From 1983 onwards, Dulwich Centre was known for holding free events on Friday afternoons. These ‘Friday Afternoons at Dulwich’ would begin at 4.30pm so that people dropped by on their way home after the working week. They always consisted of a good speaker sharing some aspect of their practice that was currently intriguing and challenging to them and this was then followed by discussion and drinks! Now, on Friday afternoons we are placing up on this website a video, maybe an audio recording, or a link to something very interesting. Of course, you can view this wherever you are in the world at a time that suits you, and then contribute to the discussion and debate. We are delighted that this new momentum of online discussion is continuing the ‘Friday Afternoons at Dulwich’ tradition.

We will welcome your suggestions as to topics that we could cover and if you come across particularly interesting video or audio recordings please let us know c/o dulwich@dulwichcentre.com.au We are also in the process of working out possibilities for translating the transcripts of Friday Afternoons into a range of other languages.

Disclaimer: Please note that the views expressed in Friday Afternoons videos and forums are those of the presenters and forum participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dulwich Centre Publications or Dulwich Centre Foundation. Dulwich Centre Publications and Dulwich Centre Foundation does not accept responsibility for them. Nor can we accept responsibility for the effects of using the ideas shared in these presentations in your own contexts. Watching these video presentations is not a substitute for training or supervision in narrative practice, both of which we thoroughly recommend.

‘STEPS Together’ by Amanda Tay

Terminal illness, death and dying are universal human experiences, but discussing them can be challenging. This video demonstrates the use of a therapeutic conversation guide, ‘STEPS Together’, providing a structure to employ narrative practices to support people to develop…

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Narrative Walks by Chris Darmody

Narrative Walks is a hope-based, depathologising outdoor program that was developed to engage with populations who may not be drawn to conventional methods of therapy. This structured day program encourages participants to explore 15 narrative therapy questions, and to engage in a number of other activities during a 20 kilometre walk through the bush.

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The Narrative Docket: Working with young people involved in legal and police systems, by Clement Yee

This 3-part video introduces the Narrative Docket, a narrative practice innovation developed for use in working with adolescents who have been referred to social services typically through the legal and police systems. Narrative ideas underpinning this Docket include collective narrative practice, externalizing of problems, outsider witness, re-authoring as well as counter-documentation.

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The Language of Structuralism by Mark Hayward

This video explores the effects that structuralist thought has had on Western psychology, it's dominance in cultural ideas about mental health and the different historical events that have contributed to this. It's essentially a deconstruction of some of the ideas; a deconstruction that shows the foundations to be invented, not discovered, and exposes the limitations to our thinking when we accord these ideas truth status.

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Resisting Calling-Out Culture: “Leaning in” with respect and dignity by Vikki Reynolds

In this presentation, Vikki discusses strategies from activist movements to resist calling-out culture - where we cut off, exile and attack fellow workers - and instead find ways to offer critique which is different from attack. Structuring safety and creating cultures of critique requires that we create relationships of respect and dignity as a frame for our solidarity.

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Out of the Shadow of Domestic Violence by Natalie Smee

In this Friday Afternoon Video, narrative therapist Natalie Smee demonstrates her work with four women using narrative therapy principles and practices to respond to women who are impacted by domestic violence. The video describes the interview process and explores the impact and ‘acts of resistance’ the women described throughout the sharing of their stories. The use of externalising metaphors and stories introduce a way of viewing domestic violence and other difficulties in their lives, in a hope to decrease the influence of domestic violence in the women’s lives and to increase their personal agency in dealing with it. The video draws on the migration of identity, collaborative documents and insider knowledge to build a witnessing resource for abused women. It invites the audience on a journey with the women through the viewing of an interview which combines elements of all four women’s responses. Although each woman’s experiences and journey had been torrid and unique, they were committed to the notion of sharing stories of migration to be collated into a collaborative resource for the witnessing purposes of other women who are considering their own migrations from violence.

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Didgeri: Local Collective Response by Anthony Newcastle

This Friday afternoon video by narrative therapist Anthony Newcastle describes the work around Didgeri which began as a regular opportunity for Aboriginal men and young men to learn to play the didgeridoo, yet grew into a local collective initiative to help give voice in support of men who had experienced sexual abuse in their youth.

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Mindfulness and Narrative Therapy By Ian Percy

Narrative Therapist Ian Percy offers ways of conceptualising mindfulness that includes, and diverges from, prevailing discourses and practices. In this video, Ian will offer a brief guided method that brings gentle attention to somatic experiences before proposing that mindfulness can assist in sustaining preferred skills and the consolidation of desired values and ethics. These expanded applications of mindfulness can be integrated with storied meaning-making.

