School of Psychology
In partnership with the Family Centre,
Lower Hutt, Wellington, and the Taos Institute
 

Current Faculty Members:

Dr Harlene Anderson

Harlene Anderson, PhD, is a founding member of the Houston Galveston Institute and the Taos Institute. She is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of family therapy and for the development of a postmodern collaborative approach. Harlene has authored and co-authored numerous professional writings including her book Conversation, Language, and Possibilities - A Postmodern Approach to Therapy

Dr Saliha Bava

Dr Saliha Bava is the Associate Director of the Houston-Galveston Institute, and is responsible for co-ordinating the contributions of Institute staff to the module on Collaborative language Systems therapy in 175.772 Contemporary Therapeutic Perspectives. Her PhD thesis took advantage of the Virginia policy that encourages students to submit electronic, hypertext theses. She has consequently brought a number of new skills into the Discursive Therapies Programme.

Dr Susanna Chamberlain

Dr Susanna Chamberlain is a Family Therapist currently in private practice in Brisbane, and was previously a Lecturer in the School of Justice Studies, Queensland University of Technology. Her therapeutic training was with the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, which is the originating Therapy Centre for Narrative Therapy. She has developed and teaches the Narrative Therapy module that forms the first part of 175.772 Contemporary Therapeutic Perspectives.

Dr Maureen Duffy

Maureen is in private practice, and was formerly a professor of counseling and family therapy for over twenty years at Barry University and was instrumental in the development of the marital and family therapy specializations in the master's and doctoral programs in counseling. She is highly regarded in the marriage and family therapy world and is on the editorial boards of The Journal of Marital and Family Therapy , The Family Journal , and The Journal of Systemic Therapies . She is the Co-Editor of The Qualitative Report , a journal dedicated to qualitative research and inquiry. She is also the Co-Editor of the "Family and Health" column in The Family Journal.
 

Professor Ken Gergen

Kenneth Gergen is Gil and Frank Mustin Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania. He has been a major influence in social psychology since his and P. Davies's 1967 book on The Self. His role since then has been as an increasingly penetrating and respected critic of psychological practice, his 13 books including the 1991 award winning The Saturated Self. Among his more recent books are Therapy as Social Construction (co edited with S. McNamee), 1992; Realities and Relationships: Soundings in Social Construction, 1994; the 2nd Edition of Toward Transformation in Social Knowledge (1994); and An Invitation to Social Constructionism (1999) and (with Professor Mary Gergen) Social Construction: A Reader (2003), which is used as a text in this programme.

Professor Mary Gergen

Mary Gergen is Professor of Psychology at Pennsylvania State University. She has been influential in a number of research areas, both on the theoretical level and as an innovative empirical researcher. Her recent work has contributed directly to the understanding of narrative and its place in social psychological explanations; feminist approaches in psychology (e.g., her books, Feminist Thought and the Structure of Knowledge,1988 and Feminist Reconstructions in Psychology: Narrative, Gender and Performance, 2001); and organizational theory. Her joint book (with Professor Kenneth Gergen) Social Construction: A Reader (2003) is used as a text in this programme.

Professor Rom Harré

Rom Harré is a New Zealander by birth. He was the Chair of the Sub-department of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and concurrently Professor of Social Psychology at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. until his recent retirement. He has authored 30 books and edited another 25 in the past 35 years, both in the Philosophy of Science and the foundations of Social Psychology. His 1972 book, co-authored with P.F.Secord, The Explanation of Social Behaviour became a 'Citation Classic', and is the foundation source of modern social psychology. Rom was a student of the founder of Speech Act philosophy, J.L.Austin (a pupil of Wittgenstein), a philosophy which is at the root of both Cognitive Science and current interests in language and discourse as they illuminate the `human condition'. Among his more recent books are The Discursive Mind (with G. Gillett), 1992; Discursive Psychology in Practice (with P. Stearns), 1995; Rethinking Psychology, 1995, Rethinking Methods in Psychology, 1995 (both with J. A. Smith and L. van Langenhove), The Singular Self 1998, and Cognitive Science: A Philosophical Introduction (2002).

