Narrative Therapy Centre

Of Toronto

NTC of Toronto’s faculty include Ruth Pluznick, Maisa-Said Albis, Angel Yuen and Rick Eckley.  They have been using narrative practices in their work since the early 1990’s. Ruth, Rick and Angel founded the Narrative Therapy Centre of Toronto in 2004. 

NTC also hosts guest presenters in some of their narrative training programs, and also arranges public workshops and seminars featuring local and international narrative practitioners. 

….scroll down for the bios of our NTC guest presenters.

Ruth is Director of Clinical Services at Oolagen Community Services, a children’s mental health centre in Toronto, where she continues to promote narrative ideas and practices in the residential, school and individual and family counseling programs.  Ruth is recognized as one of the first trainers in narrative therapy in Toronto and has provided training to hospitals, school boards and community agencies.

Ruth Pluznick M.S.W., R.S.W.

Angel is a school social worker in Toronto and private therapist in Durham region using narrative approaches with children, young people, families, couples and also in supervision and teaching.  She is a member of the Dulwich Centre faculty in Adelaide, Australia for their International Narrative Therapy and Community Work Program and also their Responding to Hardship International Training Program. Angel is co-editor with Cheryl White of the 2007 book Conversations about gender, culture, violence and narrative practice.

Angel Yuen M.S.W., R.S.W.

Natasha Kis-Sines is a member of the narrative social work team at Oolagen Community Services, a publicly-funded children's mental health centre in Toronto, Canada. She works with young people and families from diverse communities and is deeply committed to principles of social justice.  Together with Ruth Pluznick they have initiated a project at Oolagen to develop narrative ideas and practices with respect to families with a parent with mental health difficulties.

Natasha Kis, M.S.W., R.S.W.

— GUEST PRESENTERS PRESENT AND PAST —

Chris Chapman has been applying narrative, poststructuralist, and
anti-oppressive ideas to his personal, political, and professional practices
for several years now.  He is currently working in the Men's Wellness team at Catholic Family Services and is pursuing graduate studies through York University.  Chris loves to canoe, read, and share time with his partner, family, and friends.

Chris Chapman, B.S.W., R.S.W.

Karin Jasper Ph.D., M.Ed.

Karin Jasper is a Clinical Specialist with the Day Program for Eating Disorders at the Hospital for Sick Children.  She teaches a course on feminist issues in  counselling and psychotherapy at O.I.S.E./UT  and is co-editor with Catrina Brown of Consuming Passions: Feminist Approaches to Weight Preoccupation and Eating Disorders.  She has been working in the areas of body image, weight preoccupation, and eating disorders for over 15 years.

Dr. Victoria Dickerson is a nationally acclaimed and widely published clinician, teacher, consultant and lecturer.  She is recognized as one of the leading authors and practitioners of narrative therapy in North America and was one of the first among a handful of therapists to adopt these ideas, which were made popular in the United States in the 1990’s. 

Victoria Dickerson Ph.D.

Art Fisher B.F.A., B.A., MTS (Candidate).

Art Fisher coordinates Alternatives, a non-profit, community-based domestic violence counseling, research and training centre in Nova Scotia.  He both identifies as gay and deconstructs this identity category.  His social justice politic within his work is informed by post-structuralist theory and narrative practice.  His work developed in response to dominant domestic violence discourse (e.g., Pence and Paymar) and recent ideas and practices within the family therapy tradition (e.g., Jenkins, White, Goldner, Lipchik).  He has been invited to present on his work within Canada, the UK, the US, Mexico and Australia.

Maggie Carey has been practicing and teaching narrative ways of working since the early 90’s. She is with the newly established Narrative Practices Adelaide. Teaching and writing about narrative practice has taken Maggie on some interesting journeys and she continues to appreciate the opportunity that this affords her to engage with people in a range of settings around their own commitments in their work. Her 2004 book ‘Narrative Therapy: Responding to your questions’ was compiled with Shona Russell in response to questions that are commonly asked about the practice of narrative therapy. 

 

 

 

 

Maggie Carey

Shona Russell works as a therapist, teacher, supervisor and author.  She is based at the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, South Australia, which is an independent institute involved in the development of narrative therapy and community work approaches.  Alongside her therapeutic work Shona is a member of the Dulwich Centre Teaching Faculty which in the last few years has been involved in offering workshops throughout Australia and also internationally in Hong Kong, USA, Korea, Mexico, Austria, UK and the Palestinian Territories. 

Shona Russell

Lorraine Hedtke specializes in working with people who are dying and families after a loved one has died.  She is employed by VITAS Innovative Hospice Care in the US and regularly teaches in North America and internationally about narrative therapy, death, dying and bereavement.  Her articles have appeared in many professional and trade journals and numerous newspapers.

 

Lorraine is the author, along with John Winslade of the book Re-membering Lives:  Conversations with the Dying and Bereaved (Baywood Publishing 2004) and a children’s book co-written with her daughter Addison, My Grandmother is Always with me.

Lorraine Hedtke, M.S.W., L.C.S.W.

John Winslade, Ph.D.

John Winslade is a Professor at California State University and was previously the Director of Counsellor Education at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He teaches narrative mediation also at the University of Waterloo in Canada and at California State University.  In addition to his mediation book John has co-authored three books on narrative therapy: Narrative therapy in practice: The archaeology of hope; Narrative Counseling in Schools; Re-Membering lives: Conversations with the dying and the bereaved; as well as a number of other articles and book chapters.

David Denborough works as a writer/editor for Dulwich Centre Publications and community practitioner and singer songwriter for the Dulwich Centre Institute of Community Practice.  He is editor of five books including Beyond the prison: Gathering dreams of freedom, Queer counseling and narrative practice, and Trauma: Narrative responses to traumatic experience.  David’s most recent book Collective Narrative Practice was published in 2008 .

David Denborough

Cheryl White is the founder of Dulwich Centre Publications where she works as publisher, editor, and initiator of projects.  She is also the co-director of Dulwich Centre.  She is co-editor of various books including  Conversations about gender, culture, violence and narrative practice: Stories of hope and complexity from women of many cultures. and A Community of Ideas: Behind the Scenes.  She has recently launched the Dulwich Centre Institute of Community Practice which is dedicated to the development of community approaches and narrative forms of psychosocial support.

Cheryl White

Maisa Said-Albis has a private practice in Toronto where she offers individual, couple and family therapy, as well as consultation and training in Narrative Therapy. Prior to that, Maisa worked with families affected by sexual abuse, and in community and residential settings supporting young people.  Maisa joined the NTC faculty in 2008 as a facilitator for our narrative supervision group.

Maisa Said-Albis, M.S.W., R.S.W.

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