Schedule

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.

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.

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.

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

Julie Tilsen and Dave Nyland are interviewed by Stephen Madigan

This interview is a gift from Queer Theory. The interview conversationally creates a Queer Space in which the interface of Queer Theory and Narrative Therapy will be explored. Queer Theory has blown the boundaries of identity construction and this
conversation could create sites of possibility for new and libratory ways of knowing the self and others.