Meet Our 2026 International Guest Speakers

We are delighted to welcome two internationally recognised leaders in solution-focused and response-based practice to the ASFA 2026 Conference.

 Allan Wade, Ph.D.,C.M.

Allan Wade Ph.D.,CM lives on the unceded lands of the Quw’utsun Indigenous First Nations, on southern Vancouver Island, Canada.  He works as a family therapist and independent scholar with a primary interest in promoting socially just responses to violence, broadly defined.  For many years Allan has been interested in the question of how adults and children respond to and resist violence and preserve dignity in the face of humiliation. 

Allan has worked with people who have committed violence and people who have been subjected to violence, including adults and children, for more than 40 years.  He is particularly mindful of the past and present colonial context and grateful for the friendship and teachings of Kaska Dena and Quw’utsun elders, whose resistance to colonial violence exemplifies the unending desire for justice and dignity on the land. 

Allan is best known for his part in developing Response-Based Practice, a method of individual and family therapy and community development, a framework for research and analysis, and a guide for practice across the institutions that respond to violence (i.e., child protection, policing, criminal justice, family law, journalism, research, therapy, shelter/refuge work). 

Allan provides training and consultation to organizations in Canada and abroad and has published several articles and book chapters on research and practice.  In December 2024, Allan was appointed to the Order of Canada (C.M.) for his work in addressing violence and developing Response-Based Practice, with colleagues domestically and internationally. 

Read more about Allan here: https://www.allanwade.ca 

Guy Shennan

Guy Shennan is an internationally respected solution-focused therapist, trainer, and author based in London, UK. He has been specialising in solution-focused brief therapy since the mid-1990s and is now one of the leading practitioners and trainers in the international solution-focused community, with work that takes him around the world.

With over 40 years in social care, health and therapeutic work, Guy's practice is informed by systemic and narrative therapy alongside solution-focused approaches. He provides therapy, coaching, consultation and training to individuals, teams and organisations, with a particular interest in community and voluntary sector work and the crossovers between solution-focused practice, creativity, the arts, and social change.

Guy served as Chair of the British Association of Social Workers from 2014 to 2018 and is a founder member of the UK Association for Solution Focused Practice. He is also a researcher exploring the role of hope in social and political activism.

Guy is the author of Solution-Focused Practice: Effective Communication to Facilitate Change (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014; Bloomsbury, 2nd edition 2019), a leading text in the field.

Read more about Guy here: https://www.guyshennan.com