"Dullich"

I attended the11th  International Narrative Therapy and Community Work Conference in Adelaide, SA this past week.  It was not a life changing experience (although I would characterize drinking wine in the Barossa Valley as life changing)  but absolutely worth while.  I learned little new of a technical or skill nature but I did get allot of the tone & feel - the history of Dulwich (which is pronounced Dullich). It is the 30th anniversary of Dulwich and there was a celebratory tone throughout.  I got to meet a number of people including Cheryl White, David Epstein and David Denbrough among others. I also got to view a number of videos of Michael White from their archive and attended an amazing presentation by David Epstein where we (the audience) were part of the outsider witness group to a case that is ongoing - to long a story to share here but I am anxious to share it with others.

 My first impression was that the conference was "done on the cheap."  It was held on the campus of the University of Adelaide, no meals were provided (we did have morning and afternoon tea) and the program was run off on a copier.  But after spending the time with them I am convinced it is part of their identity.

Dulwich started as much as a protest "movement" for social change as it did any sort of counselling center.  It seems to still have that identity.  I am inclined to say they do not yet have a "mature" identity but that sounds derogatory and I don't mean it to be.  They do not have a sense or at least don't express that sense of their position in the world at this time.  They story themselves as a group of outsiders pushing against the main stream.  The little person fighting against the big organization.  Perhaps this is a good thing - keeping new ideas flowing?  However it also allows for an insider/outsider story to remain - one needs to be part of "the family."

Narrative Therapy was and is Michael White.  He is kept alive in everything they do. However I suspect this may be constraining at the same time.  It seems that this family is still struggling with the loss of their father and is still working to establish their identity without him.  A story that was shared seems to characterize this struggle.  Dullwich has an extensive archive of Michael White's videos of sessions.  It seems to be the consensus that Michael would have been adamant about this being destroyed upon his death and they almost destroyed them all believing that was his wish.  However there is a countervailing force - distress about losing all that knowledge and they have developed a plan whereby they are trying to track down the clients to get their OK to maintain the video and work with it for training purposes.

It seems the risk here is one of creating a new dominant and restrictive discourse surrounding Michael White - instead of letting him go and moving on from a new place, with his story part of the history, his voice part of the discourse today.

University of Adelaide

David Denbrough

David Epstein

Cheryl White