Skip to main content

White, Michael

  • Living reference work entry
  • Latest version View entry history
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy

Introduction

Michael White was the cofounder, along with David Epston, of narrative therapy. As family therapist, teacher, community worker, and writer, Michael White’s work transformed conventional notions of therapy, reshaped understandings of psychosis, provided new ways of responding to grief, and involved a rare combination of political analysis and compassion.

Career

Michael White was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia. His initial training was in Social Work and early employment was at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital where his collaborations and co-research with children and families led to the development of externalizing conversations – a way of separating people from the problems that had often come to define their identities.

In the late 1970s, Michael White became a Founding Editor of The Australian Journal of Family Therapy as this field began to flourish “downunder.”

In the early 1980s, Michael cofounded Dulwich Centre and a collaboration and friendship with...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Key Citations

  • Epston, D., & White, M. (1992). Experience, contradiction, narrative and imagination. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, M. (2007). Maps of narrative Practice. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, M. (2011). Narrative practice: Continuing the conversations (Edited by D. Denborough). New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, M. (2016). Narrative Therapy Classics. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Denborough .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Denborough, D., Freedman, J., Epston, D., Waldegrave, C. (2018). White, Michael. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_895-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_895-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    White, Michael
    Published:
    11 November 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_895-2

  2. Original

    Michael White
    Published:
    01 June 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_895-1