Dual Dialogues

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Course meets CPD requirements for Seneca Employees

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As professionals we are often invited to slip into conversations about the people who consult us when they are not present.  This training will focus on the real and possible effects of these second, or dual, dialogues.  Participants will read and discuss a brief article written by Johnella Bird (“Professional Talk”) that outlines the dangers of this dual dialogue.  We will examine the invitations to engage in professional talk, the effects of these practices, and strategies to avoid falling into a way of working with people that can objectify them.  Cultural and political discourse that sustains dual dialogues will be exposed and discussed.  The group will participate in an exercise designed by William Madsen (Collaborative Therapy with Multi-Stressed Families) around how we, as professionals, may inadvertently dis-empower those who seek our help.  Attendees will leave with ideas to address these practices both individually and as an agency.

Participants will:

• Learn about the dangers of professional conversations in the absence of clients

• Critique their own practices that may contribute to dis-empowering clients

• Identify some of the socio-political influences related to disrespectful professional conversations