapy Theory and Practice.

Stephen Madigan's Handouts

The Language of our Lives:
Therapeutic Conversations with Internalized Problem Dialogues
By Stephen Madigan

Stephen Madigan's Papers

Counterviewing Injurious Speech Acts:
Destabilising Eight Conversational Habits of Highly Effective Problems
By Stephen Madigan

Anticipating Hope Within Written and Naming Domains of Despair
By Stephen Madigan

A Narrative Approach to Anorexia:
Discourse, Reflexivity, and Questions
By Stephen Madigan and Elliot M. Goldner

Speakers - Friday, May 18

Workshops . 10:15 - 4:00pm

4) Bill Madsen • COLLABORATIVE THERAPY WITH MULTI-STRESSED FAMILIES

Examine a strength-based, collaborative approach to engaging difficult families by helping them envision desired lives, address long-standing problems, and develop more proactive coping strategies. The workshop offers participants a chance to examine their
own therapeutic maps, highlights strength-based questions, and offers specific directions on working with the broader cultural and philosophical contexts in which multi-stressed families find themselves.

Respondent- Paul Gallant
Bill Madsen is the author of the newly revised book Collaborative Work with Multi-stressed Families (2007)

Bill Madsen's Handouts

A Model of Collaborative Clinical Practice
By Bill Madsen

Bill Madsen's Papers

Collaborative Inquiry:
An Anthropological Approach to Intervening with Families
By Bill Madsen

Sustaining a Collaborative Practice in the "Real" World
By Bill Madsen

5) Ali Borden • COLLABORATIVE CONVERSATIONS IN MEDICAL-MODEL SETTINGS: SCENES FROM IN-PATIENT TREATMENT OF ANOREXIA & BULIMIA

The workshop will discuss specific work/examples that demonstrate options for how to be collaborative in challenging settings and with challenging problems. The workshop explores how to: 1) Illuminate and take apart pre-established ideas of anorexia/bulimia and
recovery. 2) Interrupt ‘restrictive’ ideas of a person’s identity and the problem itself. 3) Offer an audience to people’s initiatives and stories. 4) Hold onto concerns about physical health *and* sustain personal agency.

Respondent – Stephen Madigan
Ali Borden is the Clinical Director of The Eating Disorder Center of California and co-author of the book, “Biting the Hand That Starves You” (2005).

Ali Borden's Handouts

Collaborative Conversations in Medical Model Settings:
Scenes From In-Patient Treatment of Anorexia and Bulimia
By Ali Borden

Ali Borden's Papers

Collaborative Conversations in Medical Model Settings:
Scenes From In-Patient Treatment of Anorexia and Bulimia
By Ali Borden

6) Eduardo Villar • THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS IN CONTEXTS OF TRAUMA AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE

The workshop focus is on therapy and interventions with victims, families and communities subjected to sociopolitical violence. The workshop offers a contextual understanding about Columbia’s 50 year war, the five groups involved, and how the people survive daily life. Eduardo outlines how this warring context influences his work
with various populations and problems including kidnapping, displacement, and violence. This workshop ‘wowed’ everyone at TC6 in Vancouver.

Respondent – Art Fisher
Eduardo Villar is an MD and psychotherapist practicing in Bogotá, Columbia. His work with people experiencing trauma and political violence, and his therapy with families whose members have been kidnapped is known and respected worldwide.

7) David Nylund & Julie Tilsen • ONE STOP QUEER SHOP

David Nylund

Julie Tilsen

Often, therapists find that being a “good ally” (or, being GLBTQ themselves) is not always enough to help their queer clients out of the quagmires that life in a straight world can create. Discussed is the productive investigation of our own initiation into dominant ideas about sex and gender, conceptual foundations that are just and ethical, and clinical skills that are responsive to client preferences. Self-reflection, theory, and application will be combined as we examine our work with queer clients from a social justice and critical multicultural framework.

Respondent – Esther Perel
Julie Tilsen is a therapist, consultant, and trainer in Minneapolis.
David Nylund is an Associate professor of Social Work at California State University, Sacramento.

