Dear Reader,
G’day.
Welcome to the final issue of the 2004 series.
You’ll notice that this journal has a new look! What’s more, for the 2005 series we’re going to have a new cover too. It’s a time of changes!
The initial section of this journal issue explores two realms of complexity. The first paper, by Sue Mann, examines some of the more complex questions posed by work with women who have experienced sexual abuse, including: ‘Am I a sex worker because of the abuse?’ and ‘Am I gay/lesbian/queer because of the abuse?’ The second paper, ‘Climbing the mountain: The experience of parents whose children are in care’, documents the work of a moving and inspiring parenting/playgroup for parents whose children have been removed from their homes. We would be very interested in hearing your feedback on these two pieces and on any other matters of complexity that you are currently grappling with in your work.
We have then included some ‘Glimpses of Narrative Connections’ from our new web-based network. We are delighted that there are already members from Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Canada, China, France, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, UK and USA!
The second section of the journal contains a piece that has already attracted a lot of interest. We have included here a sample counselling flyer. Creating a counselling flyer that is congruent with narrative ideas can be quite a challenge. To assist in this process, a range of practitioners from different parts of the world have pooled their ideas and here we have published the result. Please feel free to use this sample flyer, or extracts of it, in whatever way would be of value to you. It’s been fun creating it.
Three practice-based papers then follow. The first by Dave McGibbon is short piece entitled ‘Narrative therapy with young people: What externalising practice and use of letters make possible’. The second, by Sheridan Linnell, involves both theoretical exploration and practice description and is entitled, ‘Towards a ‘poethics’ of practice: Extending the relationship of ethics and aesthetics in narrative therapies through a consideration of the late work of Michel Foucault’. While the third paper is a thorough description of Rudi Kronbichler’s narrative practice with boys struggling with anorexia.
It is a diverse collection!
We’d like to thank you again for your readership during 2004. And we hope you will join us again next year.
Warm regards,
Cheryl White
David Denborough
Dulwich Centre Publications