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Navigating relationships when our children are in out of home care: A narrative therapy group for parents whose lives are affected by child protection intervention and the removal of their children by Lauren Graham

In this Friday Afternoon video, narrative therapist Lauren Graham describes a narrative informed group she developed and conducted for parents whose children are in care, and the ripple effects of linking communities through the sharing of stories and documents initially generated through the group. 

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“Out of the box” conversations: an invitation to co-explore the broader politics of problems and reconstruct preferred ways of being in responding to stories of drug-use and racism By Kassandra Pedersen

The “box of problems” represents a document of deconstructing conversations which the therapists and the people consulting them can collaboratively create by co-investigating the historical, social, political and economical contexts of problems.

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Recipes for Life: A collective narrative methodology in responding to gender violence by Meizi Tan

This Friday Afternoon video by Meizi Tan explores the double story development of women’s responses to gender violence through the use of collective narrative methodology. This project describes the use of Recipes for Life in a two-days-one-night group work retreat organized for women who have experienced gender violence in their intimate relationships.

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My Meeting Place: Re-arming ourselves with cultural knowledge, spirituality and community connectedness by Vanessa Davis

This Friday Afternoon video demonstrates the integration of Aboriginal Art with Narrative Practices to create culturally appropriate counselling for Aboriginal practitioners when working with Aboriginal children and young people. Narrative Therapist Vanessa Davis also offers a step-by-step explanation of how she has used 'My Meeting Place' in a one-on-one counselling session, to create and guide Narrative conversations.

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The Use of Narrative Therapy Group for Young Women with Unwed Pregnancy Experience by Siu-wai Lit

In this Friday Afternoon video, narrative therapist Siu-wai Lit presents the experience of using Narrative Therapy Group that gives voice to the neglected counter narratives of the unwed teenage women with pregnancy experience through the innovative practice for double-story development, in which the members not only experienced personal growth, but also realised that they have a choice – to be continuously dominated by the problem-saturated story or to take a step to walk out!

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From ‘disorder’ to political action: Conversations that invite collective considerations to individual experiences of women who express concerns about eating and their bodies by Kristina Lainson

In this Friday Afternoon Video, Kristina Lainson explains the concerns about eating and its effects on bodies are often articulated in terms of individualised pathologies. This video describes an interweaving of narrative practices which has proved helpful for a number of women experiencing such concerns. By inviting collective considerations to their individual experiences, and by recognising and naming their existing commitments and agentive responses to societal expectations, it became more possible to move away from ideas of ‘stuckness’ towards a sense of being influential both in their own life, and possibly in the lives of others similarly concerned.

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The Life Certificate: A Narrative Framework in working with grief and loss by Mohamed Fareez

In this Friday Afternoon video, narrative therapist Mohamed Fareez proposes the use of the 'Life Certificate' a narrative therapeutic document that allows us to document the preferred stories of our lost loved ones. Examples of how the 'Life Certificate' is used in practice will be discussed, along with narrative inquiries to facilitate the renegotiation of our relationships.

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Therapeutic Conversations about Pop Culture by Julie Tilsen

In this Friday Afternoon video, Julie introduces cultural studies methodologies as conceptual and conversational resources that help us have meaningful and productive conversations about peoples' relationships with the commodities and practices of popular and media culture. The video provides a brief overview of cultural studies, questions for reflections, sample questions from the three domains of inquiry (political economy, textual analysis, and audience reception), and suggestions for further reading.

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The Alliance against “Anxiety” – Acknowledging skills and knowledge for those who are suffering from anxiety by using art in narrative practice by Rebecca Wong

In this Friday Afternoon Video, Caca Wong presents an exploration on using art in narrative practice for children and youth to express their experience as well as acknowledging their skills and knowledge on facing ‘Anxiety’.  Through the exercises of Art, they have chance to externalize and re-authoring their anxiety stories with hopes and dreams.

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Exploring the Bicycle metaphor as a vehicle for rich story development: A collective narrative practice project by Marc Leger

In this Friday Afternoon video Marc talks about a Collective Narrative Practice project which involves exploring the Bicycle as its central metaphor. He will provide an overview of this collective practice methodology and share specific examples of how he has explored this metaphor with the use of ‘place-based’ narrative questioning practices within his own context.

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