Nick Putman is a registered psychotherapist and a certified Open Dialogue practitioner and trainer, having completed a two year training in the Open Dialogue approach with Mary Olson and others in the US and a three year trainer’s training programme in London with Jaakko Seikkula and others. He is the founder of Open Dialogue UK, which established the first full training in the Open Dialogue approach outside of Western Lapland. Nick has visited the Open Dialogue service in Western Lapland on a number of occasions to study the approach and the structure of the service. He has more than 25 years experience working in a variety of mental health settings, and considerable experience working with people experiencing psychosis and their families. Nick has been a trainer on either full or foundation level Open Dialogue trainings run in the UK, Australia, France, Estonia and Belgium.

Petra Hohn is a registered nurse and network therapist, and has a masters for teaching in health services. She has been working since 1993 in different psychiatric services for outpatient and inpatient care, first at Kriscenter Soteria (1993-1997), an integrated model of care for people experiencing first break psychosis. From 1997 to 2001 Petra worked as the head of outpatient centres, first in Södertälje Psychiatric Sector with integrated Newly Identified Psychosis teams and integrated teams for social work and psychiatric treatment according to need adapted principles. Petra is presently working at Psychiatry South Stockholm as the head of an outpatient unit, and is also running training programmes for the organisation’s employees. She has been developing and running Open Dialogue training programmes since 2008, including for the Parachute Project in New York City. Petra has been part of the training team on more than 25 Open Dialogue UK foundation training programmes run in the UK, internationally and online.

Richard Armitage is a dialogical practitioner and trainer in Denmark at a large centre for supported living and rehabilitation. Here he works both with the staff and with the residents, who are adults with a long history as users of psychiatric and substance abuse services.

Prior to this he has worked as a clinical psychologist in psychiatric services in various settings – in outgoing ambulant services and on both open and closed wards. The focus in all of these settings has been the development of a dialogical practice – training, organisational development and reflective, relational work in the users networks.

Originally trained as a psychologist and systemic family therapist, Richard began to work with Open Dialogue in 2005 while training in a Relational and network approach with Tom Andersen in Tromsø. Jaakko Seikkula was one of the primary teachers during these two years, and Richard has maintained his involvement with this work since. In addition to his own work in services he has been continually involved as a supervisor, teacher and trainer in other services, organisations and formal educational programs around the country. In 2015 he was also a trainer and supervisor in a national Open Dialogue development project in Italy.

Richard is a certified Open Dialogue trainer, and has been a trainer on Open Dialogue UK foundation training programmes run in Yorkshire (UK) and Queensland (Australia). He is also a trainer on the current three year Open Dialogue training programme being run in London.

Jorma Ahonen is a Social Psychologist and Advanced Level Psychotherapist from Helsinki, Finland. He is co-founder of the Dialogic Co., which was established in order to develop ideas on both practicing family therapy and supervising and training family therapists, supervisors and organisation consultants.

Jorma is one of the most experienced Open Dialogue trainers internationally. He has run and participated in many dialogical training programmes in Finland and has been a senior trainer on both Open Dialogue UK three year training programmes run in London, as well a three year Open Dialogue training run in Sydney, Australia. He was also a trainer on the Italian Open Dialogue foundation training programme.

Anni Haase is a psychologist, psychotherapist and Open Dialogue practitioner and trainer. Currently she works at Keropudas outpatient services in Western Lapland, Finland, where Open Dialogue in psychiatry was born. Anni works with families and social networks but also practices individual psychotherapy in the spirit of a need adapted approach. She is also leading a training for peer workers and participates in a supervision group for peer workers. Anni gives individual supervision to workers at Keropudas Hospital. Previously Anni worked as an occupational psychologist in Rovaniemi and Tornio (2000-2004). Before Keropudas she worked as a psychologist in a family counselling centre in Tornio (2004-2010), which was strongly influenced by Open Dialogue training in the region. Anni has completed psychology teacher’s pedagogical studies (2005), and has specialised in family counselling (2007) and sensorimotor trauma therapy (2010). Anni has participated as a trainer in several trainings internationally including trainings run in Australia, the UK, Belgium, Spain and the US.

Kari Valtanen is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Family Therapist, living in Rovaniemi, Finland, at the Arctic Circle. He has worked at the Adolescent Psychiatric Unit at the local hospital for the last three years. Before this he worked privately consulting on child & adolescent mental health and child protection, and worked together with the Western Lapland Adolescent Psychiatric team, using the Open Dialogue approach. He has been teaching family and narrative therapy, collaborative, and dialogical practice for several years, and is involved in a joint family therapy training together with the Western Lapland Open Dialogue team. He is one of the trainers on the 3 year full Open Dialogue training programme currently being run in London by Open Dialogue UK, and was also part of the training team on the Open Dialogue UK foundation training run in Queensland, Australia, in 2017.

Darren Baker is a clinical psychologist and Open Dialogue practitioner and trainer. He is a graduate of Open Dialogue UK’s first 3 year trainer’s training in 2018; the first such training outside of Finland. He works mainly in the UK National Health Service (NHS) as the Psychological Therapies Lead for Psychosis in Haringey, London. Clinically, he works with individuals, families, social networks and groups in a range of settings. However, his role also involves a significant amount of supervision, management, training and service development.

Darren’s clinical experience has predominantly been in early intervention in Psychosis. In his previous role in the East London Foundation NHS Trust, he also led the development of the Open Dialogue approach in Hackney, London. Two years ago, he moved to Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust, which is part of the ODDESSI trial, the world’s first randomised control trial of the Open Dialogue approach.

Darren has designed and delivered in-house, introductory Open Dialogue trainings in the NHS. He has also participated as a trainer in both 3 year and foundation trainings in London, Barnsley, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire with Open Dialogue UK.

Jaakko Seikkula is professor of psychotherapy (emeritus) at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland and contemporary professor in psychology at the University of Agder. From 1981 to 1998 he was Chief Psychologist at Keropudas hospital in Tornio, Finland, and was instrumental in the development of the Open Dialogue approach there. Over the last 35 years he has mostly been involved in developing new family and social network orientated practices for the most severe psychiatric problems, such as psychosis and severe depression. He has played a leading role in research into Open Dialogue and related approaches, and has published numerous papers on the outcome of these studies, which show the effectiveness of open dialogues and other dialogical practices. He has also led trainings in the Open Dialogue approach in numerous countries, including five trainers’ training programmes. He is co-author of the books ‘Dialogical Meetings in Social Networks’ and ‘Open Dialogues and Anticipations’, and recently published the book ‘Why Dialogue Does Cure: Explaining What Makes Dialogue Unprecedentedly Effective in Difficult Crises’.