Thursday 22 October – Pre-Conference Workshop Day
A full day of extended, in-depth workshops for participants wanting to immerse themselves more deeply in practice and ideas.
Ian Johnsen and Allan Wade will present ‘Active Ingredients’ workshop and Guy Shennan will present ‘Three Stages of Solution Focused’ workshop. Details of the workshops and your trainers below.
Active Ingredients: Presented by Ian Johnsen & Allan Wade
Ian and Allan will co-host this workshop where they will talk about, among other things, the intersection between Solution Focused Brief Therapy and Response-Based Practice, with a focus on interviewing. For example, both methods use questions to engage clients in moving from the object position to the subject position. Both promote conversation about the fine details of social interaction in specific settings and larger contexts. And both uphold client dignity by highlighting expressions of pre-existing ability and awareness, even in the most adverse conditions.
Response-based practice adds a specific focus on responses and resistance to violence and distinctions in language that honour resistance to violence and enable open pursuit of social justice. The discussion will centre on examples from practice in diverse settings.
Violence is committed on the level of social interaction. Close analysis shows that (a) victims/survivors invariably resist violence, openly and directly or subtly and secretly, depending on the dangers and opportunities present in the situation, and (b) offenders anticipate and work to suppress that resistance. Allan will present examples from practice and other sources to honour the diversity of resistance in cases of interpersonal and colonial violence, past and present. He will suggest that failure to acknowledge ever-present resistance conceals violence and supports a false view of history and human relations. A drop of longing says as much about the human spirit as a grand gesture of love or defiance.
Dr Allan Wade
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). Here’s a quick snippet of Allan talking about how he works to identify and honour resistance to violence and abuse when working with victims/survivors: Watch the video here
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. Find out more about Allan here
Ian Johnsen
Ian is a longstanding and respected member of the ASFA community here in Australia as well as a family therapist and registered psychologist. Among colleagues, Ian is known for his work in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Response-Based Practice, and for finding creative ways to gently contest pathologising and labelling practices. He is passionate about working in ways that promote dignity and acknowledge the pre-existing competence, values, and resourcefulness of people across diverse contexts.
Three stages of solution-focused practice: Guy Shennan
In this three-hour workshop, Guy Shennan will explore three key stages of solution-focused practice:
- Creating a context for using the approach
- Getting the work started
- Keeping it going
1. Creating a context for solution-focused practice: Many solution-focused training courses give little attention to this first stage, yet it is often one of the most challenging. Guy experienced this himself after completing his first course in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and returning to his role as a social worker. He will share practical ideas about what it means to create a context where the approach can flourish and how participants can apply these ideas in their own settings.
2. Getting the work started: How a solution-focused conversation begins will vary depending on the circumstances. Sometimes practitioners have the opportunity to conduct planned sessions, while at other times they need to make the most of brief, unexpected opportunities for conversation. Whatever the context, there are effective ways to begin in a solution-focused manner. Guy will demonstrate these approaches and provide opportunities for participants to practise them.
3. Keeping it going: Once a solution-focused conversation is underway, how can practitioners maintain its momentum while remaining true to the approach? What can they do when they become stuck? Developing confidence in this stage comes through practice. Throughout the workshop, participants will engage in practical exercises designed to expand their skills, increase their confidence, and broaden the possibilities available in future solution-focused conversations.
Guy will share ideas, demonstrate key aspects of practice, and create opportunities for participants to learn through discussion and practice together. He looks forward to hearing participants' ideas and working with them across these three stages. As he won't be covering how to stop a solution-focused conversation, there's always the possibility that the workshop could continue indefinitely.
Guy Shennan is an independent solution-focused therapist, consultant, trainer and activist based in London, England. Initially training as a social worker, Guy has been using the solution-focused approach for over 30 years. He has trained and presented worldwide and is the author of Solution-Focused Practice: Effective Communication to Facilitate Change (2nd edition, 2019). His new book, Solution-Focused Practice for Social Workers, will be published by Routledge in 2027. Having co-founded the Solution-Focused Collective to explore how solution-focused ideas can be applied to social change, Guy has since become interested more broadly in how a focus on hopes and the future can be useful in activism.