Dr Lois Holzman

Lois Holzman is the director of the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy in New York. Advocating a cultural approach to human learning and development, she has made the writings of Lev Vygotsky relevant to psychotherapy. Dr Holzman has helped to develop social therapy, the non-psychological approach to human development and learning created by Fred Newman. Dr Holzman has written or edited nine books and over sixty articles on human development and learning, psychology, education and social therapy; among them: Performing Psychology: A Postmodern Culture of the Mind; Schools for Growth: Radical Alternatives to Current Educational Models; Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist (with Fred Newman); and Psychological Investigations: A Clinician's Guide to Social Therapy (with Rafael Mendez).

Dr Sue Levin

Dr Susan Levin is the director of the Houston Galveston Institute, overseeing clinical, training and research programs. She also serves as an adjunct professor at Our Lady of the Lake University's Houston graduate program in marriage and family therapy, and is an associate of the Taos Institute. Sue has been with the Institute since 1982 when she began her practice as a therapist, and has had the privilege of working closely with Harry Goolishian and Harlene Anderson, who are the founders of the therapeutic school of 'collaborative language systems' which Institute staff teach in 175.772 Contemporary Therapeutic Perspectives. She has written or co authored seven publications, several of which address her interest in "collaborative research practices".

Professor Andy Lock

Andy Lock is Professor of Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand, and is Co-ordinator of the Discursive Therapies Programme. He was editor of a collection of papers on the transition from prelinguistic communication to first words in Action, Gesture and Symbol: The Emergence of Language (1978), approaching early language development from a Vygotskyean perspective. His interest in the emergence of symbol systems resulted in the jointly edited book the Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution (1996)(with Charles Peters).

Maria Maniapoto

Ko /Ngai Tuhoe/ Ngati Maniapoto oku iwi
Ko Ngati Rongo/ Ngati Paretekawa oku hapu
Ko Mataatua/Tainui oku waka
Ko Taiarahia raua ko Pukekawakawa oku maunga
Ko Hinemateroa / Puniu oku awa
Ko Tauarau/ Mangatoatoa oku marae

Maria Maniapoto recently graduated from Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) with a Masters in Education and Bachelor of Arts. She is also a recipient of the Wiremu Parker Award for academic excellence. Maria is a researcher in the Social Policy Research Unit and a member of Whiriwhiri a Nuku, the Maori Section of the Family Centre. She is involved in the educational, research and community development work of the Family Centre.

Dr Fred Newman

Fred Newman, PhD, is the founder of the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy. Dr Newman is a co-contributor to 175.777 Special Topic: Introduction to Social Therapy with Dr Lois Holzman. For three decades, Dr Newman has been the catalyst for building sustained, community-based developmental psychological, educational and cultural projects. Among his books, co-authored with Lois Holzman, are Unscientific Psychology: A Cultural-Performatory Approach to Understanding Human Life, The End of Knowing: A New Developmental Way of Learning, and Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist. He has also written books for a popular audience and he is the author of nearly 30 plays, four of which were written for American Psychological Association conferences.

Professor John Shotter

John Shotter is Emeritus Professor and former Chair of the Department of Communication at the University of New Hampshire; he was previously Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Utrecht. He is currently joint editor of the Sage series 'Inquiries in Social Constructionism' with Kenneth Gergen (above). He is one of the founders of the social construction paradigm in social psychology, through a series of books dating back to 1976 (one co-authored with Alan Gauld (Human Action and its Psychological Investigation, 1977) (see, for example, Conversational Realities: Constructing Life through Language, 1993). In addition to his work in social psychology, John is also recognised as a major interpreter of the philosophy of Wittgenstein.

