Therapeutic Conversations 22
Granville Island, Vancouver, BC, CANADA
Training with Relational Integrity, Creativity, Politic and Purpose
November 7-9, 2024
WELCOME Participants
A Live Skills of Practice Conference Event
More workshop presenters, keynote presentations, conference
schedule and hotel information coming soon
Therapeutic Conversations 22 is a conference designed for participant therapists and students to interact with the world's most creative therapists, theorists, and justice advocates showcasing their latest practice work - LIVE!
All workshop presentations are skill focused, and demonstrated through Live interviewing, session videos, and unaltered client/therapist transcripts.
Cool post conference day gatherings with presenters and participants.
Connect, have a drink, relax, and meet up with colleagues from around the globe.
Confirmed Workshop Presenters:
Rosa Arteaga (Mexico/Canada), Christine Dennstedt (Canada),
Jan Ewing (USA), Julia Gerlitz (Canada), Helene Grau Kristensen (Denmark),
Sharon Leung (Hong Kong/UK), Shannon Macintosh (Canada), Stephen Madigan (Canada), David Marsten (USA), Todd May (USA), Shannon McIntosh (Canada), David Nylund (USA), Karl Tomm (Canada), Jennifer White (Canada), Tamara Wilson (Canada), Angel Yuen (Canada).
Dates: November 7-9th, 2024
Location: Granville Island: Arts Umbrella - Centre for Youth and the Performing Arts & the Granville Island Hotel ~ Seating is limited.
Conference Hotel Discount: Kim Dodge, Operations Manager, The Granville Island Hotel 236-521-1772 | kim@gihotel.net
Early 3-Day Conference Pass: $600 CAD
Early Student and VSNT.live members: $500 CAD
**Student ID will need to be shown at registration check-in.
**Due to conference space and size limitations ~ there are no refunds. Thanks.
Sending you a personal, heartfelt invitation to join us
Conference Presenters
Rosa Arteaga, MA, RCC
Through her narrative therapy informed feminist inspired and just therapy original practice approach Rosa's work takes the learner inside the complexities of gender violence through slides and session transcripts. Her newest creative endeavour demonstrates the practice of interviewing the abused body and entering into relational contracts with the person and body as a way to heal and reconnect this very often severed relationship. Rosa is a VSNT faculty member and the Clinical Director, Supervisor of a multi-disciplinary team with a nonprofit anti-violence women’s organization in Vancouver Canada.
Christine Dennstedt, PhD, RCC
Christine is a VSNT faculty member who has been deeply engaged in the narrative therapy Vancouver narrative community since completing her Master's degree in 2002. By 2010 she'd completed her PhD, and a narrative therapy informed Doctoral dissertation articulated the interconnection between substance misuse and disordered eating in the lives of young women. Christine latest practice interest in linking together narrative informed practices with psychedelic medicines and mental health.
Jan Ewing, PhD
Jan is the founder and co-director of Narrative Initiatives San Diego (NISD) a Narrative training center and clinic and serves as faculty at San Diego State University introducing MFT students to Narrative Therapy. Jan also works with a multi-generational community to practice and extend Narrative principles through mentoring, teaching, supervising, and research. She is a co-author of a chapter called ‘Narrative Neurotherapy: Scaffolding Identity States’.
Julia Gerlitz, MA, RCC
Julia represents narrative's new generation of therapists. She is deeply connected to both the Vancouver and San Diego narrative therapy communities, through VSNT and NISD, and has been practicing narrative since 2011. Julia holds an intense interest in developing new and creative therapeutic letter writing practices that include inviting clients to write letters to clients, using co-created narrative documents in place of group therapy, and the use of letters in supervision. Julia
has published several articles on these innovative frameworks of letter writing and has currently recruited Rock Nylund onto her developing and publishing new ideas and therapeutic letter writing practices team.
