Christoffer Haugaard is a psychologist from Denmark who has worked with psychotherapy with a particular focus on psychosis for over 14 years. Between 2017 and 2023, he collaborated with David Epston to develop a co-research approach to voice-hearing, psychosis, and trauma, resulting in a series of publications. Christoffer presently works at a private psychiatric hospital in Denmark. He is the father of three children and enjoys Korean drama series and Ghibli films. haugaardch@aol.com
“Irene” is in her mid-thirties and grew up in a dysfunctional family with violence and incest. She was an active child who loved to spend time with her friends, climb trees and throw pebbles in the creek. She took loving care of her siblings from a young age. During a prolonged period of her life, she performed self-harm, attempted suicide many times, and was often hospitalized. This is no longer the case. She still enjoys spending time with friends and siblings. She loves being an aunt and is doing well despite the odds against her in life. The illustration is “Irene’s” painting of her childhood alter ego named Katja and the photo is Irene’s eye, that much of her image she was comfortable sharing.
David Epston was, along with his close friend, Michael White, one of the originators of what came to be known as “narrative therapy”(White and Epston(1990), Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends and Epston and White (1992), Experience, Contradiction, Narrative and Imagination. He has (co) authored 16 books, most recently Heath, Carlson and Epston(2022), Reimagining Narrative Therapy through Practice Stories and Autoethnography and Tejs Jorring with Alexander and Epston(2022), Narrative Psychiatry and Family Collaborations along with well over 150 published papers. He has taught widely throughout the world over the last 40 years and is co-leader of Apprenticeships in Narrative Artistry along with Tom Carlson and Kay Ingamells.