Teaching and supervision

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NARRATIVE THERAPY AND COMMUNITY WORK
2002 No. 4     Teaching and Supervision

CONTENTS

Editorial

PART ONE: Practice-based papers

What the Wildman, the Dragon-Arguing Monster and Camellia the Chameleon taught me about externalising conversations
Maggie Carey

In this paper, Maggie Carey relates three engaging stories about her use of externalising conversations with children. In doing so, this paper illustrates the diversity of metaphors that are engaged with in externalising conversations and the ways in which the knowledges, imagination and stories of children can be an intricate part of therapeutic conversations and how these can be shared between families. Keywords: externalising, narrative therapy, children

Journey metaphors
Michael White
In this paper Michael White documents the use of katharsis and rite of passage metaphors within therapy, teaching and community work contexts. This paper was written to be given as an evening address to participants prior to the Dulwich Centre Publications’ International Narrative Therapy and Community Work Conference held at Spelman College in Atlanta in June, 2002. As practitioners from many different countries gathered together in the beautiful grounds of the historically black women’s college, there was an increasing sense of anticipation about what experiences lay ahead of us. Never before had such an event been held at an historically black college, and participants and organisers alike felt powerfully welcomed by Vanessa McAdams-Mahmoud of Spelman College and the local African American community. We didn’t know exactly where this was all leading, we only knew that we were delighted to be travelling together. What was clear was that thorough preparation would be required to make this event all that it could be. The writing and delivery of this paper was one aspect of these conference preparations. Now, six months later, we would once again like to thank Vanessa McAdams-Mahmoud, Vanessa Jackson and Makungu Akinyela for inviting us to host the conference at Spelman College, and for making possible what was a rigorous, generous-hearted and healing event. Keywords: katharsis, rite of passage, narrative therapy

PART TWO: Reflections on teaching and supervision

Supervision:

Introducing counsellors to collaborative supervision
Kathie Crocket
Preparing counsellors for supervision is a long-neglected area. In this paper, Kathie Crocket explores the positioning of counsellors in supervision and offers an example of a letter she writes to students as a way of introducing them to the notion of collaborative supervision and all this can entail. Keywords: supervision, narrative therapy

Outsider-witness practices and group supervision
Hugh Fox, Cathy Tench & Marie
This paper describes the work of a ‘narrative supervision group’ organised and run in Sheffield, UK. It conveys how the work of supervision reached out of the room in which the group met and touched the lives of the people who were at the centre of the discussions. In doing so, this paper illustrates a possible model for the use of outsider-witness practices in group supervision. Keywords: outsider-witness practices, supervision, narrative therapy

Teaching

Storying professional identity
John Winslade
This paper describes the implications of shifting a counsellor education program at Waikato University in New Zealand, to a narrative or poststructuralist orientation. One of the key implications has been to open up the possibility of viewing counsellor education as a process of storying professional identity. Keywords: counsellor education, professional identity, poststructuralism, narrative therapy

Starting with values
Yael Gershoni & Saviona Cramer
Yael Gershoni and Saviona Cramer are therapists and teachers at the Barcai Institute in Israel, and the following paper is an extract from an interview that took place in Adelaide in November 2002. This paper describes a way of approaching therapy training and supervision as a project related to values and ideals. It describes the use of narrative ideas in building upon students’ preferred stories of being a therapist and the use of reflecting teamwork and deconstructive questions in this process. Keywords: narrative therapy, teaching, supervision

A Mexican perspective on teaching narrative ideas
Emily Sued & Barbara Amunategui
Emily and Barbara are well-respected therapists and teachers within the Instituto Latinoamericano de Estudios de la Familia (ILEF) in Mexico City. In this short piece, derived from a lively and enjoyable interview which took place in Mexico City, Emily and Barbara speak about the ways in which narrative and social constructionist ideas, and the local Mexican context, shape their teaching. Keywords: teaching, narrative therapy, Mexico

Developing skill ambitions
Mark Hayward
This paper addresses some of the dilemmas and contradictions experienced in teaching and supervising narrative therapy within a western educational institution’s culture of assessment and describes a supervision structure used to address the predicament. The paper also takes up the ideas of Michel Foucault about the constitution of self as moral agent and uses these ideas to elaborate the author’s learning aims and a path towards them. Keywords: teaching, supervising, narrative therapy, Michel Foucault

Cultural racism – the air we breathe
Norma Akamatsu
In this piece, Norma Akamatsu, a Japanese American family therapist, describes the histories that led to her teaching on issues of racism and some of the key principles that inform her work at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Keywords: teaching, anti-racism

