Welcome to Narratives of Us - online video talking therapy for people who may find themselves sort of stuck, lost, turned around, in a storm, unrooted… equally, this can be a place to build upon and illuminate the things already going well in your life, after all you made it this far! You’re doing a great job.

My Mini Stories

1. What is something you are personally developing? - I am working on growing relationships with chosen family and friends by applying the ideas from Brené Brown, generously assuming the best in them, taking emotional risks and doing what’s right over what’s fun fast or easy.

2. What is a favourite meal that stands out? - Tricky because I’m a foodie… I would have to say a little vegan place I went to which served grilled artichoke with aioli, followed by a Buddha bowl with shiitake mushrooms, and an awesome brownie to finish! Now I’m hungry.

3. What was your first job? - My first ever job was in a safari park looking after Sealions. I loved seeing different awesome animals everyday. It was really rewarding and fun so I promised myself I’d do something I enjoy with a future career, over something that pays well.

4. Your go-to-media? - I love reading but tend to find audio books soothing - anything by Haruki Murakami, Ruth Ozeki or Andre Aciman - I’m a sucker for a quirky novel.

5. A skill you are learning? - I’m learning about film photography in my spare time. It’s difficult! I like black and white film like the photo one to the right. I made several collages but have so much to learn!

6. A group you belong to? - I am lucky. I found my people in a wonderful climbing community, we climb… we fall… we climb again. I like the mind-body connection with climbing. It’s meditation above the ground.

My name is Dane,

I am a hardworking, Northerner, from working-class roots currently working as a Clinical Psychologist and based in London. I am a therapist and supervisor.

Narratives Of Us: Values

The Problem Is The Problem
I firmly believe that the person is the person and the problem is the problem. When we separate the problem from the person we have more power over an issue, put things into context, find more meaning, feel less stuck, feel more like ourselves, feel safer and have more ideas about how to go forward.

Your Right To Define
I invite you to define the problems, troubles, issues or concerns in your terms using your words, expressions and language - in order for it to be close to your personal lived experience. Not using psychological buzzwords and not using a short-hand label out of a manual.

Your Values & Stories
I help people to shed light on what they find important, what they value, and what they hold in high regard. The stories these have can become a compass to guides us as a basis for knowing how to go on in a way that feels right for you personally. Here is what people say about the service.

Weaving & Growing Hope
I have seen how “Hope is not a trait inside people. Hope is something we do with others" (Kaethe Weingarten). I firmly believe hope can still grow even when despair does not reduce. I strive to create a space to help people to weave hope by connecting with their own resources and to others in their teams, chosen families, communities and imperfect bubbles of solidarity, as a way forward through the storms of life.

Cultivating Resilience
I have worked with a broad range of couples and individuals in my work in the NHS and third sector. The stories that my clients have entrusted me with have at once been testimonies of hardship, loss, trauma or violence, but also ones of reclamation, overcoming, resilience, survivorship, resistance and strength.

Kindness
As a person who uses therapy myself, I especially do not lose sight of how important the quality of the therapeutic relationship is. Compassion is unfortunately often ‘out of stock’ in the many burnt-out services that support wellbeing, and I really get how this is something very much needed when talking to a complete stranger about your biggest vulnerabilities!

Informed Curiosity
It’s important for me to take both an informed and also curious stance towards my clients. I seek to know enough about important issues to share ideas (be it current issues about Cancer, Depression, Anxiety, BAME, LGB, Trans, Common Couple Patterns…) yet also want to learn about your own unique experience, culture and life expertise.

Radical Accountability
In relationship work, I hope to help people to gain an appreciation for and take account of the shaping effects of their actions on one another’s stories of self. This helps to engage in intentional relationship practices and ethics that nurture and positively shape stories of self of the people you care about based on what is important to your unique relationship.

Solidarity Team

I am inspired by some incredible people. The way I practice is informed and transformed by those who are influential in shaping what I bring to sessions. As clinical psychologists we use regular professional supervision, collaborate on projects, share resources, hold each other accountable and keep each other a breadth of new research within an ever shifting society.

What is in my Therapy Backpack🎒?

As a Clinical Psychologist on a journey, I am lucky enough to have collected a range of skills from clients and training. If this collection was represented by objects, in my bundle of treasures, I bring with me:

• 🖊️ - A pen to represent you as the author in your prefered story, documenting the unique moments, a concept from Narrative Therapy.

• 🎷- A musical instrument from an orchestra to represent multiple perspectives, (around us, but also multiple parts of us): ideas from couple and family work and Systemic Family Therapy which are very valuable in thinking about relationships and interconnectedness.

• 🏹 - A bow and arrow to remind me of values - how to focus our aim on what people find important, what they care about, and ideas from, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

• 📿 - Mediation beads, because where appropriate, it can be helpful to tailor the wisdom from Mindfulness, and Compassion Focused Therapy together in order to make space for kindness in the here and now.

• 🗺️ - A map which might allow us to explore other territories when useful - walking into other approaches such as Solution Focused Therapy, Psychodynamic Theory, Mentalization Based Therapy and the popular Cognitive Behavioural Therapy modalities. 

Training & Qualifications

I have over 13 years of experience working in the NHS. I completed a 3 year Professional Doctorate training programme in Clinical Psychology at The University of East London. I am HCPC accredited.

A Clinical Psychologist wears many hats. We are therapists - and we are also researchers, teachers, consultants, writers, neuro-cognitive scientists, advocates, activists, leaders, supervisors, supervisees, group facilitators and reflective practitioners.

In the UK, Clinical Psychologists complete rigorous training. My training included a degree in Psychology, followed by 4 years working full-time as an assistant psychologist, before a 3-year applied professional doctorate course. Unlike PHD's which are focused on research, a professional doctorate includes 6 six-month assessed NHS therapy placements covering all major areas of practice across the lifespan (child, adult, older-adult, learning disability and specialist); alongside an immersive training schedule (case reports, exams, essays, presentations, seminars, group work).

Special Interests

I have special interests in a Narrative Therapy Framework. This approach colours the way I do Assessments (hearing your stories and being curious), Formulation (making sense of the problems together) and Therapy (making steps towards how you’d prefer things to be). I also have a special interest in working with families, couples and groups using Collective Narrative Practice. My thesis used a Narrative Practice Framework to design a therapy group called ‘The Theatre of Life’ (Duncan, 2017) involving community and participants in “action research” at all stages from design, data collection and data analysis. This has since been used in the NHS with success. I have attended additional specialist training with Gendered Intelligence, for working in therapy with gender diversity. I attend regular special interest groups to keep up to date with current research and ways of working.

Publications

• Duncan Mills D; Castro Romero, M; Ashman, J. (2018) ‘The theatre of life: Collective Narrative Practice with Young Trans People’. In: Working systemically with trans, non-binary and gender expansive people. Context. Context, The magazine for family therapy and systemic practice.

• Duncan Mills D. (2017) The Theatre of Life: Collective Narrative Practice with Trans Young People in the Community. (Doctoral dissertation, University of East London).

• Castro Romero, M., Lopez, J., Byrne, A. & Duncan Mills D. (2016) Narrative in research: four stories of researching within a Narrative Framework. Fourth European+ Conference of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, Barcelona, Spain.

• Duncan Mills D. & Howes H. (2015) Calm In The Chaos: Mindfulness & Compassion For CAMHS Staff. Clinical Psychology Forum. This article reflects on a Mindfulness and compassion class for staff which ran for one year at the CAMHS in Newham, East London.

Zarina Situmorang