What I do

For the past 23 years I have worked as a narrative therapist in private practice and as a school counsellor, community worker, corporate coach and trainer and author.

My narrative roots go back to my training in drama and literature, and my work as a television producer and as a poet and an author of children's books.

Over the past eighteen years I have started up and developed various Narrative creative writing projects with young people in marginalised school communities in the Western Cape. Since 2011, these projects were funded by the Breytenbach centre in Wellington, and since 2018 by the Jakes Gerwel Foundation.

In 2022, my two books were published by LAPA/Penguin Publishers, titled: Praat jy! Idees vir die skep van 'n skryfkultuur in die klas/ My Word! Ideas for creating a writing culture in the class. These publications are intended to be practical workbooks for teachers in everyday classrooms. In it I combine Narrative therapy ideas with my training in literature and experience of seventeen years of practical creative writing mentoring with young people. Since February 2023, I have been running regular teacher mentorship sessions with interested Afrikaans language teachers from Metro Central district in Cape Town. This work is supported by the Jakes Gerwel Foundation.

Since 2013, my Narrative colleague, Linda van Duuren, and I have been collaborating to offer Narrative Therapy training and mentoring opportunities to people working with children and young people in everyday settings - from NPO’s to classrooms - through our training platforms: Cape Narrative Trust and NarrativelySpeaking. Our mission is to create counselling support for the majority of South African children by developing the Narrative skills of school principals, teachers, youth care workers and others working with children. We also facilitate the development of an integrated Narrative ethos in organisations working with children and young people.

Education

BA Drama (UP), BA Hons (Afr/Nedl) (UP), MTh (UNISA), DTh (UNISA)

1975-1978 BA Dram (UP)
1979-1980 Hons. Afr/Nedl (UP) (cum laude)
2000 - 2003 Masters degree (cum laude) in Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy. This research focussed on the transformative pastoral role teachers play in school communities: Transforming a school community: facilitators living values.
2008 - 2010 Doctoral degree in Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy: Pastoral care and the challenge of poverty: when opening hearts and minds create possibilities in a marginalised school community. This research project transformed my thinking about the relationship between poverty and privilege, and the practices of accountability required to begin to address the effects of a history of injustice associated with apartheid.

Experience

1979- 1980, Journalist, Die Burger.
1980 -1983, Production secretary, Children’s TV & journal programmes SABC.
1987-1999, Freelance Television producer in Cape Town for the SABC.
2000 - 2009, Part time school counsellor, Fanie Theron Primary, Kraaifontein.
Three children’s books were published under my maiden name, Thérèse Bartman, by Juta and Nasou as part of Early Reader series: Moenie my soen nie, Skoolkonsert & My straat / My street.
2005, poetry debut in Nuwe Stemme 3 (Krog & Schaeffer, 2005).
2005 - 2021, I set up and ran several creative writing groups ( piemp and Yoh!) with young people in marginalised communities in the Western Cape. In 2009, I self-published piemp - a volume of poetry and a drama of the young people of Scottsville, Kraaifontein. In 2017/18, I collaborated with Die Heuwels Fantasties, at Weltevrede Secondary school in Wellington, as part of the piemp project.
2008, Publication of my poems in Groot Verseboek (ed. André P. Brink).
2011 - present, I establish and actively support the school library at Petunia Primary school in Scottsville, Kraaifontein.
2011 - 2014, worked as Research and Development Co-ordinator for Musicworks.
2014 - 2015, worked as Corporate trainer and coach for The Institute for Transdisciplinary Development (ITD) Radical Respectful Relationship Project with staff at a mine and smelter at Vredendal and Saldanha.
2013 - present, Narrative colleague, Linda van Duuren, and I formed the Cape Town Narrative Co- op. In 2020 the Co-op became the Cape Narrative Trust - an NPO (18 A) www.capenarrativetrust.com. In 2021 we established our for-profit NarrativelySpeaking training platform.
2001 - present, Narrative Therapy private practice consultations with adults, children, young people and families.

Presentations at conferences

Foucault and ms Elizabeth Cupido: rethinking pastoral power, poverty and privilege, Joint Conference of Academic Societies in the fields of Religion and Theology, 22-26 June 2009, Faculty of Theology , University of Stellenbosch.
Doing reparation in community: a cross-cultural journey of possibility, Beyond Reconciliation Conference, 2-6 December 2009, University of Cape Town.
Attending to the Other: deconstructing the limits of cultural possibility with young people in a context of poverty in South Africa. International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture Conference, University of Oxford, 23rd – 26th September 2010.
When language makes a difference. Orphans and Vulnerable Children Conference, Sandton, 31 Oct – 3 Nov 2010.
Narrative practices, song-writing and change in the lives of teenage girls suffering the effects of abuse and HIV/AIDS in Khayelitsha, South Africa. International Narrative Therapy and Community work Conference, Adelaide, Australia. March 2013. A summary of the Adelaide presentation can be viewed on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vYG_YhUDJA
Refining 'Strengths in Building a Respectful Culture at a Mining Organisation’, The World Appreciative Inquiry Conference 2015. Johannesburg, 6-10 July 2015.
What are you bringing in?' Witnessing and weaving inspirational local stories in a coaching context at a South African mine. Presentation at the World Appreciative Inquiry Conference 2015, Johannesburg, 6-10 July 2015.
Active Witnessing in Organisational Settings. Co-presented with Linda van Duuren, Narrative Conference, Somerset West, 19-21 August 2015.

Publications

Hulme, T & Marlene, 2002. African violets and letters on wind-paper, in Kotzé, E, Morkel, E & associates Matchboxes, Butterflies and Angry foots. Pretoria: Ethics Alive.
Hulme, T, 2003. Transforming a school community: Facilitators living values. MTh thesis. UNISA.
Hulme, T, 2010. Pastoral care and the challenge of poverty. When opening hearts and minds create possibilities in a marginalised school community. DTh thesis. UNISA
Hulme, T, 2012. Rethinking pastoral power and poverty using feminist-poststructuralist analysis in practical theology, in HTS Theological Studies ( December 2012) Link: http:// www.hts.org.za/index.php/HTS/article/view/1263
Kotze, E, Hulme, T Geldenhuys, T & Weingarten, K, 2013. In the wake of violence: Enacting and witnessing hope among people. Family Process. Vol 52, Issue 3, pp 355-367.
Gaddis, S, Kotze, E & Hulme, T, 2014. Peach trees grow in the spaces between people: Counselling practices in the territory of violence. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy. Vol 35, Issue 3, Issue published online. 28 Oct 2014.
Hulme, T. 2022, Praat jy! Idees vir die skep van 'n skryfkultuur in die klas. LAPA uitgewers.
Hulme, T 2022, My Word! Ideas for creating a writing culture in the classroom. Penguin Publishers.

Contact

I'm always looking for new and meaningful opportunities. Let's connect.

info@theresehulme.com

(+27) 0834504606