President’s Introduction

Abstract

President’s Introduction Hilary Levine, PhD, CGP, President of EGPS Dear Reader, I am excited that after a period of transition and renewal, a new and improved GROUP journal has been born. It takes a well-coordinated team of people to publish a quarterly journal, and we are fortunate to have had such a dedicated group of people working on GROUP. Recently, several of those people have retired from their roles. I’d like to thank Jonah Schwartz, Erica Gardner-Schuster, and Brunhild Kring for their many years of service to the journal. Contemporaneously, the Board of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society (EGPS) has been examining and amending the ways that we have historically centered the experiences of White professionals in private practice. Our newly revised organizational mission reflects our steadfast commitment to being a more just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive organization. The practice of using groups for healing exists on a much broader scale than what has typically been the focus of EGPS’s programming and training. This bias has influenced not only who we attracted as members but also who was interested in writing for and reading our journal. Over the past several months, we have been reimagining and updating how our journal functions to restore our publication to a quarterly journal that serves a broader community of group practitioners. I am grateful to Christine Schmidt for leading this reimagining process. One result was the creation of a mission statement for the journal that is in alignment with our organizational mission. We have strengthened our vision to reflect the unique offerings our journal can bring to group work in an increasingly diverse field. GROUP is a quarterly journal that publishes articles and reviews on the use of groups in the service of healing. The journal encourages creative thought and dissemination of knowledge about group processes and welcomes multiple theoretical orientations, contexts, purposes, and ideologies. Aspiring to be intentionally antioppressive to all people, GROUP seeks to advance scholarship that exemplifies respect for the historical [End Page 7] and current contexts, needs, values, and strengths of cultures, races, and genders typically under- and misrepresented in postcolonial literature. The journal invites articles that integrate perspectives from social work, psychology, politics, sociology, history, the arts, economics, health care, education, and organizational dynamics. Although the journal focuses primarily on the application and experience of group process and practice, GROUP also publishes relevant research articles. Continuously published since 1976, GROUP is the journal of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society, a regional affiliate of the American Group Psychotherapy Association. In addition, a search committee, led by Christine Schmidt and Vinny Dehili, was formed to create a new editorial team. I am delighted to announce that after an expansive search for qualified editors, we welcome Dr. Jessica Jean Baptiste and Dr. Marty Cooper to the helm as coeditors of GROUP. They will be joined by a robust and active editorial team to recruit writers and review articles. As our new team gets up and running, rather than putting out four issues this year, we will instead be producing two double issues, 47.1–2 and 47.3–4. Beginning in 2024, we plan to issue four separate quarterly issues. Another change to GROUP is that we have decided to cease production of print editions and to go entirely digital. Please note that this will be the final print edition of GROUP. As always, we welcome potential authors and encourage consultation with the editors about ideas that could be developed into an article. Submitted material receives blind review by scholars and practitioners in the field who serve on the editorial board, although final decisions rest with the editors. For more information, see page 6 or contact info@egps.org. Thank you for your patience during this transition. I hope you thoroughly enjoy this double issue of GROUP. [End Page 8] Copyright © 2023 Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society