The ethics of researching one's own practice

Abstract

Practice-based research is increasingly utilized as a postmodern, qualitative research method. It can help systemic practitioners understand, develop and communicate about their everyday practice to others. In this article I review some of the literature on practitioner research and focus on the challenges of researching one's own practice. Using illustrative examples from transcripts and field notes gathered during my research on how I begin conversations with families who seek a diagnostic assessment for an autism spectrum condition for their child, I explore the ethics involved in the twofold task of providing a clinical service and conducting systematic research. I argue that a dynamic relational ethics of care can be employed to navigate the challenges of adopting a dual research and clinical focus

Therapy in unsettling times

“…The process of researching my practice is a messy endeavour and comprises ethical complexities (Helps 2017). As a practitioner researcher, my role is complex and in my inquiry, I make every effort to include my participants' voices in an ethical and reflexive manner (Lester & Anders 2018).…”

“…I am aware that by researching my own practice, I also affect the way I practise and I am affected by what I notice, feel and think. However, being an insider researcher is not something to be avoided; on the contrary, it is important to be clear on the roles I take, as a therapist as well as a researcher, and be transparent about these roles (Helps 2017).…”

Insider/Outsider: A Muslim Woman's Adventure Practicing ‘Alongside’ Narrative Therapy

“…These diary entries became the backbone of this paper and have enabled me to retrospectively understand and articulate my efforts to maintain authenticity while juggling different ideologies and maintaining therapeutic congruence. Helps () writes about the ethics of researching our own practice and proposes that: ‘Insider research exploring one's own practice fits neatly within a postmodern, social constructionist epistemology and with contemporary reflexive systemic practice’ (p. 348).…”

Young people, living in care and adopted, talk about their experiences of receiving an NHS therapeutic intervention. Qualitative research analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

“…It describes a study based on a post-therapy service evaluation, using semi-structured interviews and IPA to explore whether the intervention met their needs and how it could be improved, having been inspired by Lobatto's (2002) research about children's experiences of family therapy. Helps (2017), Dallos and Vetere (2005) and Simon and Chard (2014) have stressed how valuable it is to reflect on clinical practice and evaluate how the service was received in order to improve and develop as an ethical practitioner:…”

“…| 427 YOUNG PEOPLE'S EXPERIENCES OF THERAPY '... the benefits of researching our own therapy and our own organizations, can be profound...' (Dallos & Vetere, 2005, p. 174).Systemic research invites the researcher to be reflexive, considering the ethics of her work and way of being in relation to both research and practice (Simon and Chard, 2014). Whilst relational ethics in research is about exploring daily practice, in order to both understand and improve this, which for me includes having an ability to hear and respond to the voice of the child (Helps, 2017;Simon and Chard, 2014), this paper reflects on a post-therapy service evaluation.…”