Helene Grau Kristensen, MA
Helene is a co-founder of Praksis: The Centre for Narrative Therapy in Denmark and VSNT faculty member. She was originally supervised and trained for many years by Michael White, presents workshops internationally, and teaches narrative therapy courses at the University of Copanhagen. Helene publishes on the issues of Grief, Death, Loss and Hope and her therapy practice specializes in working with parents who have experienced the death of a child. Helene is also a regular interview guest on VSNT.live.
Sharon Leung, PhD
Sharon teaches, practices and supervises narrative therapy in Chinese/Cantonese and English. She first became an elite student of Michael White's in 2001 and over the two + decades since, Sharon (alongside Dr Angela Tsun) was the narrative therapy teaching and training leader in Hong Kong. Up until August 2020, she taught Social Work at Hong Kong Baptist University and was the Director of the Centre for Youth Research and Practice (CYRP). At CYRP, she organized and taught the One-year intensive narrative therapy training programme, supervised graduate students, and ran numerous collaborative projects with service users, practitioners and NGOs in Hong Kong. Sharon is a VSNT faculty member and now lives and trains out of London/UK.
Shannon Macintosh, MSW, RSW
Shannon Macintosh MSW, RSW is a family therapist, member of the Calgary Family Therapy Centre, and a supervisor at Woods Homes in Calgary, Alberta and sessional instructor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgar. Shannon is devoted to strengthening relationships, building resiliency, and applying advocacy, collaboration, and creativity in her systemic work. She enjoys using metaphors, expressive arts, and experiential learning to bring forth relational healing.
Stephen Madigan, PhD, RCC
Stephen is an award winning Couple and Family therapist and best selling author of the books Narrative Therapy in 2011 and 2019 (3rd Edition is out Fall 2024). He wrote the first doctoral dissertation on narrative therapy, is the Director of the Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy, content manager for narrative's largest online interactive learning site VSNT.live, and longstanding consultant supervisor to international High Conflict Couple Therapy Teams. Stephen enjoys teaching, consulting, and supervising therapy teams ~ world wide.
David Marsten, MA
David is the Clinical Director of Miracle Mile Community Practice in Los Angeles, California and has practiced narrative therapy for 30 years. He is the co-author of the highly praised book: Narrative Therapy in Wonderland: Connecting with Children’s Imaginative Know-how, and longtime faculty member with the Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy. David teaches narrative therapy workshops internationally through session videos, unaltered transcripts, and live interview demonstrations.
Todd May, PhD
Todd May is the resident teaching philosopher and faculty member with the Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy. Todd is the author of seventeen books of philosophy, including Michel Foucault (2006) and Gilles Deleuze (2005) and in 2022 he published a beautiful book on the Philosophy of Care. He continues to be highly active in grassroots political movements in immigration rights and anti-racism campaigns and was also the philosopher advisor to the hit TV show The Good Place on NBC and philosophical consultant on the New York Times best-selling book How to Be Perfect. He has a new book coming out on 09/06/2024 entitled Shall we go extinct?
David Nylund, PhD
David “Rock” Nylund, MSW, PhD is a Professor of Social Work at California State University, Sacramento, the Clinical Director of the Gender Health Center, and a faculty member of the Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy. He is the author of several articles and books on Narrative Therapy and Cultural Studies and gives workshops and supervision for mental health professionals worldwide.
Karl Tomm, PhD
Karl is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Calgary where he founded the Family Therapy Program and directed the Calgary Family Therapy Centre for 50 years. He is interested in systems theory, narrative theory, social constructionism, and bringforthism. He focuses on interpersonal patterns of interaction and a transformative thinker in developing different kinds of questions in therapy.
Jennifer White, EdD
Jennifer White is a Professor in the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria. Jennifer is interested in studying contemporary discourses on youth suicide prevention. Through critically informed, relational approaches to inquiry, she seeks to explore alternatives to the standardized, expert-driven, one-size-fits-all, risk factor-based approach to youth suicide prevention.
