Welcome to this final journal issue for the year. It’s a bumper special edition on narrative practice and mental health!

It includes hopeful papers describing creative ways of responding to bulimia, hearing voices, and suicidal thoughts. It also contains an invitation to consider alternative suicide screening processes, a narrative research project from Mexico, and a review of ‘The book of human emotions’. Lastly, we have included a revised version of a paper about gender belonging as new understandings and activism in this realm are challenging and transforming taken-for-granted ideas in therapy and beyond.

This special issue features papers from Greece, Norway, Australia, Mexico, the UK and the USA. We hope you enjoy them!

Very soon we will be announcing a new way to subscribe to this journal and to gain access to all its back issues. Stay tuned.

Thank you for your support throughout this year and wishing you well for 2017.

Content

‘Uncovering Bulimia’s demanding voice: Challenges from a narrative therapist’s perspective’ Kassandra Pedersen. (Pages 1-13)

‘Hopeful conversations about voice hearing’ Chris Dolman and Michael Spurrier. (Pages 14-25)

‘We could be heroes: How film and comic book heroes helped a peer support group to reconnect with their gifts.’ Rachel Tolfree. (Pages 26-31)

‘Thickly describing together – utilising collaborative ethnography in narrative therapy work with young people’ Jonathan McClelland. (Pages 32-44)

‘Explorations with the written word in an inpatient mental health unit for young people’ David Newman. (Pages 45-58)

‘How we deal with ‘way out thoughts’: A living document … Ways of talking with young people about suicidal thoughts’ David Newman. (Pages 59-66)

‘First steps towards an alternative suicide risk screening tool: Navigating risk assessment and encouraging life-sustaining conversations’ Carly Forster and Rina Taub. (Pages 67-76)

‘A narrative approach to addressing pain in hospitalised paediatric patients: Handicraft and digital interventions’ Angélica Quiroga, Jessica V. Jiménez, Gabriela A. Beltrán,Valeria Casas, Bertha N. López. (Pages 77-85)

‘Deconstructing emotion: A review of “The book of human emotions” by Tiffany Watt Smith’ Zoy Kazan. (Pages 86-90)

‘Gender belonging: Children, adolescents, adults and the role of the therapist – Revised’ Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad. (Pages 91-106)