International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work
2026 Issue one
Dear Reader,
The Tree of Life narrative approach has travelled way beyond its original contexts in Southern Africa. Practitioners in communities across the globe have adapted and expanded this metaphor, finding ways to gather stories of survival, kinship and hope in the face of storms. In honour of the 20th anniversary of the Tree of Life, this issue includes a special section on metaphoric practice. These contributions demonstrate the many creative ways metaphors can open space for storytelling, identity and collective imagination.
Across many parts of our world, people are living through ravaging storms of appalling war crimes and growing violence. Colonisation, neoliberal economic discourses, political denial, historical silences and poverty have led to immense suffering.
And yet these storms do not tell the whole story. People are not passive recipients of hardships, and they are always responding. It is heartening to witness the innovative ways practitioners are adapting narrative therapy ideas and rooting them in diverse soils across the world. Their practices honour people’s knowledge and skills, acknowledge acts of refusal and resistance, invite agency and enable contribution. Across the work in this issue, therapy and community practice are understood not simply as sites of individual change but also as places where social and political change can be fostered.
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Peer-Reviewed Papers
“Dear Violence”: Using process drama, narrative therapy and collective letters to explore and acknowledge students’ experiences of domestic violence in PNG — Dorothy Wanega and Jane Awi
This article presents preliminary findings of a locally developed research project that combined arts-based research tools and narrative therapy as a response to the effects
Towards a decentred, politically influential, accountable and yet uncertain practice — Kelsi Semeschuk
A “decentred” therapeutic stance is often seen as one of the hallmarks of narrative practice. But it isn’t always well understood and is interpreted differently
Fireworks, a funeral and friendship: Re-membering community at end-of-life — Tanya Newman
A “decentred” therapeutic stance is often seen as one of the hallmarks of narrative practice. But it isn’t always well understood and is interpreted differently
Desired Dreams: Narrative therapy conversations with trauma survivors about the dreams they would like to experience — Muhammed Nurullah Demir and Mehmet Dinç
This paper introduces the “Desired Dream” practice, an innovative psychotherapy approach based on narrative therapy. It involves conversations about dream content that individuals want to
Exposing the feeling of “not good enough”: Working with the failure conversations map — Jonaki Arora
This paper addresses the phenomenon of personal failure and its relationship with modern power. It describes Michael White’s failure conversations map and the underlying narrative
Che rete che mba´e (“Mi cuerpo es mío” en idioma Guaraní): Ampliando las identidades preferidas de mujeres trabajadoras sexuales, a partir de la organización como lugar de resistencia política y vital — Paola Kolher Salinas
This paper is in Spanish, with an English abstract.
In a context of social and gender inequality, such as that of Paraguay, women’s collective
Metaphoric Practice
Fire of Life: Yarning about stories of passions, strengths, skills, interests and hobbies of our mob — Kynan Barnes
This paper presents a narrative practice metaphor called the Fire of Life. It’s been designed to help tell our stories in ways that make them
Exploring the meaning of cosplay for adolescents: A narrative approach — Su Ying
Cosplay has become a popular subculture among teenagers and is prevalent in Hong Kong, yet it is subject to misconceptions and prejudices. The imagined identities
Resilience Wardrobe: An outfit for coping with challenges — Şeydanur Tezcan Özer and Mehmet Dinç
This practice-based paper introduces “Resilience Wardrobe”, a narrative therapy exercise that uses wardrobe and outfit metaphors to support externalising conversations, concretise emotions through sensory detail,
The Marathon of Life: Storytelling for healing and peace building with second-generation survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings — Keiko Tsuzuki
This paper introduces “the Marathon of Life”, a narrative project developed in collaboration with four Hibaku Nisei – second-generation survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Walking in virtual forests: Using Minecraft to create digital Trees of Life — Paul Graham
This article introduces the use of the video game Minecraft to complete the Tree of Life narrative therapy process and discusses new possibilities for practice
Reclaiming the Tree of Life: Collective storytelling, re-membering and legacy in later life — Helena Rose
This article describes a storytelling group with older people living in a nursing home in the UK, developed in collaboration with creative activity workers as
Cedar of Life — Teresa Taouk
Teresa is a counsellor and narrative therapist who works closely with individuals, couples, families and children. She brings deep care and presence to her work
The Tree of Life Project: Using narrative ideas in work with vulnerable children in Southern Africa — Ncazelo Ncube-Mlilo, read by Ncazelo Ncube-Mlilo
This audio recording of a paper from the archives of International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work describes the use of narrative ideas in
Reviews
Reading Charlie Jane Anders’ Never Say You Can’t Survive and Lessons in Magic and Disaster together at a time of rising hostility to trans folks, a review of the books and the process — Tiffany Sostar, Aakhil Lakhani and April Wick
A group of friends reviews Charlie Jane Anders’ (2021) nonfiction book Never Say You Can’t Survive: How to get through hard times by making up
Reflecting on the healing potentials of dialogue: A review of why dialogue does cure: Explaining what makes dialogue unprecedentedly effective in difficult crises by Jaakko Seikkula — Tom Strong
Open Dialogue (OD) was developed in Finland as a family- and community-based response to psychiatric emergencies. Central to OD’s development have been the conceptual and
Interviews
Power, not panic: Community organising and narrative practice at a time of anti-immigrant violence — Susan Shaw interviewed by David Denborough
In this interview with David Denborough, community organiser and narrative therapist Susan Shaw reflects on more than three decades’ work with communities in the United
Audio
Resisting erasure: How Muslim women in India are responding to hate and hostility — Sara Asfiya Ali
“Resisting erasure: How Muslim women in India are responding to hate and hostility” is a collective narrative document that brings together the voices of Muslim
Video
It takes a village to raise a child: community healing for traumatised children and young people with the “Here you, hear me” card game — Kwong Ka Fai and Wong Sau Mui
This video highlights the crucial role of community participation in supporting traumatised children and young people. Our project focuses on co-creation and community healing, beginning
Multimedia
“In our own words”: Privileging unheard voices through theatre and storytelling to support health service staff — Sue Gibbons, Njinga Kankinza, Adam McGuigan, Antonia Kemi Coker, Ayeesha Miah and Naomi Harvey-Read
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, our health psychologists were redeployed to provide support to staff in our NHS acute trust. We aimed to develop
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