Discerning between structuralist and non-structuralist categories of identity: A training exercise
Alice Morgan
Through the description of a training exercise, this paper illustrates the relevance of assisting trainees to discern between structuralist and non structuralist categories of identity. This piece assumes knowledge of various narrative therapy concepts. If you are not familiar with these, recommended reading is offered at the end of the paper. Keywords: poststructuralism, identity, teaching, narrative therapy

Pedagogies of hope
America Bracho
In this piece, which was created from an interview, America Bracho describes some of the principles that inform the educational work of Latino Health Access – an institute of community participation in Santa Ana, California. The inspiring work of Latino Health Access has many influences. For the purposes of this publication, we specifically asked America to speak about the ways in which the work of Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, has influenced their community practice. Keywords: Freire, community work

Teaching in Genderland: Therapy, performance, conveyance of knowledge and self-disclosure
Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad

In this paper, bi-gendered Norwegian family therapist Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad, describes some of the joys, dilemmas and nervousness associated with teaching when this is understood to involve therapy, performance, conveyance of knowledge and self-disclosure. Keywords: bi-gender, transgender, teaching

University perspectives:

The art of teaching
Phebe Sessions
This piece is an extract from an interview with Phebe Sessions, a family therapist who for the last twenty six years has taught social workers at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. This piece describes a number of themes including caring for teachers, diversifying authority, responding to students’ past experiences of trauma, and articulating the similarities and differences between teaching and therapy. Keywords: teaching, authority, trauma, social work

Writing at the interface of therapy, academic and community education cultures
Jane Speedy In describing the relationship between therapy, academic and community education cultures, particularly the different forms of writing practices that occur within them, this paper seeks to contribute to a conversation about the development of a ‘community of narrative practice’ involving teachers and learners within all three realms. Keywords: academia, narrative therapy, community education

Perspectives on teaching family therapy
from the Bouverie Centre
Amaryll Perlesz, Jenny Dwyer, Robyn Elliott, Banu Moloney, Colin Riess, Pam Rycroft, Ann Welfare, Jeff Young
The Bouverie Centre at La Trobe University in Melbourne runs the longest established family therapy teaching program in Australia. ‘Bouverie’, as it is known, is highly regarded for its innovative teaching program, as well as its work in relation to HIV/AIDS, mental health, sexual abuse, acquired brain injury, and with homophobia in schools. This paper describes some of the current issues being faced and grappled with in therapy training programs both in Australia and elsewhere. We are delighted to include it here. Keywords: family therapy, teaching, supervision

PART THREE: Two South African perspectives

Our country was saved by students
Lolo Mabitsela
This interview took place around the diningroom table at Lolo’s Guesthouse in Soweto. Cheryl White, Makungu Akinyela and David Denborough had the pleasure of staying with Lolo Mabitsela and speaking with her about her life and her career as a teacher in Soweto’s schools. Earlier in the same day, we had travelled through Soweto and visited the Hector Peterson Museum which honours the lives of those school students who were killed during the Soweto riots of 1976.

Guarding Mandela:
Where do you come from?
Who is your family? What are you studying?
Christo Brand
Christo Brand works at the Nelson Mandela Gateway in Cape Town, South Africa. This Gateway is the starting point for daily boat tours to Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela and hundreds of other political prisoners were imprisoned during the Apartheid regime. Christo Brand knows these histories well, for he was a prison officer on Robben Island – one of the warders directly assigned to guard Nelson Mandela. The following piece is an extract from an interview by David Denborough in which Christo Brand relates stories of his time guarding Nelson Mandela, and how the political prisoners of Robben Island turned the jail into a university. These are stories that invite us to reflect not only on what South Africa is teaching the world, but also on what a political commitment to education, teaching and learning can make possible.
Keywords: Nelson Mandela, Robben Island.

Editorial
Dear Subscriber,

Welcome to this final issue in our inaugural subscription year. Looking back, it seems we have covered a lot of territory. From ‘The Question of Forgiveness’, to ‘African American perspective on healing the past and present’, to practice-based papers addressing personal failure, externalising conversations, re-membering conversations, and much more! We hope you have enjoyed the diversity of writings and interviews.

This final issue for the year focuses on a theme which we have wanted to publish on for some time – ‘Reflecting on teaching and supervision’. We often receive requests for articles on this topic. In this publication, practitioners and teachers from Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Israel, the USA, Norway and England all discuss the aspects of teaching narrative ideas that are bringing them the most challenge and delight.

