Introduction to Reflections
For the ten years while I was the director of social work at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center in New York City, I walked to work each day through Central Park. Often, I would take my small digital camera with me and snap a picture of whatever scene struck my fancy.
The park, which holds such a special place in the hearts of New Yorkers, came to hold a unique reality for me that I have only recently begun putting into words. I initially thought of this walk as an indulgence and a means to “claim my day”; to nurture myself before facing the stress and excitement greeting a clinical department head practicing in an intense and complex environment. Taking a full hour or so for the journey, I made it a point to walk as slowly as I felt comfortable. As you may imagine, throughout the four seasons, mornings in the park present one with an endless cavalcade of beauty
But that was merely the first fruits of this indulgence.
Unwittingly, the park provided a uniquely creative and undefined space; a space through which the unstructured flow of my thoughts and concerns could find their way. The many facets of professional life stirred much thought in response to the tasks, questions and dilemmas of practice. The changing environment of a large health care organization evoked a need for centering and reflection. It required a conscious effort to comprehend the challenges posed to all of us providing service.
I never used the walk through the park to consider these things in a planned way. On these morning journeys, ideas, insights and occasionally solutions would simply occur.
During the many years of my practice as a social work clinician and administrator, I had a number of venues for formulating and expressing my thoughts to fellow professionals and facility staff. As a member of the Society of Social Work Leaders in Health Care, I made frequent contributions to our newsletter, Society Page. At Cardinal Cooke, where I was also the founder and co-chair of our ethics committees, I wrote a regular column called Ethically Speaking in the facility newsletter. There were also the many meetings and committees. They provided ample opportunity to think, articulate and struggle together with peers on the major issues facing us all. Parallel to this aspect of my professional life, I always maintained a limited practice in psychotherapy.
In late 2003, I left Cardinal Cooke and transitioned to a full time practice of psychotherapy. As a consequence of that transition, support and stimulation for a significant part of my professional life simply stopped; and I was faced with new and quite different sets of challenges.
But my daily walks through the park didn’t stop.
My energies and concerns were now focused on the personal and theoretical demands of a full time psychotherapeutic practice. Quite naturally, these concerns accompanied me on my daily morning walks through the park
A solitary psychotherapy practice can quickly feel isolating; especially after a career in an intense interdisciplinary environment. I reached out to a number of venues available for peer contact and support. Yet, I missed a regular avenue of written expression; a means through which I could both communicate and discover my thoughts.
Perhaps in response to my bemoaning this loss, my wife, Roberta, suggested I do my own newsletter. A much appreciated recommendation, but I couldn’t visualize a context in which it made sense.
During those wonderful morning walks, however, an idea began to crystallize: to create a newsletter as a means to connect the various helping professions in the community. I imagined myself as part of this ‘virtual community’ of practitioners. The newsletter would focus on our efforts to establish the many varieties of therapeutic space – the space we all were striving to create with our patients and clients.
These selections of Reflections are taken from over a decade of that exercise.
Reflections was first published in March, 2004. Designed as a quarterly, there are four issues a year. The initial list of professionals from many disciplines – social work, medicine, psychology, pastoral care, psychiatry, nursing, to mention just a few – was comprised of about 60 practitioners. The mailing now approaches 300.
The park experience has become for me a powerful symbol of the creative and undefined space necessary for a sane life and competent, compassionate practice. It is my hope that as you read through Reflections they evoke that possibility.
© 2005 James Donnelly, DSW.LCSW
All rights reserved
South Garden Press, New York
For thoughts and comments, please send to: jdonnellydsw@gmail.com