Christopher Hall, PhD, LCSW
5006 Randall Pkwy
Wilmington, NC 28403
Phone: (910) 795-6677
Email: Chris@DrChristopherHall.com
Web: www.DrChristopherHall.com
Practitioner & Associate Professor
School of Social Work
University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Chris is a licensed practitioner and an associate professor of clinical social work at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where he co-directs the Strengths Collaborative, a group dedicated to encouraging social constructionist-informed and strength-based ways of working with others. His teaching areas include advanced Master’s social work practice, and Master’s field collaboration courses. His scholarship and research focus on various forms of postmodernism with an emphasis on social constructionism. Specific areas of interest include the social construction of practice modalities, amplifying the client voice in the therapeutic context, power/knowledge and the construction of normality, and the deconstruction of hegemonic discourse.
Chris incorporates social constructionism into his courses as a guiding metaperspective, a way of understanding which emphasizes that theories and perspectives are constructs, not “facts,” and can be simultaneously “true” within the context of their own premises, and “false” from the perspective of other theoretical points of view. This approach was the focus of his 2005 dissertation, Social constructionism: A unifying metaperspective for social work. Current publications on social constructionism and hegemonic discourse include: A practitioner’s application and deconstruction of evidence-based practice (2008), and Perceptions of need and the ethicality of the male social work practice (2007). Chris’ recent publications include a chapter on collaborative assessments entitled, Honoring client perspectives through collaborative practice: Shifting from assessment to reflective exploration, (2013) and a chapter on expanding collaborative group thinking in clinical training (2014).
Chris received his PhD from the University of Louisville, Kent School of Social Work where he taught advanced clinical social work practice courses and provided leadership in grants related to public child welfare services as well as clinical interventions for divorcing couples. In addition to his clinical practice experience his varied background includes 16-year participation as a subject in the Louisville-Twin Study (he has an identical twin), employment as a teacher in the US, Japan, and the Czech Republic, and at last count he has visited 25 countries. These experiences have greatly influenced his work and his ideas about collaboration in the therapeutic context. In addition to being an associate professor Chris also offers counseling in Wilmington NC, for information visit www.DrChristopherHall.com
Chris is an unabashedly enthusiastic fan of the work of Ken Gergen, Stanly Witkin, John Shotter, Mary Gergen, and Harlene Anderson, among others, and is extremely humbled and honored to be a part of the Taos Institute.
