Teaching Faculty, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, PGDCP 2010-11
Faculty of Graduate Studies
94, Cumarathunge Munidasa Mawatha, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka

Skype Name: laurielynncharles
Skype Phone: 781-780-3975
email: lauriecharles@hotmail.com

Laurie L. Charlés, Ph.D., LMFT, is an independent qualitative researcher and family therapist raised in San Antonio, Texas and currently based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. A licensed family therapist practitioner since 1997, Laurie has been both program director and full-time tenure track faculty in graduate certificate, master’s, and doctoral family therapy programs in and outside the United States. In 2002 and 2005, she worked as a Visiting family therapy scholar in the Philippines and in the UK in 2008; also in 2008 and 2009 she was a family therapist consultant and trainer/practitioner in three African countries. Laurie's recent research focuses on the implementation of family therapy practices and training inside NGO-implemented humanitarian mental health projects, the application of a human rights framework to family therapy training, and the use of appreciative methodologies in systems research and consultation. Laurie is the author of two books: When the Shooting Stopped: Crisis Negotiation at Jefferson High School (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), and Intimate Colonialism: Head, Heart, and Body in West African Development Work (Left Coast Press, 2007). Laurie is a Co-Editor of The Qualitative Report (http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/index.html), an open-access online journal dedicated to publishing creative and well-done qualitative research in all disciplines worldwide. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, as a reviewer for Qualitative Health Research, and as an editorial consultant for the Philippine Journal of Counseling Psychology. Her scholarly and trade publications have appeared in the Journal of Systemic Therapies, The Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Qualitative Inquiry, Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, and the Boston Globe Magazine. A returned U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer (Togo, 99-01), Laurie is currently a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar affiliated with the University of Colombo Department of Sociology.