Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping

Reflections from the Editorial Team: Valuing Lived Experience

2024-04-30T05:53:19-07:00

Reflections Volume 30(2) begins with an update from the Editorial Leadership Team and our appreciation for the many people who give of their time to make Reflections a reality. We continue to explore narrative writing as a means to share lived experience as authors tell their stories about encounters and interactions that transformed their personal and professional lives. We are excited to be highlighting 11 engaging manuscripts in this General Issue in which poetry, art, musical lyrics, and narratives are used to focus on the mental health needs of helping professionals, their clients, and their communities.

Our Stories of Accessing Gender-Affirming Surgery

2022-10-25T16:57:57-07:00

As an act of resistance against the recent surge of anti-transgender legislation targeting transgender and nonbinary youth in the US, we share our experiences of accessing lifechanging, lifesaving gender-affirming surgery with you through poetry.

Prosody

2022-05-05T12:16:17-07:00

"Prosody" is my narrative and poetic reflection on the importance of genuine relationship to understanding another's experience.

Kick the Stigma

2022-08-09T13:45:32-07:00

Inspired by NFL player Dak Prescott’s demonstration encouraging help-seeking in sports, my art piece continues the advocacy within sport social work to “kick the stigma” of mental health and wellness.

Possibilities

2022-08-09T13:06:05-07:00

As a therapist, hip-hop artist, and music professor, I wrote my song “Possibilities” about the individual capacity for maximizing potential across settings and contexts, which carries over into my approach to working with individuals and families in my private mental health practice. The song underscores how human beings are capable of achieving remarkable feats in the face of adversity.

Creating Attachment: The Expressive Therapies as a Multisensory-Relational Modality to Foster Secure Attachment

2022-08-09T13:49:39-07:00

This article explores the use of expressive therapies as a multisensory-relational treatment approach that furthers the therapeutic process in reworking insecure attachment. We aim to shed light on how expressive therapies can rework insecure attachment schemas into secure attachment schemas. A theoretical review of the expressive therapies and their impact on fostering secure attachment is presented. Two case studies illustrating the use of expressive therapies in practice are discussed in the context of attachment. We highlight how the expressive artistic realm not only allows for the expression of unmet needs, often too difficult to verbalize, but also operates as a nourishing medium that may amalgamate the lesions of the past into a secure attachment blueprint.

Death on the Farm: How I Learned that Social Work (and Everyone) Should Care about Farmer Suicide

2023-02-12T08:19:46-08:00

Farmers and farm families are not often seen as a vulnerable population in need of social work services. This narrative reflection describes how I, a child of the suburbs, came to be involved in research examining stress and suicide rates in farmers. Through a chance conversation with a colleague, I began to learn about the high rates of suicide and multiple stressors among farmers. Together with collaborators from Cooperative Extension, we have begun working to develop suicide prevention and intervention initiatives. Through this process I learned about the rich potential for collaboration with scholars and service providers in the agricultural sector and have grown in commitment to this work. Farmers provide the food, fiber, and fuel we all need; their needs and challenges are of relevance to all of us. I believe social work should turn its attention to this vulnerable population in curriculum, direct practice, advocacy, and research.

The Evolution of an Activist Pastor: Reflecting on the Practice of Listening, Learning, and Leading

2022-06-25T04:53:08-07:00

This set of reflections captures the experiences and insights I have gathered as a senior pastor reflecting upon a lifetime of activism in search of social justice and moral direction. It begins with my early years of family and community influences followed by the impact of a premier divinity school. It then traces my congregational journey through four communities to arrive at a set of leadership principles and practices. The final phase of the journey captures my transition from serving as an activist pastor and executive director of an interfaith nonprofit community ministry to becoming Interfaith Community Liaison in the executive branch of county government. It concludes with a set of lessons learned.

Why Don’t We Self-Reflect on the Small Encounters?: A Question Posed by a Japanese Student during a Multicultural Field Placement

2022-03-23T13:44:43-07:00

This paper illustrates my (Yamashita’s) critical self-reflection as a female social work student from Japan living in Australia while conducting my first placement in an organisation that provides refugees and asylum seekers with holistic mental health support. The self-reflective process on a small miscommunication enabled me to learn lessons and identify strengths as a future social worker by unpacking the influence of my own cultural background. The main implication of this paper is that, particularly in the multicultural setting, applying self-reflection and self-critique even to small encounters enables social workers to grow as professionals.

Reflections on the Loss of My Grandson: How Life Events Change Social Work Practice

2022-12-26T15:41:53-08:00

This firsthand account sheds light on my (Gantt’s) experience as a grandmother and former victim advocate who lost her young Black grandson at the hands of another young Black male. I was a school social worker at the time. In this piece, I and second author Greif describe how I received support from colleagues and clients. My experiences have made me a better social work practitioner as I work to make meaning of my loss.

“Please Don’t Ask!”: A First-Person Narrative of Coping with Loss

2022-04-15T21:30:09-07:00

This narrative discusses my experience of pregnancy loss from the perspective of an “insider.” Issues of grief, frustration, and confusion are explored as they influence my decisions, coping mechanisms, and actions. Despite the challenges and disappointments associated with the loss of motherhood, there is a sense of resilience and strength through my self-reflection.

Down the Rabbit Hole: The Mental Health Implications of Adoption Trauma on People Adopted at Birth

2023-02-12T08:11:33-08:00

The mental health impact of adoption on people adopted at birth has been largely neglected in social work research and literature. Authored from my perspective as a clinical social worker experiencing reunion with my birth family, seeking guidance, and coming up empty, I explore the relationship between adoption, trauma, and mental health, challenging the perception that adoption is singularly and only good. I propose a framework, the Adoption Trauma Spectrum, from which mental health professionals and adoptees can better understand adoption trauma. This framework suggests adoption trauma may occur across the spectrum of human development, potentially affecting bonding, individuation, and relationship and attachment styles. This paper emphasizes the need for more research on the impact of adoption trauma on people adopted at birth and identifies implications for future research on adoption related issues such as the psychosocial impact of at-home DNA testing on adoptees, first families, and adoptive families.