Tamara Wilson, MSW
Tamara Wilson, MA, R.Psych., is a registered psychologist in Calgary, 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, gender and the ways in which they implicitly become entangled with families and their relationships.
Angel Yuen, MSW
Angel Yuen MSW (she/her) works as a narrative therapist, supervisor, teacher and consultant in alternative-private practice in the Greater Toronto Area and is one of the co-founders of the Narrative Therapy Centre. She is the author of the 2019 book ’Pathways beyond despair: Re-authoring lives of young people through narrative therapy’.
BIG Conference Daily Schedule
Daily Schedule: November 7-9th, 2024
(Registration 7:15am - 8:00am)
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
8:00am - 8:45am
MORNING TRAINING WORKSHOPS
9:15am – 11:45am
~ Lunch 11:45am – 1:15pm
AFTERNOON TRAINING WORKSHOPS
1:15pm – 4:15pm
Day One
INSERT MORNING KEYNOTE INFO HERE
MORNING TRAINING WORKSHOP A
9:15am – 11:45am
Therapeutic Letter Writing + Live Counter-Story Demonstration Interview
David Nylund (USA)
This workshop explores the historical roots, writing frameworks, and practices of therapeutic letter writing. As part of the workshop, Rock will conduct a live counter-story interview demonstration. Participants are then invited to craft a therapeutic letter in response to the interview they have just witnessed.
MORNING TRAINING WORKSHOP B
9:15am – 11:45am
The Practice of Therapeutic Letter Writing in Narrative Therapy:
Rock is considered one of narrative therapy's world class therapeutic letter writers. The workshop highlights an overview of the historical roots and current writing frameworks that includes varying examples of letters. Rock will then conduct a live 35-minute counter-story interview with a volunteer interviewee. Participants are then invited into a live practice experience of crafting their own therapeutic letter to the interviewee in response to the narrative therapy conversation they have just witnessed and, if inspired, a few participants will read their letter of response.
MORNING TRAINING WORKSHOP C
9:15am – 11:45am
The Practice of Therapeutic Letter Writing in Narrative Therapy:
Rock is considered one of narrative therapy's world class therapeutic letter writers. The workshop highlights an overview of the historical roots and current writing frameworks that includes varying examples of letters. Rock will then conduct a live 35-minute counter-story interview with a volunteer interviewee. Participants are then invited into a live practice experience of crafting their own therapeutic letter to the interviewee in response to the narrative therapy conversation they have just witnessed and, if inspired, a few participants will read their letter of response.
LUNCH: 11:45-1:15
AFTERNOON TRAINING WORKSHOP A
1:15 pm – 4:15 pm
Gilles Deleuze: What was Michael White thinking? Todd May (USA)
Near the end of his life, Michael White started referring to Gilles Deleuze's thought as a touchstone for his own work. He never offered a full articulation of the influence of Deleuze, either in writing or in lectures. This workshop picks up that thread, clarifying Deleuze's elusive philosophical framework and showing why it is relevant for narrative practice.
AFTERNOON TRAINING WORKSHOP B
1:15 pm – 4:15 pm
The Practice of Therapeutic Letter Writing in Narrative Therapy:
Rock is considered one of narrative therapy's world class therapeutic letter writers. The workshop highlights an overview of the historical roots and current writing frameworks that includes varying examples of letters. Rock will then conduct a live 35-minute counter-story interview with a volunteer interviewee. Participants are then invited into a live practice experience of crafting their own therapeutic letter to the interviewee in response to the narrative therapy conversation they have just witnessed and, if inspired, a few participants will read their letter of response.
AFTERNOON TRAINING WORKSHOP C
1:15 pm – 4:15 pm
The Practice of Therapeutic Letter Writing in Narrative Therapy:
Rock is considered one of narrative therapy's world class therapeutic letter writers. The workshop highlights an overview of the historical roots and current writing frameworks that includes varying examples of letters. Rock will then conduct a live 35-minute counter-story interview with a volunteer interviewee. Participants are then invited into a live practice experience of crafting their own therapeutic letter to the interviewee in response to the narrative therapy conversation they have just witnessed and, if inspired, a few participants will read their letter of response.
