John Burnham

Honorary Consultant Family and Systemic Psychotherapist and Supervisor at Parkview Clinic, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Birmingham, national and international Trainer.

John’s professional passions include ‘thinking theory and talking ordinary’; ‘turning practice into theory’; ‘creating self and relationally reflexive practices’; ‘creating solidarity between young people, parents and professionals through multiple family therapy’, and using social and personal GGRRAAAACCEEEESSSS….S to enable clients and practitioners to conceptualise and influence their experiences.

HOPE ‘HOPENINGS’ and ‘HAPPENINGS’

• How Systemic/NVR thinking can help us work with hope to create unity without losing the excitement and creativity of diversity described in Social GGRRAAAAACCEEEEESSSSS…..S (Burnham 1992, 2012, 2020) Roper-Hall (1998, 2003)

• How Systemic/NVR ideas can help to create a relationship between ‘Unity and Diversity’ which is appreciative of each and inclusive of both to generate ‘Hopenings’(Roper-Hall 2026) and then transform ‘hopenings’ into ‘happenings’, developing practitioners’ repertoire of skills and agility in moving between

  diversity and unity and using both in cooperation with the people we work with and for.

John will introduce us to the practices of PIQUE: Pivotal, Inter-GRACE, QUEstions (Burnham and Nkanang 2025) and Race-Fullness (Diamond Writing Group 2026) to promote new thinking and learning.