Video archive of David Denborough’s teachings
Recent keynote addresses
Narrative therapy and philosophies in dialogue: Can we contribute to ‘social movement’?
The organisers of the International Congress of the ÖAS in Salzburg/Austria (June 9th 2023) were seeking to bring narrative therapy and philosophy into dialogue. In my keynote, I discussed four political philosophies which offer continual challenges to me – Indigenous philosophical challenges; feminist philosophies; Foucauldian critique; and the challenges of
Three stories, three songs and ten principles
For a keynote address to a narrative therapy conference in Cologne, Germany, I tried to articulate 10 (or 11) key principles of practice through sharing three songs and the stories of how these were created. These include the first song I wrote in a work context using narrative practice. It’s
Four stories of narrative practice: David Denborough, Fariba Ahmadi & Dr Abdul Ghaffar Stanikzai
In this keynote for the Australian Family Therapy Conference, I was joined by two Afghani colleagues, Fariba Ahmadi and Dr Abdul Ghaffar Stanikzai to share four stories of narrative practice:
o Family therapy through the Team of Life approach
o Consulting Afghan children through a time of crisis
Exchanging stories, skills and songs: the possibilities of narrative practice
In this keynote to the Fifth International Conference of Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy, I introduced metaphoric narrative practices such as the Team of Life, Tree of Life, Kite of Life, Umbrella of Life and Recipe of Life. These methodologies combine aspects of local folk culture with narrative practice and seek
Methodologies
Checklists of social and psychological resistance
The first checklist social and psychological resistance was developed in collaboration with Mohammed Safa in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2006. In this presentation, I share that story and describe how such checklists can be created to honour local resistances and what is precious to people even in the most devastating of
Responding to hate: A collective narrative practice response to Islamophobia
How can we use collective narrative practice to respond to current social injustices and social issues? This presentation shares one story of practice in relation to responding to Islamophobia and hostility directed at Muslims in Australia.
Team of Life A collective narrative methodology offering young people a sporting chance
This detailed video conveys all the key parts of the Team of Life methodology and shares examples and songs along the way.
Histories of collective narrative practice
Stories from the origins of collective narrative practice: personal and political histories
In response to a request from Chinese colleagues, in this video I tell the story of how I first learnt about narrative therapy ideas while working at Long Bay Prison in Sydney through being handed an issue of the Dulwich Centre Newsletter on Men’s Ways of Being (edited by Cheryl
Looking for answers in the right places: An introduction to collective narrative practice
One of the key sparks for the development of collective narrative practice came from a challenge posed by Paulo Freire. In this presentation, I share this story and the key principles of collective narrative practice. I then share the story of work in which a number of these principles first
The influence of Rwanda
Histories of narrative therapy and community work in Rwanda
Some of my most significant workshop experiences have taken place in Rwanda, in particular a workshop back in 2007 with counsellors and assistant lawyers from Ibuka, the national genocide survivors association. This workshop was the result of an invitation from Kaboyi Benoit and I was there with Cheryl White and
What gets us through hard times: Creating collective documents & Rwandan experiences
During the first workshop in Rwanda in 2007 with survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, one of the key moments was developing a collective document entitled ‘Living in the shadow of genocide: how we respond to hard times – Stories of sustenance from the workers of Ibuka’. In
To Kurdistan, Brazil, China
Eliciting and honouring Yazidi counter stories: As described to workers in Kurdistan responding to Yazidi women
The workers at the Jiyan Foundation in Kurdistan, Iraq, are responding to Yazidi women who were formally captured by ISIS. I had the pleasure of meeting with Jiyan Foundation workers in Kurdistan back over 10 years ago. During the pandemic they requested an online training, translated simultaneously into both Kurdish
Can you tell us more about this? Responding to the questions of Brazilian colleagues
I love teaching contexts with Brazilian colleagues – whether in person or online. In this session, organised by Lúcia Helena Assis and Recycling Minds I was posed the following questions:
– All narrative practitioners usually honour the native peoples of the place where they live and their ancestors, how
In the early days of the pandemic: A message to Chinese colleagues
I can vividly recall making this video message to Chinese colleagues. It was at the very beginning of the pandemic, when only those in Wuhan were facing what was soon to become global. Please forgive the bad lighting (and bad hair). It was before we had all learnt about zoom
Earlier videos
The ‘draft’ Narrative Therapy Charter of Storytelling rights
This video was the first Dulwich Centre online Friday Afternoon video in February 2015 and represented the launch of the Narrative Therapy (draft) Charter of Story-Telling Rights. This Charter is part of a broader project in relation to ‘narrative justice’:
* When meeting with people whose problems are the
Can narrative practices contribute to ‘social movement’? An invitation to join a project
G’day and welcome to this Friday afternoon video presentation from Dulwich Centre in which we invite you to join a project considering the challenges and possibilities in relation to narrative practices contributing to ‘social movement’. First shared in 2015, I’ve also included various links to texts and videos at the
