Research and Therapy

Abstract

My thanks to Sophie Tamas for inviting me to be part of the panel session in which this special issue originated. The invitation was exceedingly well-timed. Thanks to Sophie again and to Jonathan Wyatt, Judith Fewell, Karen Nairn and members of the Counselling and Psychotherapy Writing and Research Group for their invaluable feedback on earlier drafts, which I have not necessarily acted upon in revising this paper but which have given me resources with which to think beyond it.

The Experiences of Parents of Children Undergoing Surgery for Congenital Heart Defects: A Holistic Model of Care

“…Qualitative analysis was chosen as the appropriate method for the present research. Qualitative research uncovers meaning by meticulously collecting large amounts of data and then extracting a story which aims to capture the complexities of life (Smart, 2010; Bondi, 2013). Qualitative health research (QHR) can be considered a subdiscipline of this field as it requires researchers to be not only well versed in the field of qualitative methodology but to have additional knowledge and skills including the ability to modify their methods through an understanding of staff roles, hospital codes, and patients’ physical and emotional condition.…”

The relationship between psychotherapy practice and research: A mixed‐methods exploration of practitioners’ views

“…Verbatim is an established way of recounting a session in psychoanalytic practice, where the therapist's memory becomes a hermeneutic appropriation (Ricoer, 1970) to be explored in supervision (Bager-Charleson, 2017a,b;Clarke & Hodgett, 2009;Urwin & Sternberg, 2012). This involved taking note of "experience-near" (Bondi, 2013;Hollway, 2006Hollway, , 2011 Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006 Riessman (1993) suggests "when many narratives are grouped into a similar thematic category," we invariably "neglect ambiguities" and lose sight of "deviant responses that don't fit into a typology, the unspoken" (p.3). Our compromise to combine breadth with depth involves sacrificing some of the richness of ambiguity.…”

“You look like them”: Drawing on Counselling Theory and Practice to Reflexively Negotiate Cultural Difference in Research Relationships

“…Both therapeutic practice and qualitative interviews are ‘projects of making meaning’ (Bondi 2013, p. 9) that involve two people who meet and engage in some sort of dialogic interaction, with one interlocutor in a (mainly) listening role, seeking to understand more about the other person (Finlay 2011). Some scholars even draw attention to the potentially therapeutic nature of research interviews for participants who may find the invitation to tell their story in the presence of an interested other, beneficial (Birch and Miller 2000; Bondi 2013; Josselson 2013).…”

“…Both therapeutic practice and qualitative interviews are ‘projects of making meaning’ (Bondi 2013, p. 9) that involve two people who meet and engage in some sort of dialogic interaction, with one interlocutor in a (mainly) listening role, seeking to understand more about the other person (Finlay 2011). Some scholars even draw attention to the potentially therapeutic nature of research interviews for participants who may find the invitation to tell their story in the presence of an interested other, beneficial (Birch and Miller 2000; Bondi 2013; Josselson 2013). They also highlight the interrelated risks of these similarities, though, such as the possible blurring of boundaries between the two situations, resulting in participants who overshare and “get too personal” (Josselson 2013, p. 36) and therapists-interviewers who find it hard to stay focused on the research and refrain from making therapeutic interpretations or wanting to help in some way (Finlay 2011; Josselson 2013).…”