Abstract
The main contribution of this book to social work is the implicit, rather than explicit message it contains. Filled with beautifully articulated writing about experiences of direct practice and social work education, one gets the feeling that the authors are engaged in exactly what Elie Wiesel meant when he famously declared, “I write to understand as much as to be understood.” The narratives of direct practice in this book are compelling efforts to understand human interactions encountered in diverse social work settings. By writing down intense practice events, by collecting up the fractured and emotionally charged pieces of exchanges with people who have been entered into the position of “client,” and by describing and curating these events in ways that show their personal, social, and cultural resonance with the author, the reader gains a window into the heart of narrative practice. The implicit message is that the interpretive act we apply to practice moments through narrating them is both cathartic and enables a “putting things in place” that, however provisional, allows a practitioner to remain, to hold on, to make sense of things, and to survive it all. Using a narrative approach to social work equips us to reflect on the child who is inconsolable and whose flailing has to be contained for a time, however disturbing it is for the practitioner. Narrative links a social worker to methods of explanation and connection for the dying man who can’t speak of the betrayal of his body. Narrative tools help to find ways to work in a nonjudgmental and supportive manner with people with health conditions that are stigmatized in a particular community. Narrative-based social work emphasizes the close listening and reading that allows practitioners to “bear witness” to another’s pain and the cognizance that that is often all, in the end, one can do. In each of these examples, narrative methods allow for sense-making that speaks deeply to human experience.
A further strength of the book is the extension of these types of concepts beyond practice into other elements of social work, such as supervision, research, interprofessional practice, narrative coproduction, and social work education. In each of these contexts, the provision of concrete examples, step-by-step processes, and explanation of the relevance of pragmatic elements, such as competency standards, were informative and inspiring for those of us wanting to incorporate narrative approaches more extensively but are unsure of exactly how to go about it. Now there is excuse no more!
This book will appeal to educators, health and mental health practitioners, and those in other fields who draw on narrative methods to make sense of research or practice, or to do practice with particular groups. There are many excellent examples, but one of the former is that of “transnational parenting.” In this chapter, the author incorporates her lived experience into the research methods she employed to capture the perspectives and day-to-day challenges faced by parents whose migration between countries leads to “transnational parenting” (Christiana Best-Giacomini). Through narratives, she is able to capture the nuance, pain, gains, and diversity of relationships that children, parents, and other caregivers experience when this occurs. Of those using narrative methods in practice, the work of “Rise” is one example (Nora McCarthy and Rachel Blustain). This organization works with mothers who have ongoing direct contact with child welfare services. In a context where most women feel that “the child welfare system has intruded into every private area of their life but has not fundamentally understood their story” (p.168), being supported to tell their story provides both personal and systemic functions. It allows them the opportunity to “have their say” in the face of limited voice and provides powerful feedback to child welfare organizations. Running writing workshops for parents, publishing a magazine using their writing, and training parents to speak at professional forums and policy events allows the coproduction of stories that serve both therapeutic and educational purposes. These are just two examples from a fascinating book that is clearly organized into sections and, I think, is best suited for postgraduate students, educators, and practitioners. Although not overtly feminist, all the contributors to the book are women. It is interesting to consider this: the rules we learn about who can talk about the interpretive spheres of life, and bear the emotional and intellectual labor of doing so, still hold to strongly gendered norms.