Our Story
Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, Australia (on Kaurna Land), is one of the key ‘homes’ of narrative practice. We are involved in narrative therapy, community work, training, publishing, supporting practitioners in different parts of the world, and co-hosting international conferences. Welcome! We hope this website acts as a gateway to information about narrative therapy and collective narrative practice. You will also find here articles to read, books and journals to purchase, and information about training events and conferences.
Innovation
Dulwich Centre has always been, and continues to be, a place of innovation and creativity. Throughout the time that Michael White was a director at Dulwich Centre (from 1983 until his death in 2008), he was continually developing new ideas to challenge and inspire the field and to invite us to think beyond what we already knew. Collective projects such as the Dulwich Centre alternative community mental health project and various narrative community gatherings also pushed the field in new directions. This process of innovation and extending what is known as narrative practice continues to be a key priority of Dulwich Centre (see Innovation Projects).
Training
In collaboration with the University of Melbourne we offer a Master in Narrative Therapy and Community Work. There have now been graduates from Singapore, Canada, Australia, Japan, Spain, Hong Kong, Israel, China, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ireland, Chile, South Africa, Denmark, Qatar, Turkey, Mexico, India, New Zealand and the UK and their innovative work is stretching the field. The Masters has received the University of Melbourne Award for Excellence and Innovation in Indigenous Higher Education. We also offer one week intensive workshops, one year programs, and short workshops. We are currently co-hosting long-term training programs in Rwanda, Turkey, Singapore, Greece, Hong Kong and mainland China. In recent years, one of the most significant forms of training have been a series of free online courses that now reach thousands of practitioners internationally. These include:
Dulwich Centre Publications
Dulwich Centre Publications produce resources (including books, journals, and DVDs) with a particular focus on making narrative approaches accessible and relevant to a wide range of practitioners and contexts. Dulwich Centre Publications (DCP) is an independent, feminist-owned publishing house founded by Cheryl White in 1984. We deliberately seek to publish writings that represent a diversity of cultures and sexual and gender orientations, and which stretch and challenge dominant cultural understandings of the worlds in which we live and work. Recent publications have included:
- Honouring resistance and building solidarity: feminism and narrative practice
- Land of a Thousand Stories: Rwandan narrative therapy and community work
- Yarning with a Purpose: First Nations narrative practice
- Political Dictionary for the field of narrative practice
- Intersecting Stories: Narrative therapy reflections on gender, culture and justice
- Unsettling Australian histories: Letters to ancestry from a great great grandson
DCP has also been involved in publishing responses to current social issues occurring in Australia and elsewhere. A recent web resource, In Our Own Ways, seeks to trace histories of practitioners, teams and communities in diverse cultural locations creating their own culturally resonant forms of healing practice within the fields of family and narrative therapy. It is hoped that this will assist in current initiatives in avoiding psychological colonization.
The Michael White Archive
The Michael White Archive is located at Dulwich Centre. Michael White was one of the co-founders and co-directors of Dulwich Centre and worked here from the day we opened in 1983 until his death in 2008. The Michael White Archive includes Michael’s unpublished papers, video recordings of his teachings, and selected therapy sessions. In coming years, we will be making this material available to practitioners, students, and scholars.
The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work
International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work is a peer-reviewed journal that has been produced by Dulwich Centre Publications since 2002. The journal offers hopeful and creative ideas for counsellors, social workers, teachers, nurses, psychologists, and community workers.
In each issue, practitioners from a range of different countries discuss the ideas and practices that are inspiring them in their work, the dilemmas they are grappling with, and the issues most dear to their hearts. Their writings are easy to read while remaining rigorous and thoughtful.
The Dulwich Centre Foundation
International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work is a peer-reviewed journal that has been produced by Dulwich Centre Publications since 2002. The journal offers hopeful and creative ideas for counsellors, social workers, teachers, nurses, psychologists, and community workers.
In each issue, practitioners from a range of different countries discuss the ideas and practices that are inspiring them in their work, the dilemmas they are grappling with, and the issues most dear to their hearts. Their writings are easy to read while remaining rigorous and thoughtful.
International Narrative Therapy and Community Work Conferences
Since 1999, Dulwich Centre has hosted International Narrative Therapy and Community Work Conferences in Adelaide (Australia), Atlanta (USA), Liverpool (UK), Oaxaca (Mexico), Hong Kong (China), Kristiansand (Norway), Salvador (Brazil) and Kigali (Rwanda).