David Nylund and Julie Tilsen's Handouts

One Stop Queer Shop
By David Nylund and Julie Tilsen

David Nylund and Julie Tilsen's Papers

Queer Theory Goes Dancing
By Julie Tilsen and David Nylund

The Gender Binary
By Julie Tilsen, David Nylund and Lorraine Grieves

HISTORY OF CHANGE INTERVIEW 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm

Makungu M. Akinyela is interviewed by Stephen Madigan
RESCUING AND RECONSTRUCTING OUR LIVES: IDEAS ON HISTORY, HEALING AND CULTURE

The interview will focus on the intersection of Eurocentric and Indigenous cultures in the Post-modern/Post-colonial age. We explore what therapists of Indigenous and European heritage might learn from the past 500 years of history that could help us heal ourselves, our communities and the world.

Makungu M.Akinyela, is the developer of Testimony Therapy, an African centered discursive family therapy, and an Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Georgia State University, in Atlanta.

Speakers - Saturday, May 19

PLENARY ADDRESS • 9:00 am - 10:00 am
Johnella Bird • CREATING STORYLINES IN THE HERE AND NOW

It’s easy to talk about living in the present moment. However it is challenging to find the practices that allow us to experientially inhabit the present moment. In this plenary Johnella will discuss and demonstrate the method she uses to identify and research
the ‘present moment experience’ and how finding language for these experiences creates storylines that have the potential to transform us.

Johnella Bird hails from Auckland New Zealand and facilitates teaching programs for mental health practitioners, throughout Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Workshops . 10:15 - 4:00pm

8) Paul Gallant • IMAGINATION AND METAPHOR IN NARRATIVE PRACTICE WITH CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

This workshop will present the artful, playful and respectful use of metaphor (‘growing up vs. growing down’, ‘applying one’s strength’) and other problem-undermining strategies and skills. A practical map for engaging in therapeutic conversations with children, adolescents and young adults will be offered.

Respondent – Ali Borden
Paul Gallant is Director of the Narrative Institute - Maitland, Florida and Associate Professor and Clinic Coordinator, Counseling Department, Barry University in Orlando, Florida.

Paul Gallant's Papers

The Metaphor of 'Strength': Ideas for Developing
Meaningful Conversations with Children and Adolescents
By Paul Gallant

Applying the Metaphor of 'Strength': A Teacher and Student
Collaborate to Keep Trouble Out of the Classroom
By Paul Gallant

9) Art Fisher • EXTENDING A VISUAL NARRATIVE THERAPY AND COMMUNITY WORK RESPONSE TO FAMILY VIOLENCE IN A RURAL REGION

Art will use the walls of the workshop room as a political surface where the maps of narrative practice can be transparently engaged. The workshop explores movement from ‘the known and familiar’ to ‘the possible to know’ in response to family violence and narrative therapy itself. The workshop builds on the skills of participants through live interviews of workshop participants, outsider witnessing, and videotape.

Respondent – Bill Madsen
Art Fisher grew up in rural Nova Scotia, Canada, and coordinates a narrative therapy and community work response to family violence for western Nova Scotia. His background includes community work, gay activism, and anti-oppression - he has conducted workshops in
the USA, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, UK, Denmark, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia.

Art Fisher's Handouts

Narrative Possibilities for Unpacking “Homophobia”:
Responding to the Complexities of Men’s Life Journeys.
By Art Fisher

Art Fisher's Papers

Narrative Possibilities for Unpacking “Homophobia”:
Responding to the Complexities of Men’s Life Journeys
By Art Fisher

Power and the Promise of Innocent Places
By Art Fisher

10) Makungu Akinyela • ONCE HE’S THERE: AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN IN COUPLE THERAPY

The workshop challenges the notion that African Americans in general, and African American men in particular, are resistant to therapy. The workshop will focus on African American couples, and explore the social, cultural and political barriers that have
contributed historically to the perceived reluctance of African Americans to voluntarily participate in therapy.

Respondents – Julie Tilsen & Eduardo Villar
Makungu M. Akinyela developed Testimony Therapy as an African centered discursive family therapy. He is Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Georgia
State University, in Atlanta, Georgia.

11) Esther Perel • WHEN THREE THREATENS TWO: SEX AND PARENTHOOD

Researchers now know that marital satisfaction declines dramatically after the birth of the first child. This workshop will teach participants how to help couples predict and negotiate this tricky familial shift without abandoning eroticism. You’ll learn how to challenge the North American cultural stereotype of desexualized motherhood and help
couples create a time and space for sex despite the presence of children.

Respondent – David Nylund
Esther Perel is the author of the widely acclaimed book “Mating in Captivity: Couples and Eroticism” - published by Harper Collins and translated into eight languages. She maintains a private practice in Manhattan.

Esther Perel's Papers

When Three Threatens Two
By Esther Perel