Call for Authors: JSGW Special Edition 2026

Calling all Groupies!

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CALL FOR AUTHORS: The Journal for Specialists in Group Work

Special Issue – Dream Keepers: Advancing Healing and Belonging in Groups

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Background/Rationale for the Special Issue‍

The Journal for Specialists in Group Work (JSGW) invites articles for a Special Issue entitled Dream Keepers: Advancing Healing and Belonging in Groups. JSGW has never had a special issue focused solely on the integration of healing and belonging, which offers the following. First, in the current sociopolitical climate, preventing backlash seems to require avoiding topics such as diversity, equity, inclusion, race, racism, and intersectionality. Second, combating the ongoing societal, structural, institutional, overt, covert and internalized racism, often warrants a focus on documenting problems and highlighting deficits and despair with less attention to solutions. Given the rapidly changing legislative environment we understand the delicacy in engaging in research and/or practice that could be scrutinized or challenged as perpetuating discrimination. We also understand the reality that federal legislation affects both schools and communities. To illustrate, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) emphasizes social-emotional learning (SEL) yet, some national organizations (e.g., Defending Education) oppose SEL within schools suggesting that it takes away the rights of parents and imposes harmful agendas (Abrams, 2023). Another example of legislation involving schools and communities is the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) for the past several years initially providing substantial amounts of monetary resources to increase school based mental health providers for substance use and mental health programs in school settings (Ingoglia, 2023). And, while this funding was passed as a firearm policy for gun control by Congress in the wake of the 2022 Texas elementary school shooting (Swadley, 2023), the new federal administration has eliminated this funding from the U.S. Department of Education (Turner, 2025). The main purpose of the Special Issue is to cultivate what group leaders are doing to foster healing and belonging in schools or communities affected by emerging federal or state legislation. 

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Scope of the Special Issue ‍

The Special Issue editors call for scholarship on group work in the U.S. that foster healing and belonging thereby attending to our collective health and well-being. In the current Special Issue, we aim to answer the following:

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How are group leaders addressing racism, inequities and discrimination across school and community clinical environments? What actions are group leaders taking to foster healing and belonging within schools and/or communities? How are group leaders responding to federal or state legislation (examples listed above are not exhaustive) that might impact group intervention efforts? How are pre-service group leaders being trained to foster healing and belonging in groups and their contexts of practice? Finally, what recommendations do group workers have for counselor education, research, practice and policy to sustain groups focused on healing and belonging?

Purposefully, the scope of the current Special Issue is narrowly focused on healing and belonging. Group counseling programs/interventions offering healing and belonging can be reimagined in the research and practice. 

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Types/categories of manuscript requested for the Special Issue‍

Empirically based manuscripts and rigorously designed practice articles are most appropriate.  This current Special Issue will prioritize empirically based manuscripts and well-designed practice articles to ensure practical utility for group practitioners implementing interventions across school and community contexts while drawing out examples of hope, joy, gratitude and so forth in group spaces. Submissions focused on group work within school settings, the broader community, agency and practice contexts, or school/agency collaborations to foster healing and belonging are appropriate. Manuscripts could focus on group designs or formats, interventions, facilitation, and training addressing issues and outcomes such as but not limited to:

• Joy
• Hope
• Empowerment
• Love
• Happiness
• Peace
• Gratitude
• Acceptance
• Wellness
• Freedom
• Justice
• Community Wealth 

Timeline/Logistics for the Special Issue ‍

If you are interested in authoring a manuscript for the special issue, please submit research, practice or integrated full-length articles that include title, author(s), abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion and implications into the Manuscript Central Submission Portal for JSGW (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/usgw). Be sure to note that the submission is for this Special Issue. Following submission and endorsement from Special Issue editors, manuscripts will undergo a blind peer review process. The first drafts of manuscripts are due to the Special Issue Editors between December 30^th, 2025 and April 30^th, 2026. For articles selected for this Special Issue, there will likely be several rounds of revisions that is typical during the publication process. The first round of revisions for authors will begin in June 2026. The second round of revisions will begin approximately in August 2026. Additional revisions and final dispositions will occur approximately in October 2026. Please note that publication in the journal is subject to editorial discretion, and the editorial team will review and provide feedback on manuscripts approved for publication prior to the final notification being sent to authors.  For additional information or questions, please contact the Special Issue Guest Editors: Dr. Sam Steen, George Mason University (ssteen@gmu.edu), Dr. Kara Ieva, Rowan University (ieva@rowan.edu), Dr. Jordon Beasley, Augusta University (jobeasley@augusta.edu) and Dr. Malik Henfield, Loyola University Chicago (mhenfield@luc.edu).

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References 

Abrams, Z. (2023) Monitor on psychology. Available at: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/09/social-emotional-learning-under-fire (Accessed: 21 October 2025). 

Ingoglia, Chuck. "Why was 2022 so successful? Bipartisanship." Mental Health Weekly, vol. 33, no. 4, 23 Jan. 2023, p. 5. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A779830832/HRCA?u=anon~12a3af5f&sid=googleScholar&xi =ad5503cb. Accessed 21 Oct. 2025.

Swadley, H. (2023). The structural harms of providing mental health services through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Neb. L. Rev., 102, 52.

Turner, C. (2025) Education Department stops $1 billion in funding for School Mental Health, NPR. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/01/nx-s1-5382582/trump-school-mental-health (Accessed: 21 October 2025). 

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