Professor Tom Strong

Tom Strong is a Professor in the Graduate Counselling Psychology program at the University of Calgary, and a therapist in private practice. A counsellor and educator with over twenty years of front line experience, he recently returned to academic life, bringing with him a practical focus on how a discursive perspective can enhance the collaborative practice of therapy, research, health care, education and supervision. His publications on these themes can be found in journals such as Family Process, the Journal of Systemic Therapies, Gecko, Human Systems, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, and The Journal of Collaborative Therapies. Tom is a contributing editor to The New Therapist, a South African journal for front line practitioners. His present writing and research focuses on how requests are articulated and negotiated in professional and lay conversations.

Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese

Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese is the co-ordinator of the Pacific Island section of the Family Centre, Lower Hutt, and currently leads an HRC funded research programme on Samoan mental health needs. She is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences in the areas of family therapy and policy, and community development. She is also a dynamic workshop presenter. Along with her colleagues Charles Waldegrave, the late Flora Tuhaka and the Reverend Walpiri Campbell, she is one of the founders of a position called 'Just Therapy', and is the author of materials that are included in 175.773 Principles of Just Therapy, and 175.774 Issues of Culture and Gender in Psychological Practice.

Charles Waldegrave

Charles Waldegrave is a psychologist, a family therapist, an Anglican priest, a social policy analyst and researcher. He is the Pakeha (European) Co-ordinator of the Family Centre. He leads the Social Policy Research Unit there and is also a joint leader of the New Zealand Poverty Measurement Project, funded by 2 ongoing FoRST grants. He has published extensively in all the above areas, including 21 papers in refereed journals. Charles leads workshops and educational events regularly in New Zealand and internationally.

Dr John Briggs

Dr John Briggs is the Executive Director of Solutions Behavioural Health Group in Wisconsin. This group is closely associated with the founding Center for Solution Focused Brief Therapy of Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg in Milwaukee. He collaborates on theoretical issues in therapy with Professor Gale Miller and is an experienced therapeutic trainer, presenting many workshops on SFBT. He was jointly responsible with Professor Gale Miller and Dr Theresar Zakutansky for our module on SFBT in 175.772 Contemporary Therapeutic Perspectives.

Dr Lynn Hoffman

Lynn Hoffman is one of the most distinguished Family Therapist's of the past 50 years. Her biography reads like a Who's Who of contemporary Family Therapy. Her 1981 book Foundations of Family Therapy was published in 7 languages and has been through 15 editions, being the primary text for Therapy training for two decades. She subsequently became associated with the Milan School of Gianfranco Cecchin and Luigi Boscolo, and along with Peggy Penn authored Milan Systemic Family Therapy 1984, the now classic statement of this approach. Recently, her book Family Therapy: An Intimate History, 2000 has become another classic text in the field, and is a core text in the Massey programme. She is still active at the age of 81, and was a regular contributor to our course 175.776 Professional Issues in Contemporary Practice.

Professor Gale Miller

Gale Miller is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Cultural Science at Marquette University, Milwaukee. His publications deal with social problems theory, human service institutions, and interaction. His most recent book is Becoming Miracle Workers: Language and Meaning in Brief Therapy (1997). It provides a detailed exploration of brief therapy as a postmodern approach to personal and family troubles. Based on twelve years of research and observation, Miller's book describes in practical detail how this method is employed in one of the most prominent brief therapy centres in the world, the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Dr Lois Shawver

Lois Shawver, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. She publishes on a broad range of topics and is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Psychoanalysis. She has also served as an expert witness in a large number of United States and Canadian trials on a variety of issues related to human sexuality. Her testimony has been used by both state and national governmental agencies as well as by plaintiffs suing these agencies. Her most recent paper, 'Psychoanalysis and Postmodernism', was published in the American Journal of Psychoanalysis. Her most recent book is And the Flag Was Still There: Straight People, Gay People and Sexuality in the U.S. Military. She has been teaching a seminar on Wittgenstein on the internet since 1996.

Dr Theresa Zakutansky

Theresa Zakutansky is Vice-President of Solutions Behavioural Health group where she practices in collaboration with Dr John Briggs. She is also the secretary of the Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association. She is an experienced workshop presenter, and was a regular contributor, with Professor Miller and Dr Briggs, to our module on SFBT in 175.772 Contemporary Therapeutic Perspectives.