Rehabilitation Professionals: Forging New Alliances

F rom the ear li est days of the pro fes sion, re ha bil i ta tion coun sel ing has drawn on the o ries, strat e gies and tech niques of many dis ci plines. Re ha bil i ta tion pro fes sion als have been re quired to weave to gether the best as pects of many fields in their ef forts to as sist peo ple with dis abil i ties. As ed u ca tors, re search ers, and prac ti tio ners, we fre quently work with col leagues who have di verse train ing and who come from a wide ar ray of pro fes sional back grounds and par a digms. The suc cesses we achieve in our work with per sons with dis abil i ties of ten are based on our abil ity to skill fully and re spect fully work with a va ri ety of pro fes sion als. For this con fer ence, we de cided to ex plore and cel e brate the sym bi otic re la tion ships we have with pro fes sion als from out side the main stream of re ha bil i ta tion prac tice, as well as to high light the in no va tion of re ha bil i ta tion ed u ca tors and prac ti tio ners to draw on other fields of prac tice and ap ply those con cepts in their work. Con se quently, Re ha bil i ta tion Pro fes sion als: Forg ing New Al li ances was the theme of the sev enth an nual in ter na tional train ing con fer ence for the Na tional Coun cil on Re ha bil i ta tion Ed u ca tion, held Feb ru ary 22 – 25, 2007 in San Diego, Cal i for nia. The re sponse to the call for pro pos als was ex cit ing, pro vid ing a glimpse into the in no va tion and com plex ity of con tem po rary re ha bil i ta tion ed u ca tion and prac tice. The mat u ra tion of our pro fes sion wel comes, even de mands, fur ther con sid er ation of best prac tices and op por tu ni ties that re sult from ef fec tive cross-dis ci plin ary team work, from ex plor ing new ways to work with each other, and from cul ti vat ing col lab o ra tions with na tional and in ter na tional part ners. We of fer the fol low ing ab stracts from the con fer ence, as well as the con tact in for ma tion for the lead pre sent ers, and en cour age you to con tinue the di a logue and de vel op ment of these ar eas of re search and prac tice. We hope that you will con sider us ing this work as a plat form from which to shape your own work in the com ing months and years.