MORNING TRAINING WORKSHOP A
9:15am – 11:45am
The Practice of Therapeutic Letter Writing in Narrative Therapy:
Rock is considered one of narrative therapy's world class therapeutic letter writers. The workshop highlights an overview of the historical roots and current writing frameworks that includes varying examples of letters. Rock will then conduct a live 35-minute counter-story interview with a volunteer interviewee. Participants are then invited into a live practice experience of crafting their own therapeutic letter to the interviewee in response to the narrative therapy conversation they have just witnessed and, if inspired, a few participants will read their letter of r
MORNING TRAINING WORKSHOP B
9:15am – 11:45am
The Practice of Therapeutic Letter Writing in Narrative Therapy:
Rock is considered one of narrative therapy's world class therapeutic letter writers. The workshop highlights an overview of the historical roots and current writing frameworks that includes varying examples of letters. Rock will then conduct a live 35-minute counter-story interview with a volunteer interviewee. Participants are then invited into a live practice experience of crafting their own therapeutic letter to the interviewee in response to the narrative therapy conversation they have just witnessed and, if inspired, a few participants will read their letter of response.
MORNING TRAINING WORKSHOP C
9:15am – 11:45am
The Practice of Therapeutic Letter Writing in Narrative Therapy:
Rock is considered one of narrative therapy's world class therapeutic letter writers. The workshop highlights an overview of the historical roots and current writing frameworks that includes varying examples of letters. Rock will then conduct a live 35-minute counter-story interview with a volunteer interviewee. Participants are then invited into a live practice experience of crafting their own therapeutic letter to the interviewee in response to the narrative therapy conversation they have just witnessed and, if inspired, a few participants will read their letter of response.
LUNCH: 11:45-1:15
MORNING TRAINING WORKSHOP A
9:15am – 11:45am
Internalized Other Interviewing
(Karl Tomm Canada)
If one comes to view the psychological ‘self’ as constituted by an internalized community, it becomes coherent to interview any member of that community within the self. In so doing, a therapist potentially has access to a significantly wider range of possible therapeutic interventions to enable change.
MORNING TRAINING WORKSHOP A
9:15am – 11:45am
Live Clinical Supervision. A Narrative Approach Discussing Gender-Based Violence (Rosa Arteaga Canada/Mexico)
Rosa invites a team of counsellors from diverse backgrounds to the workshop who all work and support survivors of gender-based violence in their work. She demonstrates a method of live supervision with these workers, while also inviting a response team to respond back to the counselling team being supervised. The workshop is a beautifully designed live supervision demonstration where the audience is engaged to participate.
MORNING TRAINING WORKSHOP A
9:15am – 11:45am
The Practice of Therapeutic Letter Writing in Narrative Therapy:
Rock is considered one of narrative therapy's world class therapeutic letter writers. The workshop highlights an overview of the historical roots and current writing frameworks that includes varying examples of letters. Rock will then conduct a live 35-minute counter-story interview with a volunteer interviewee. Participants are then invited into a live practice experience of crafting their own therapeutic letter to the interviewee in response to the narrative therapy conversation they have just witnessed and, if inspired, a few participants will read their letter of response.
Day Two
INSERT AFTERNOON KEYNOTE INFO HERE
Day One
INSERT AFTERNOON KEYNOTE INFO HERE
Day Two
INSERT MORNING KEYNOTE INFO HERE
The Gunnar Martinsen Scholarship
VSNT faculty lost their very close friend and narrative colleague Gunnar Martinsen of Bergen Norway who died on July 1st, 2022. To celebrate and remember his wonderfully full-hearted and passionate spirit, we are happy to offer five scholarships to our October 27-29 conference.
