Children First in collaboration with Dulwich Centre Foundation present
Diploma in Narrative Therapy and Community Work
Narrative practice seeks to be a respectful, non-blaming approach to counselling and community work, which centres people as the experts in their own lives. It views problems as separate from people and assumes people have many skills, competencies, beliefs, values, commitments and abilities that will assist them to reduce the influence of problems in their lives and move forward towards their preferred future.
Thank you for your interest in the Diploma in Narrative Therapy and Community Work. Please note that the registrations for 2023-24 are now closed.
THE FACULTY
General Information about the faculty, Dulwich Centre and Children First
Dulwich Centre Foundation
Dulwich Centre Foundation in Adelaide, Australia, is one of the key ‘homes’ of narrative practice. The centre is involved in narrative approaches to therapy and community work, training, publishing, supporting practitioners in different parts of the world, and co-‐hosting international conferences.
Children First
Children First (CF) is a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Institute in Delhi & Gurugram, India. CF is a multidisciplinary team of mental health professionals. Their roles chiefly involve therapy, community work, and trainings among other areas of work.
Dulwich Centre Training Faculty and the faculty at Children First will work as a collective in this course.
The Online Course
This course will begin in April 2022 with three days of training. Thereafter there will be 3 more teaching blocks in the year ahead. In total there will 12 days of direct training besides which there will be a requirement to read continuously and submit written reflections based on the readings. Feedback will be provided on these written reflections through the year.
Overall, it will be a skills-based course in narrative approaches to therapy and community work. In this way, it will be quite specific. And will be most helpful for psychologists, therapists, counsellors, mental health social workers, and psychiatrists.
KEY ASPECTS OF THE COURSE
Overall structure
This program will consist of:
- A series of workshops by Dulwich Centre International Faculty and Children First Faculty
- Regular structured reading program – 10 collections of reading
- Regular structured written reflections – to relate readings back to one’s practice.
- Supervision with Shelja Sen throughout the year
- Opportunity to be part of the Narrative Therapy Collective at Children First
The participants can opt for either of the two courses:
- One Year Program in Narrative Therapy – as described in the programme above
- Diploma in Narrative Therapy and Community Work – The course work and the duration are same as described for the One Year Program. Except, those who successfully complete an optional extra certification module will then be eligible for recognition of prior learning for one subject (i.e., they will be exempted from one subject out of 3 subjects) of the Master of Narrative Therapy and Community Work (run in partnership between Dulwich Centre and University of Melbourne).
Diploma participants will get additional training and supervision:
- Participants recording two sessions of their work, transcribing 15 minutes of the interview, analysing it, sharing this and receiving supervision about it
- Writing a 5000-word project about how the participants have used narrative practice in their work over the year. The aim of this project is to support practitioners to be able to strengthen and be more skilled in using the narrative ideas and narrative practices in their own context.
TRAINING DATES
| Dates (final dates after July to be decided) | Faculty after July to be decided |
|---|---|
| April 2023 – 3 days – 27th, 28th, 29th | Shelja Sen & Jonaki Arora |
| July 2023 – 3 days – 6th, 7th, 8th | Carolyn Markey |
| September 2023 – 2 days | |
| December 2023 – 3 days | |
| Feb 2024 – 2 days | |
| March 2024 – half day |
| Supervision | |
|---|---|
| Online practice supervision afternoon/evening with the faculty | 2023 – May, August, October 2024 – January, February, MarcH |
| 10 written reflections supervised | Supervised by peer tutors |
| Diploma students receive additional supervision for the recordings and project | By Maya Sen |
COURSE FEES
One Year Programme in Narrative Therapy
- Rs 45,500– with first Early Bird Discount- Valid till 25 th February 2023
- Rs 50,500– with second Early Bird Discount – Valid till 15 th March 2023
- Rs 55,500 thereafter
Diploma in Narrative Therapy and Community Work
- Rs 70,500– with first Early Bird Discount – Valid till 25 th February 2023
- Rs 75,500– with second Early Bird Discount – Valid till 15 th March 2023
- Rs 80,500 thereafter
For more information or for queries, please email us at training@childrenfirstindia.com
COORDINATORS OF THE COURSE
Cheryl White
Cheryl White is the Director of Dulwich Centre and the founder of Dulwich Centre Publications where she works as publisher, editor, teacher, training co- ordinator, conference host, and initiator of projects. Cheryl is the author/co- editor of various books, including A memory book for the field of narrative practice and Conversations about gender, culture, violence & narrative practice: Stories of hope and complexity from women of many cultures.