We have also included here two interviews considering the meaning of education in South Africa – a country that is teaching us all so much. We’ve included these perspectives because they remind us of the broader meaning of teaching for many of the people of this world.

This journal begins however with a practice-based paper by Maggie Carey about externalising conversations with children, and a paper by Michael White on journey metaphors within therapy, teaching and community contexts.

Thank you for subscribing to this journal in its initial year. We’ve been delighted with the response we’ve received from readers. We’d love to hear your comments about this year’s content and would welcome any suggestions you may have for future issues. Please contact us c/o feedback@dulwichcentre.com.au

We hope you have enjoyed your subscription and that you will join us again next year for further explorations of narrative therapy and community work!

Warm regards,

Dulwich Centre Publications

Back to International Journal page

CONTENTS
Editorial
PART ONE: Practice-based papers
What the Wildman, the Dragon-Arguing Monster and Camellia the Chameleon taught me about externalising conversations Maggie Carey	In this paper, Maggie Carey relates three engaging stories about her use of externalising conversations with children. In doing so, this paper illustrates the diversity of metaphors that are engaged with in externalising conversations and the ways in which the knowledges, imagination and stories of children can be an intricate part of therapeutic conversations and how these can be shared between families. Keywords: externalising, narrative therapy, children
Journey metaphors Michael White	In this paper Michael White documents the use of katharsis and rite of passage metaphors within therapy, teaching and community work contexts. This paper was written to be given as an evening address to participants prior to the Dulwich Centre Publications’ International Narrative Therapy and Community Work Conference held at Spelman College in Atlanta in June, 2002. As practitioners from many different countries gathered together in the beautiful grounds of the historically black women’s college, there was an increasing sense of anticipation about what experiences lay ahead of us. Never before had such an event been held at an historically black college, and participants and organisers alike felt powerfully welcomed by Vanessa McAdams-Mahmoud of Spelman College and the local African American community. We didn’t know exactly where this was all leading, we only knew that we were delighted to be travelling together. What was clear was that thorough preparation would be required to make this event all that it could be. The writing and delivery of this paper was one aspect of these conference preparations. Now, six months later, we would once again like to thank Vanessa McAdams-Mahmoud, Vanessa Jackson and Makungu Akinyela for inviting us to host the conference at Spelman College, and for making possible what was a rigorous, generous-hearted and healing event. Keywords: katharsis, rite of passage, narrative therapy
PART TWO: Reflections on teaching and supervision
Supervision:
Introducing counsellors to collaborative supervision Kathie Crocket	Preparing counsellors for supervision is a long-neglected area. In this paper, Kathie Crocket explores the positioning of counsellors in supervision and offers an example of a letter she writes to students as a way of introducing them to the notion of collaborative supervision and all this can entail. Keywords: supervision, narrative therapy
Outsider-witness practices and group supervision Hugh Fox, Cathy Tench & Marie	This paper describes the work of a ‘narrative supervision group’ organised and run in Sheffield, UK. It conveys how the work of supervision reached out of the room in which the group met and touched the lives of the people who were at the centre of the discussions. In doing so, this paper illustrates a possible model for the use of outsider-witness practices in group supervision. Keywords: outsider-witness practices, supervision, narrative therapy
Teaching
Storying professional identity John Winslade	This paper describes the implications of shifting a counsellor education program at Waikato University in New Zealand, to a narrative or poststructuralist orientation. One of the key implications has been to open up the possibility of viewing counsellor education as a process of storying professional identity. Keywords: counsellor education, professional identity, poststructuralism, narrative therapy
Starting with values Yael Gershoni & Saviona Cramer	Yael Gershoni and Saviona Cramer are therapists and teachers at the Barcai Institute in Israel, and the following paper is an extract from an interview that took place in Adelaide in November 2002. This paper describes a way of approaching therapy training and supervision as a project related to values and ideals. It describes the use of narrative ideas in building upon students’ preferred stories of being a therapist and the use of reflecting teamwork and deconstructive questions in this process. Keywords: narrative therapy, teaching, supervision
A Mexican perspective on teaching narrative ideas Emily Sued & Barbara Amunategui	Emily and Barbara are well-respected therapists and teachers within the Instituto Latinoamericano de Estudios de la Familia (ILEF) in Mexico City. In this short piece, derived from a lively and enjoyable interview which took place in Mexico City, Emily and Barbara speak about the ways in which narrative and social constructionist ideas, and the local Mexican context, shape their teaching. Keywords: teaching, narrative therapy, Mexico
