Johnella Bird and 'The Heart's Narrative'

I trained at Otago University and Manawaroa, Dept. of Psychological Medicine, Palmerston North where I was registered as a Child Psychotherapist. From 1985 to 1988 I was Director of the Leslie Centre, a Child & Family Counselling Agency and during this time I became interested in translating Systemic Family Therapy ideas into management practice.

David Epston and I established The Family Therapy Centre in 1988 where we developed a comprehensive teaching programme and super-vision practice.

Over the next 10 years (1988 - 1998) I shifted my clinical attention to working with couples and with women and men who had suffered the effects of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

This therapeutic work drew my attention to the importance of using experiential knowledge to develop new narrative possibilities. The book, 'The Heart's Narrative' was a response to my desire to articulate what I had noticed while participating in this therapeutic work.

Writing 'The Heart's Narrative' provided me with a platform from which I could practically and theoretically move. Constructing and expressing a relational sensibility through language became the next focus of my clinical, super-vision and teaching practice.

Throughout 2000 to 2004 I attempted to articulate these discoveries and eventually I found myself writing another book, 'Talk That Sings'. Once these two books were published I thought, 'Now that's enough'. However within a short period of time I once again found myself enchanted by new possibilities. Hence the book, 'Constructing The Narrative In Super-vision'.

In summary, throughout the last 21 years, I have been drawn to these areas of interest;

The construction of the relational through the use of the imagination and relational expressions.
The generation of change within the unique environment provided by super-vision, management, therapeutic, couple and family relationships
The enactment of justice and compassion within institutions
The construction of new narrative threads through relationally reviewing the experiential.
The effect of relational positioning on people's ability to negotiate the experience of the power-relation. This applies to therapeutic, couple, family relationships, super-vision and management.

I have been and will continue to be available for limited teaching engagements in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States of America and Europe. I hope that the DVDs I've produced will assist people to maximise the learning opportunities that are generated in workshop environments.

Order now

January 2011

Changing Narratives Changing Lives

3 DVDs and Workbook
BY JOHNELLA BIRD

Double CD May 2011

Imaginatively Entering Children’s Worlds:
Essential narrative tools for working with children,
young people and families