29th
November:
The mystery of the sometimes incongruent narrative
practice:
The burden of individualism and the psycho-industrial
complex
One day workshop with Stephen Madigan
The workshop discusses
‘the mystery’ of a sometimes incongruent narrative practice –
i.e., despite our best intentions and spoken commitments to
poststructural theories supporting the work of Judith Butler,
bell hooks and Michel Foucault etc., our practice ‘sometimes’
performs and reproduces a therapy more in line with the tenets
of individualism and the psycho-industrialist complex - idea’s
supporting efficiency, continuous economic growth, pharmacology,
the privatization of problems inside bodies, and various
productions of therapeutic violence etc.
The workshop reviews the production and reproduction of the
psycho-industrial complex in therapy/community
work/supervision/policy making. The workshop raises questions
regarding the burden of individualist ideas in therapy such as:
what are the ethical burdens placed on
clients/therapists/communities who take up individualizing based
ideas in therapy?; what do individualizing ideas ask the
client/therapist and their relational communities to commit to?
etc.
The workshop is experience based and discussed through a range
of therapeutic DVD’s, live practice interviews and participant
interaction.
Objectives.
1) Reviewing the production of the psycho-industrial complex
2) Reviewing poststructural ideas of the individual and identity
construction.
3) Questions the burdens individualist ideas place on clients/
therapists/communities.
4) Discusses common incongruencies between theory and the
practice of narrative therapy practice.
Stephen Madigan holds an MSW and an MSc and PhD in Couple and
Family Therapy. In 1992, he opened Yaletown Family Therapy in
Vancouver. He is the father of twins - Hannah and Tessa (now
twelve!), was a former world class Ultimate Frisbee player and
teaches narrative training workshops worldwide. In June 2007,
the American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA) honoured Stephen with
their Distinguished Award for Innovative Practice in Family
Therapy Theory and Practice. Stephen is currently under contract
with the APA (American Psychological Association) to write the
Primer for Narrative Therapy as well as produce a 7-part DVD set
to feature his ‘live’ narrative therapy work – due out in the
spring of 2009.