Developing skill ambitions Mark Hayward	This paper addresses some of the dilemmas and contradictions experienced in teaching and supervising narrative therapy within a western educational institution’s culture of assessment and describes a supervision structure used to address the predicament. The paper also takes up the ideas of Michel Foucault about the constitution of self as moral agent and uses these ideas to elaborate the author’s learning aims and a path towards them. Keywords: teaching, supervising, narrative therapy, Michel Foucault
Cultural racism – the air we breathe Norma Akamatsu	In this piece, Norma Akamatsu, a Japanese American family therapist, describes the histories that led to her teaching on issues of racism and some of the key principles that inform her work at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Keywords: teaching, anti-racism
Discerning between structuralist and non-structuralist categories of identity: A training exercise Alice Morgan	Through the description of a training exercise, this paper illustrates the relevance of assisting trainees to discern between structuralist and non structuralist categories of identity. This piece assumes knowledge of various narrative therapy concepts. If you are not familiar with these, recommended reading is offered at the end of the paper. Keywords: poststructuralism, identity, teaching, narrative therapy
Pedagogies of hope America Bracho	In this piece, which was created from an interview, America Bracho describes some of the principles that inform the educational work of Latino Health Access – an institute of community participation in Santa Ana, California. The inspiring work of Latino Health Access has many influences. For the purposes of this publication, we specifically asked America to speak about the ways in which the work of Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, has influenced their community practice. Keywords: Freire, community work
Teaching in Genderland: Therapy, performance, conveyance of knowledge and self-disclosure Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad	In this paper, bi-gendered Norwegian family therapist Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad, describes some of the joys, dilemmas and nervousness associated with teaching when this is understood to involve therapy, performance, conveyance of knowledge and self-disclosure. Keywords: bi-gender, transgender, teaching
University perspectives:
The art of teaching Phebe Sessions	This piece is an extract from an interview with Phebe Sessions, a family therapist who for the last twenty six years has taught social workers at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. This piece describes a number of themes including caring for teachers, diversifying authority, responding to students’ past experiences of trauma, and articulating the similarities and differences between teaching and therapy. Keywords: teaching, authority, trauma, social work
Writing at the interface of therapy, academic and community education cultures Jane Speedy	In describing the relationship between therapy, academic and community education cultures, particularly the different forms of writing practices that occur within them, this paper seeks to contribute to a conversation about the development of a ‘community of narrative practice’ involving teachers and learners within all three realms. Keywords: academia, narrative therapy, community education
Perspectives on teaching family therapy from the Bouverie Centre Amaryll Perlesz, Jenny Dwyer, Robyn Elliott, Banu Moloney, Colin Riess, Pam Rycroft, Ann Welfare, Jeff Young	The Bouverie Centre at La Trobe University in Melbourne runs the longest established family therapy teaching program in Australia. ‘Bouverie’, as it is known, is highly regarded for its innovative teaching program, as well as its work in relation to HIV/AIDS, mental health, sexual abuse, acquired brain injury, and with homophobia in schools. This paper describes some of the current issues being faced and grappled with in therapy training programs both in Australia and elsewhere. We are delighted to include it here. Keywords: family therapy, teaching, supervision
PART THREE: Two South African perspectives
Our country was saved by students Lolo Mabitsela	This interview took place around the diningroom table at Lolo’s Guesthouse in Soweto. Cheryl White, Makungu Akinyela and David Denborough had the pleasure of staying with Lolo Mabitsela and speaking with her about her life and her career as a teacher in Soweto’s schools. Earlier in the same day, we had travelled through Soweto and visited the Hector Peterson Museum which honours the lives of those school students who were killed during the Soweto riots of 1976.
Guarding Mandela: Where do you come from? Who is your family? What are you studying? Christo Brand	Christo Brand works at the Nelson Mandela Gateway in Cape Town, South Africa. This Gateway is the starting point for daily boat tours to Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela and hundreds of other political prisoners were imprisoned during the Apartheid regime. Christo Brand knows these histories well, for he was a prison officer on Robben Island – one of the warders directly assigned to guard Nelson Mandela. The following piece is an extract from an interview by David Denborough in which Christo Brand relates stories of his time guarding Nelson Mandela, and how the political prisoners of Robben Island turned the jail into a university. These are stories that invite us to reflect not only on what South Africa is teaching the world, but also on what a political commitment to education, teaching and learning can make possible. Keywords: Nelson Mandela, Robben Island.