Since 1990, through Metanoia Consulting, Colin has presented his work throughout Canada (Moncton, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, Campbell River and Prince George), Fort Smith (Yukon) , Inuvik (NWT), San Francisco and Havana, Cuba.
Most recently, Colin facilitated a talk (“Narrative Therapy Beyond Foucault”) in Taos, New Mexico, at the 20th Anniversary of The Taos Institute (April). Colin has presented many times over the years at The Narrative Ideas and Therapeutic Practices and Therapeutic Conversation conferences, sponsored by Yaletown Family Therapy and the Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy.
Over the decades, Colin has presented his work at the Justice Institute (Vancouver), Douglas College, Malaspina College, Vancouver Community College, UBC School of Social Work, City University (Vancouver), International EAP Association (Western Canada EAPA Branch), and both provincial and national child care conferences.
Courses
- Psychology of Loss & Grief (CPC 511)
- Family Systems Therapy (CPC 512)
- Psychology of Addictions (CPC 529)
- Child & Adolescent Counselling (CPC 600)
- Psychology of Aging (CPC 604)
- Research Project/Thesis (CPC 603)
- Practicum I, II, III (CPC 651, 652, 653)
Experience
- 1994 – 2000: Vancouver Community College – Taught in the Counselling Certificate Program.
- 1995 – 2000: Jack Hirose & Associates – Facilitated seminars regarding supporting persons struggling with substance use and related dilemmas.
- 1993-2013: The Vancouver School of Narrative Therapy – Facilitated seminars regarding post-structural perspectives in therapeutic practice.
Education
- B.A., 1976, University of Manitoba
- M.A., Cultural Anthropology, University of Manitoba, 1979
- PhD, Taos Institute/Tilburg University
- Defended dissertation on September 17th, 2014, at Tilburg University, Netherlands. My dissertation is entitled: A Narrative Poetics of Resistance.
Awards
- 2010: Excellence in Teaching Award, Dean of Arts & Sciences Programs, City University of Seattle (Vancouver)
- 2011: Vancouver Police Department, Certificate of Merit,Vancouver Police Department & Vancouver Police Board
- 2013: Professional Care Award, British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC), Awarded to Peak House for 25 years of service to young persons and families struggling with substance use. Award accepted by Colin James Sanders.
Current Research/Writing
- Riffing off Arthur W. Frank’s (2017) “Notes on Socio-narratology and Narrative Therapy”: Reflections on Imagining Ethnographies of the “Self”. Paper in preparation for, The Journal of Narrative Family Therapy, Winter, 2019.
- Situating the Sacred within the Therapy of Michal White. Paper in preparation.
Selected Publications
- (1994). Workshop Notes: Deconstructing addiction mythology. The Calgary Participator, Fall, 4, 1, pp. 25-28.
- (1994). Opening space: Towards dialogue and discovery Journal of Child & Youth Care, 9, 2, 1-11 (co-authored with Garth Thomson).
- (1994). Unravelling addiction mythologies: A postmodern conversation about substance misuse and therapeutic interactions. Abbotsford, BC.: Fraser Valley Education & Therapy Services.(Co-authored with Chris Kinman).
- (1995). Narrative imagination in evoking a language of mind The Calgary Participator, Winter, (pp.44-49).
- (1995). An appreciation of Lynn Hoffman’s Exchanging Voices. Journal of Collaborative Therapies, III, 2, (January) pp.18-19.
- (1997). Re-authoring problem identities: Small victories with young persons captured by substance misuse In C. Smith & D. Nylund (Eds.), Narrative therapies with children and adolescents (pp. 400-422). New York: Guilford.
- (1998). Substance misuse dilemmas: A postmodern inquiry In S. Madigan & I. Law (Eds.), Praxis: Situating discourse, feminism, & politics in narrative therapies (pp. 141-162). Vancouver, Canada: Yaletown Family Therapy/Cardigan Press
- (1999). Workshop notes: The poetics of resistance. Unpublished manuscript, presented at the Memorial Centre for Peace, Vancouver, B.C., in a workshop entitled, “New Narratives”.
- (2005). Robert Duncan Interview Beat Scene (England), 48, 16-22
- (2007). A poetics of resistance: Compassionate practice in substance misuse therapy. In C. Brown & T. Augusta-Scott (Eds.), Narrative therapy: Making meaning, making lives. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications
- (2010). A day in the life of Colin Sanders: Working on the front line. Street to Home, 2, (Spring), p.2.
- (2010). The Berkeley Renaissance: Its influence in context of the “Pacific Nation,” in appreciation of Robin Blaser’s The Holy Forest. In T. Carolan (ed.), Making waves: Reading BC and Pacific Northwest Literature. Vancouver & Abbotsford: Anvil Press Publishers & University of the Fraser Valley
- (2010). An inside update on current government intitiatives for the homeless and mentally ill. Insights into Clinical Counselling (April), (pp.16-18, 40)
- (2012). The use of narrative therapy in the personal transformations of graduate students. Insights into Clinical Counselling (May), pp. 22-23.
- (2012). Robert Duncan Interview. In (Ed.) C. Wagstaff, A Poet’s Mind: Collected interviews with Robert Duncan, 1960-1985. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.
- (2013). An exploration of therapeutic practice as sacred engagement. Insights into Clinical Counselling (Spring) (pp.16-17).
- (2013). Lew Welch revisited: A “Bright-eyed bardic spirit”. The Pacific Rim Review of Books , 9, 1, 14-15.
- (2014). Narrative poetics of resistance: Towards an aesthetics of engagement. Dissertation. http://www.taosinstitute.net/Websites/taos/images/PhDProgramsCurrentDisertations/Sanders-Dissertation-2014(2)-1.pdf
- (2016). Documentary film. Directed by Trevor Carolan. Powerground: The life and Breath of the World. Featured interview re: “Acclaimed Canadian writers and ecologists rethink how we can win back the Earth in a time of Eco-crisis”.
- (2016). Toward an aesthetics of engagement. In V. Dickerson (Ed.), Poststructural and narrative thinking in family therapy, (pp. 61-81). Switzerland: Springer2017.
- (2016). Alan Watts and the re-visioning of psychotherapy. Self and Society: An International Journal for Humanistic Psychology, 45, 3-4, 244-255.
- (2018). Book review. There you are: Interviews, Journals, and Ephemera , by Joanne Kyger. Pacific Rim Review of Books, 23, 12,1, Spring.
- (2019). In press. Flip book review. Some End, George Bowering/West Broadway, George Stanley. Pacific Rim review of Books, 24, 12, 2, Winter.