This online and in-person conference invites the pluralistic practice community to weave between worlds, exploring the diverse cultural understandings and practices from The Four Winds (Ngā Hau e Whā): the global North to the global South, as well as Western and Eastern traditions. To weave, we need many distinct threads, or forms of understanding. Each thread represents something important that can stand on its own and can be brought together to create something new. No one thread dominates, and weaving needs a balance of different threads, brought together to make meaning. This process is dynamic and emergent where a quality of wholeness and strength brings together multiple ways of knowing.

In the Northern Hemisphere, most existing therapeutic models were first conceived through a Western psychological lens which places greater value on certain aspects of modern life, such as rationality, individuality, whiteness, maleness, and productivity. These values have problematic links with colonial histories and are often so embedded in our thinking that they can be difficult to observe, and even more difficult to see beyond. However, we are much greater than this narrow Western lens, both personally and collectively, and we are part of a natural world that transcends hierarchical divisions. As an international community, the Pluralistic Practice Network has been curious to explore our theories and practises through bi-cultural and multi-cultural lenses, and to reimagine therapy beyond the confines of colonial values and Western thinking.

In the pluralistic community of Aotearoa New Zealand, Tā Mason Durie has proposed that ‘it is necessary to make a plea for an interdependent and innovative theoretical space where the two streams of knowledge are able to blend and interact, and in doing so, facilitate greater sociocultural understanding and better outcomes for Indigenous individuals or groups’ (Macfarlane & Macfarlane, 2019, p. 52). We see our shared cultural inheritance as a fabric, woven with many different threads, each formed in their own location, across generations. Weaving those threads together is different from assimilating one thread into one dominant culture.

In November 2026, the global pluralistic practice community will gather to celebrate and weave together our ideas. Hosted in Aotearoa New Zealand, our conference will begin with a pōwhiri welcoming ceremony at the marae in Feilding, Palmerston North. We are planning in-person gatherings in various locations in Aotearoa and the UK, and are inviting expressions of interest from anyone who would like to hold an event or viewing party anywhere in the world. Online participation will be facilitated through our partner OnlineEvents. Presentations will be held in person and streamed online, to help us weave our conversation across hemispheres, across cultures, and across time-zones.

For now, please hold the date and prepare to join us between 25th and 27th November 2026 (26th – 27th NZDT), as we celebrate the warm fabric of our global pluralistic community!

Full conference details and a call for papers to follow.

Ngā manaakitanga / with kind regards,

The Pluralistic Practice Conference Organising Team

Nicola Blunden

Mark Clamp

Lynne Gabriel

Brent Gardiner

Tricia Joyce

Raewyn Laurenson Elder

Steff Revell

Brian Rodgers

John Wilson

Macfarlane, A., & Macfarlane, S. (2019). Listen to culture: Māori scholars’ plea to researchers. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 49(sup1), 48–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.2019.1661855

Description supplied by the event organiser.