International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work

This practice note describes a letter-writing campaign dedicated to sharing insider knowledges of Queer Joy. Letter-writing campaigns seek to create a context to share community knowledges of care in ways that can be accessed by members of the community of concern. This campaign begins with a queer invitation to allow members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in our province to write letters about their experience of cultivating queer joy. These letters are then distributed in sessions if a person is struggling to create queer joy in their life. This audio note reviews the care put into the letter-writing invitations. It...

"Fear busting and monster taming: An approach to the fears of young children" by Michael White was originally published in 1985 in Dulwich Centre Review, a precursor to International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work.

In this paper, childhood fears are considered within the interactional context of the family. It is argued that the survival and growth of such fears is dependent upon the presence of a "fears life-support system". The details of this life-support system can be derived by an examination of the family members' inadvertent participation with a fears lifestyle. Interventions to disrupt this participation a...

Chelsea Size shares a practice note describing the generation of a collective document of insider knowledges about living with loneliness with older people living in Eldercare residential aged care homes.

The document Chelsea discusses can be downloaded here: https://dulwichcentre.com.au/wisdom-on-living-with-loneliness-chelsea-size/ 

In Western societies, older people’s skills, knowledges and values can be treated as irrelevant and obsolete, perhaps especially so for those who are living in residential aged care. Considering the discourses around ageing, frailty and loneliness, this audio note reflects on the operations of modern power and opportunities to address a sens...

Yorta Yorta woman Jean McMahon reads this significant paper by Aunty Barbara Wingard from the archives of International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work.

From Aunty Barb's introduction: With Indigenous communities facing so many losses due to past and present injustice, we have been seeking ways of speaking about our grief that are consistent with our cultural ways of doing things. We are remembering those who have died, we are honouring Indigenous spiritual ways, and we are finding ways of grieving that bring us together. We are telling our stories in ways that make us stronger.

Sara Asfiya Ali shares a practice note about the creation of a collective narrative document called “Resisting erasure: How Muslim women in India are responding to hate and hostility”.

The document brings together the voices of Muslim women living across urban India. It centres the voices of Muslim women responding to everyday Islamophobia. Through shared stories of childhood, education, family life, work, motherhood, faith and public life, the document highlights the skills, values, knowledges and commitments that Muslim women draw on as they navigate hostility, othering and hate. Grounded in collective narrative practice, this document weaves individual testi...

In honour of the 20th anniversary of the Tree of Life narrative metaphor, we are sharing this reading of a significant paper by Ncazelo Ncube-Mlilo from the archives of International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. It is read by Ncazelo Ncube-Mlilo.

The paper describes the use of narrative ideas in work with vulnerable children in Southern Africa. How can the lives of children who have experienced significant losses be responded to in ways that are not retraumatising and that bring to light children’s own skills and knowledge? What sorts of exercises can be used in...