Narrative Reflections

How Witnessing Their Stories Changes Our Lives

Edited by Lucy S. Raizman, Bea Hollander-Goldfein

Not available to order

Publication date:

12 November 2013

Length of book:

140 pages

Publisher

Hamilton Books

ISBN-13: 9780761862369

Narrative Reflections presents a series of poignant personal reflections by mental health professionals, triggered by reading interviews of Holocaust survivors and their families. Inspired by the practice of narrative therapy, these essays bear witness to the experience of survivors and facilitate deeper levels of self-awareness by each of the contributors. In each chapter, the themes of struggle, survival, and resilience demonstrate the power of narrative reflection as well as the role that narrative therapy might play for clinical mental health professionals. Together, co-editors Lucy S. Raizman and Bea Hollander-Goldfein and contributors Kilian Fritsch, Ruthy Kaiser, Peter Capper, Lyn Groome, Margaret S. Roth, and Michael Izzo engaged in a process that put each of them in closer contact with their own lives.
This very powerful book highlights the invisible line between broken hearts and open hearts. Painful stories eloquently told invite us to look unflinchingly into the heart of suffering and the humanity beyond. But just as important, we find out that the act of bearing witness, of approaching suffering with an open heart, changes us. And always for the better.