Allan lives on Vancouver Island where he works in private practice as a family therapist and researcher, and he is primarily concerned with addressing the problem of violence in all its forms and in promoting socially just legal and human services work. Dr. Wade completed his Ph.D. in Psychology in 2000 at the University of Victoria. His dissertation “Resistance to Interpersonal Violence: Implications for the Practice of Therapy” (2000) examines both resistance to violence and how that resistance is concealed in professional and public discourse, including frameworks that are specialized to treat people who have been victimized and who have committed violence. Allan is senior faculty with the Master of Counselling Program, City University of Seattle and Adjunct Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Victoria.
With Linda Coates and Nick Todd, Allan has developed a Response- Based approach to working with victims and perpetrators of violence. He and his colleagues at the Centre for Response-Based Practice, in Canada, conduct original research and analysis on social responses by state institutions, such as courts, specialized panels, police, child protection authorities, and others. They also provide direct service to individuals and families where interpersonal violence is at issue. Dr. Wade is an expert witness in family law cases where violence is at issue, advises legal counsel on examination of expert reports, and supports related initiatives by West Coast LEAF and other organizations.
Allan provides training to police, lawyers, judges, psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, child protection teams, shelter and transition house teams, and administrators. He and his colleagues have published numerous articles and book chapters, many of which can be viewed at www.responsebasedpractice.com.
For many years, Dr. Wade has worked for and with Indigenous peoples, especially in the Canadian north, including those who were subjected to violence in government and church run prison camps (“residential schools”).
Dr. Allan Wade is an internationally recognized expert on responses to interpersonal violence, broadly defined, and he teaches nationally and internationally on developing effective and dignified responses to interpersonal violence. He and his colleagues at the Centre for Response-Based Practice initiated a series of conferences on the theme of “Dignity”, which draws experts and allies from many countries, and have so far been held in Canada, New Zeeland, Australia and Sweden 2018.