Dear reader,
What a year it has been. We hope your friends and loved ones are safe and healthy.
As 2020 comes to a close we’re pleased to be publishing this journal issue which is in three parts. The first consists of a paper from Rwandan narrative practitioner, Beata Mukarusanga, about her development of a garden metaphor in her work with vulnerable families. This is followed by a reflection, also from Rwanda, by Liberal Seburikoko, reflecting on how Beata’s work is also linked to responses to climate change.
The second part of this issue consists of an interview with Nichola Garde who is an advocate for people with disability and genetic conditions. She is interviewed by Mariangels Ferrer-Duch. This is then followed by a response from Tiffany Sostar which links Nichola’s perspectives and ideas to the field of narrative therapy.
Finally, we’re delighted to include an interview with Chris Beels about the ground breaking community psychiatry initiatives that he and Margaret Beels (Newmark) were involved with in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s; and then a series of responses linking this work to the present day. These reflections are from Alan Rosen, Brian Stagoll, Hamilton Kennedy, Marilyn O’Neill and Gaye Stockell, Neil Gong and Rory Randall, and Jill Freedman.
Thank you for your continual interest in narrative practice!
We are thinking of all of you who are in quarantine, especially in those countries most affected by Covid, and are wishing you and your families health and safety for 2021.
Warmly,
Cheryl White
The garden metaphor, by Beata Mukarusanga
Cultivating green parenting to respond to climate change: An interview with Liberal Seburikoko
Beyond a genetic condition: Becoming more compassionate about myself as part of the ‘normal diversity of the human community’. Nichola Garde interviewed by Mariangels Ferrer-Duch
Response to Beyond a genetic condition: Becoming more compassionate about myself as part of the ‘normal diversity of the human community’ by Tiffany Sostar
Teaching through history to create a third, unheard voice in psychiatry: Stories from New York City. An interview with Chris Beels
Chris Beels and Margaret Beels (Newmark): Interdisciplinary role models and pastoral mentors helping us find viable pathways to our collective futures, by Alan Rosen
The visionary gleam by Brian Stagoll
A social psychiatry that responds to social ills? by Hamilton Kennedy
Reflections on an Interview with Chris Beels, by Marilyn O’Neill and Gaye Stockell
Social class, disability and the lessons of psychiatric deinstitutionalisation for prison abolition: An Interview with sociologist Neil Gong. Interviewed by Rory Randall
Tracing a history of community practice offering hope for the future, by Jill Freedman