David Denborough
David Denborough works as a community worker, teacher and writer/editor for Dulwich Centre. He is particularly interested in cross-cultural partnerships which limit the chances of psychological colonization and create possibilities for cross-cultural inventions, such as the Team of Life Narrative Approach and Tree of Life (with Ncazelo Ncube-Mlilo).
Shelja Sen
Shelja Sen is a narrative therapist, writer, co-founder of Children First. Shelja is a TED speaker and a columnist Indian Express, and author of three critically acclaimed books – All You Need is Love, Imagine and Reclaim Your Life. She is Clinical Tutor at the University of Melbourne and international faculty at Dulwich Centre Foundation, Adelaide, Australia. She is a curator of the unique skills, expertise and know-how of children and youth she has the honour of working with.
Faculty details
Shelja Sen
Shelja Sen is a narrative therapist, writer, co-founder of Children First. Shelja is a TED speaker and a columnist Indian Express, and author of three critically acclaimed books – All You Need is Love, Imagine and Reclaim Your Life. She is Clinical Tutor at the University of Melbourne and international faculty at Dulwich Centre Foundation, Adelaide, Australia. She is a curator of the unique skills, expertise and know-how of children and youth she has the honour of working with.
David Newman
David Newman lives and works in Sydney. He works part time in a psychiatric unit for young people and has an independent counselling practice through Charing Cross Narrative Therapy Centre. David has recently taught in Turkey, Hong Kong and Palestine. He is currently passionate about working with those who are struggling with suicidal experience, narrative approaches to mental health work and the possibilities of group work. He is the author of the influential paper ‘Rescuing the said from the saying of it: Living documentation in narrative therapy’.
Carolyn Markey
Carolyn Markey has practiced as a Narrative Therapist with children and families since the early 90s. Trained and supervised by Michael White, she is a senior faculty teaching member at the Dulwich Centre. Over the years she has developed collaborative ways to share and teach therapeutic skills with fun rigour and creativity. Carolyn has worked in schools non govt organizations particularly with children and families affected by and perpetrating violence and other unjust traumatic events. Currently she works as a team leader of 2 therapeutic teams at Relationships Australia, supporting and super-‐vising counsellors working with children affected by homelessness.
Chris Dolman
Chris Dolman values and enjoys working with individuals, couples, children, and families who are responding to a broad range of problems and concerns in their lives and relationships. Chris works both in private practice and for a non-government organisation. In addition to having considerable experience in working with people facing issues of violence and abuse, he has worked with people around family separation, parenting, grief, addictions, mental health concerns, and relationship matters.
Jonaki Arora
Jonaki is a psychologist and the head of Mental Health Services at Children First India. She has been practising and teaching narrative therapy for over six years. Jonaki uses narrative ideas and principles in her work with adolescents and young people by honouring their stories and experiences.
Peer Tutor Details
Maya Sen
Mental Health Social Worker, Narrative Therapist, Intl Faculty at the Dulwich Centre
Jonaki Arora
Psychologist, Narrative Therapist, Head of Mental Health Services
Ankita Khanna
Psychologist, Narrative and Arts-Based Therapist
Sandra Jose
Counselling Psychologist, Narrative and Arts-Based Therapist,Coordinator of Mental Health Services
Rinsakchon Ramshan
Psychologist and Narrative Practitioner
Priya Ahluwalia
Psychologist
Sanjana Mishra
Psychologist and Narrative Practitioner
Soumya Jagatdeb
Psychologist and Narrative Practitioner
Thwisha Bajpai
Psychologist and Narrative Practitioner