Portengen, Riet

Riet Portengen

Polarity Certifications: Mastery
Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, Nederland

Authorship in And: Volume Two – Applications:
Chapter 36: ”Social Network Strategies and Polarity Thinking™: Driving Forces in Social Work”

I am the founder and director of TOPIC (1998) and SoNeStra. We focus on creating and imbedding inclusive ways of working in care, welfare and the community. Our innovative methods embrace the power of all participants, support the collaboration of specialized professionals, and align practice and systems toward creating wholistic, sustainable policies. Polarity Thinking enhances, expands and accelerates our work.

Within TOPIC, we have developed several programs, among which are Kinship Care, Family Coaching, Prima Foster Care and Working from Social Network Strategies (SoNeStra).

Clients and co-workers experience me as powerful and energetic in my role as visionary, inspirator and booster of innovation; I am valued for my ability to connect different perspectives and create movement in which self-direction, learning organizations and creation of new knowledge are key elements. This ability comes from years of experience as a developer, trainer, facilitator and coach in trajectories, communities of practice and development teams.

Education

I spent almost two decades as a practitioner and staff member in Child Protection and Foster Care, and as a developer at the National Institute of Care and Welfare in the Netherlands before founding TOPIC.

I studied at the University of Amsterdam Pedagogic Sciences (ortho pedagogics, family intervention and organizational & policy sciences), at TIAS Nimbas Business School Management of Learning and Development (cum laude and with Euresform certificate) and am certified as top facilitator in Creative Thinking. During my study I became familiar with the work of Peter Senge, Labovitz & Rosansky and later Otto Scharmer. I participated in many Pegasus conferences and pre/post conferences workshops where I became familiar with Polarity Thinking. In September 2018 I finished my Mastery in Polarity Thinking from Polarity Partnerships (Barry Johnson). My PhD is still in progress and supported by the ongoing inspiration of Victoria Marsick (Columbia University).