Stephen R. Gaddis, Ph.D., LMFT

Co-Director, The Narrative Therapy Initiative 
 The Salem Center 
 204 Lafayette Street, Salem, MA 01970 

 Stephen was a narrative therapist who taught and practiced post-structural narrative therapies. His 20-year passion for narrative therapy took him around the world in pursuit of learning, teaching, and skill development. He was privileged to spend a year in Hamilton, New Zealand, where he taught in a master’s level counseling program at the University of Waikato that is known internationally for its leadership in social construction theory and narrative therapy. He also spent a year completing a postgraduate training certificate in narrative therapy for international practitioners at the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, Australia, and has presented his practice-based teaching in Canada, Norway and South Africa. 

 Stephen earned his master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from Colorado State University and his doctorate from Syracuse University, where he was immersed in feminist, social justice, and self-of-the-therapist traditions. He has taught at numerous universities and colleges throughout the northeastern United States and was on the adjunct faculty at Boston College and Salem State University. He also led workshops and published papers nationally and internationally. 

 Stephen loved practicing, teaching, and writing about narrative therapy, and particularly enjoyed bringing questions of discourse and power relations to all conversations as a way to stay close to his wish to be an activist for social justice and a person accountable for the effects of his participation in people’s lives. Stephen helped co-create with his colleagues Marjorie Roberts and Evan Longin The Salem Center for Therapy, Training, and Research in Salem, Massachusetts. In 2010, Stephen established The Narrative Therapy Initiative at The Salem Center in the name of growing a community for people interested in the ethics, worldviews, and practices associated with narrative therapy. Stephen lived and worked on the North Shore of Massachusetts with his wife and two children. Learn more about The Narrative Therapy Initiative at http://narrativetherapyinitiative.wikispaces.com/.