Background

Duncan is a counselor/psychotherapist based in Washington DC, who brings a strong global and multi-cultural perspective to all his clients.

Duncan has provided mental health services for 18 years focusing on building resilience in individuals and families in high stress environments. He worked as a clinician at the USAID Staff Care Service Center providing counseling and crisis care to USAID employees in Washington DC and around the world for the past seven years. Duncan is a consultant with The KonTerra Group and provides support to a variety of KonTerra clients including Mercy Corps, Chemonics, AECOM, Internews, Save the Children, World Learning, GOAL and USIP. In addition to virtual support, Duncan has delivered direct services to individuals and teams in Mozambique, Namibia, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Israel/West Bank-Gaza and Afghanistan. He has facilitated numerous trainings and webinars on stress, resilience, compassion fatigue and returning home as well as training other clinicians in providing virtual counseling services.

He invites all those he works with into healthier relationships – both with themselves and those around them - with a special focus on stress, trauma, resiliency, grief and loss, and other adjustment related concerns. Duncan often works with Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCK’s) and other individuals and families in transition. Duncan has a strong interest in cross cultural issues and adjustment, global urban and rural development, and helping people through pain and trauma. Duncan grew up in South East Asia and enjoys returning there as often as he can.

Duncan has a Masters in Counseling from Western Seminary (USA) and holds licenses to practice in Washington DC, North Carolina and Washington State.

Chefoo Reconsidered Experience

My parents (dad from UK, mom from US) were initially in Laos before moving to N. Thailand. I was at Chefoo Malaysia from 78-84 and then Faith Academy from 85-90. I attended the closing of Chefoo Malaysia in 2001, CR2, all the US gatherings so far and CR Philippines in 2016 and was on the planning committee for the Philippines trip and one of the US ones. I have presented on attachment theory at two of the US ones at Ruth Van Reken's request and really enjoyed working with her. I also really enjoyed facilitating the Philippines trip with Elwyn Ten Brink. I previously served on the CR Coordinating Committee.

Greetings! My name is Elwyn ten Brink, formerly Cooper and I am excited to join the team of CR Japan.

Back in the ‘70s, a very long time ago, though it sometimes feels like yesterday, I shared an OMF hostel in Sydney with a band of brothers. They would speak longingly of their roots in, what sounded to me like a magical land of colourful seasons, intense beauty and snow. A Chefoo setting so alien to my unsettled beginnings in tropical climes, dusty, noisy cities, humid jungles and typhoon seasons. Yet we shared a common bond. We were thrown together in an alien environment where our skin colour matched our peers but our hearts, our spirits, were not grounded in the same soil as that of those with whom we attended school. I recognised in my hostel brothers fellow wanderers in the “borderlands of belonging” - to quote a perfectly articulated description given by Joshua Tan, a fellow TCK from Singapore, in a TEDtalk.

When recently one of these brothers, Douglas Hayman, invited me to share this Chefoo Reconsidered journey to their Japanese roots I was touched and am enthusiastic to be part of the team. During the years of my Third Culture childhood I was frequently the eldest sister and slipped easily into the role of organising and seeking to care for others. So not long after I finished university where I trained as an occupational therapist I endeavoured to organise a couple of events to reconnect with other Australian TCKs who had shared the borderlands of my life, however at that stage, in the early ‘80s there was little interest expressed in reconnecting as most were endeavouring to leave the past behind and focus on their futures and forming new identities. When I learned of the gathering of the first Chefoo Reconsidered, I was disappointed that the timing was such I could not attend however I threw my energies into using this opportunity and new interest to organise a Sydney-based Chefoo Reconsidered weekend. Then two years later a Chefoo Reconsidered roving reunion through the haunts of my childhood in the Philippines, ably supported by Duncan Wilson and Johnathan Fuller. I have also had the blessing of attending the second and third CR gatherings in Malaysia where I attended Chefoo school for 2 years in the ‘60s.

These days I am an occupational therapist living and working for my own business about an hour north of Sydney, Australia. In the mid ‘80s I visited the US to study a MA in Biblical Counselling and am now a registered occupational therapist with skills in mental health and years of experience as a counsellor as well as a community OT. I am married to Maarten who has become a Baptist minister. We have 5 children aged 28 to 14 and three grandchildren. However, to me home is wherever family is currently living.

I am looking forward to sharing this journey with you all in the role of a support facilitator to Duncan Wilson as well as a counsellor/mentor/supportive listener and fellow pilgrim on the journey.

To contact Elwyn email: elwyntb@gmail.com