The purpose of Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping is to publish narratives, personal accounts that describe and explain the process of helping others and shaping social change over time. The journal seeks to support the literary tradition and build a record of wisdom for critical study and fruitful discovery. It encourages stories that convey a sense of immediacy, portray practice across diverse populations, and capture the range and variety of strategies and systems within the helping professions. Reflections publishes stories of professional helpers such as ethicists, psychotherapists, community organizers, case and group workers, policy makers, family and child practitioners, health and mental health care providers, educators, researchers, and administrators in the helping and academic professions.
OUR CENTRAL THEME
The central theme of the journal is narrative inquiry into professional practice. Reflections publishes personal accounts of professional action designed to aid and support human and social development. The stories have a literary presence, offer new perspectives on practice, and demonstrate the conceit of failure as well as success. The author/narrator explains the reasons for the action and freely identifies the mistakes made in the practice. The purpose of the narrative is not to demonstrate achievement; rather, it is to capture the experience.
ABOUT NARRATIVES
Narratives are personal stories that give readers a fresh perspective about the practice of change. Written in a temporal sequence and/or within a thematic structure narratives recount the helping process. Narratives are explored within a contextual frame and supply a rich textual description of the experience: they take into account time, place, action, persons, behavior and interaction. Narratives explain and describe events; results; conflicts; complicating actions; and how, why, and what took place. In narratives, the writer evaluates the experience, whether or not there is a resolution, and explores the meaning of the experiences. Some narratives end with a coda, that is, a perspective on what occurred.
REFLECTIONS: BOARDS AND STAFF
EXECUTIVE BOARD,
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH (CSULB)
Paul Abels, Department of Social Work
Catherine Goodman, Department of Social Work
Brian Lam, Deptartment of Social Work
Cheryl Lee, Department of Social Work
Julie O'Donnell, Department of Social Work
Marilyn Potts, Department of Social Work
EDITORIAL BOARD
Carolyn Carter, Howard University, School of Social Work
Charles Garvin, University of Michigan, School of Social Work
Sheldon R. Gelman, Yeshiva University, Wurzweiler School of Social Work
Leon Ginsberg, University of South Carolina, College of Social Work
Alex Gitterman, Columbia University, School of Social Work
Gail Goldberg-Wood, University of Louisville, Kent School of Social Work
Jane Gorman, New Mexico Highlands University, Department of Social Work
Golie Jansen, Eastern Washington University, School of Social Work and Human Services
John A. Kayser, University of Denver, School of Social Work
Martin Kohn, Northeastern Ohio University, College of Medicine
William Meezan, University of Southern California, School of Social Work
Joshua Miller, Smith College, School of Social Work
Wilma Peebles-Wilkins, Boston University, School of Social Work
David Prichard, University of New England
Elizabeth Reichert, Southern Illinois University, School of Social Work
Dennis L. Saleebey, University of Kansas, School of Social Welfare, Lawrence, KS
Ben Shepard, City University of New York, Social Work Program
STAFF
Art Director: Daniel Jimenez