International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work
2026 Issue two
Dear Reader,
I am writing from Delhi, India, where we have been witnessing young people lead collective action against injustices in this country. The more these young people are pushed, the more they respond in creative ways. They use tools of resistance that the power structures are not able to quash.
I read the pieces in this journal issue with images of these young people’s protests in my mind.
What struck me most when I visited the protest ground were acts of collective care: people looking out for each other, sharing water, food and a place to rest. I felt safe in the thronging gathering, and despite not knowing anyone, I felt I knew everyone. I experienced a similar knowing with the contributions in this issue. I have not met the authors, who are from very diverse contexts, but I experience a synergy with their commitments to honour the responses, skills and local knowledge of those faced with injustices and hardships.
This issue is an invitation for all of us to see ourselves as connected in rhizomic networks standing up to power structures that brutalise through war, genocide, transphobia, detentions and other ruthless acts of harm. I hope we will keep developing innovative practice through songs, arts, humour and collective gatherings. I hope we will continue to tell our stories in ways that make us stronger and make our shoots travel far.
Scroll down for the whole interactive issue ↓
Video
Rebuilding community after collective trauma — Adelite Mukamana interviewed by Nadia d’Or
Adelite Mukamana (click for bio) Adelite Mukamana is a clinical psychologist and genocide studies scholar with more than 20 years’ experience in mental health, psychosocial
Dreaming trans-affirming mental health care into existence — Tiffany Sostar
Therapists have a lot of power to help or to harm. In this time of intense escalation of anti-trans discourse, policy and legislation, it matters
Peer-Reviewed Papers
Moving beyond the limits of grief — Helene Grau Kristensen and Augusta-Lucia Grau Kristensen
Western grief discourse remains shaped by modernist norms that individualise and internalise struggles with grief. This article proposes that grief-related symptoms often reflect resistance to
Dismantling dominant disability discourse — Dana Kabaila
Narrative therapy offers powerful approaches for honouring neurodivergent insider knowledge to resist thin, pathologising conclusions. To explore and extend these approaches, I interviewed loved ones
Linking lives through collective song creation — Sara Portnoy, Mieke Van Daele and James McParland
This article describes a creative narrative practice using music and song. It draws on collective narrative practice, rescued speech, and poetic and collective documentation, and
Inheritance beyond genes — Ximena Karmy Saieg
Many qualities that may be considered “genetic” are, in fact, inherited through stories and the ways they are narrated and re-narrated. This article describes therapeutic
Sustaining the good man — Janet Pelly
This article is written as a companion to “Discovering the good man: Double-story development with a survivor of repetitive ongoing trauma in immigration detention” (Pelly,
Mothers who move — Jess Baker
When women are forcibly displaced, structurally violent migration processes can have dramatic and devastating effects on experiences of motherhood. This paper shares stories of two
From allyship to co-conspiracy: Disentangling psychotherapy from the ally–industrial complex — David Nylund
This article critiques the ways mainstream psychotherapy participates in the “ally–industrial complex”, a term coined by scholars and activists to describe performative allyship that reinforces
Audio
Saying hullo again: The incorporation of the lost relationship in the resolution of grief — Michael White, read by Hamilton Kennedy
This groundbreaking paper introduces an alternative metaphor for working with those experiencing significant grief. Guided by the “saying hullo” metaphor, Michael White introduces
Multimedia
Exploring grief and re-membering place — Valeria Kvasnevska
Valeria Kvasnevska draws on Michael White’s ideas of “saying hullo again” to re-member her home in the Ukraine and the way of being it held.
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The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the publisher.