The vicissitudes of conducting psychodynamic research in a naturalistic setting.

Abstract

This article reports on our experiences conducting naturalistic research as clinician-researchers in a training setting within a public safety-net hospital. The naturalistic, practice-based context has presented various challenges to the research process, including the following: supporting research with limited finances, establishing continuity of research personnel, designating time for research within an intensive clinical training program, responding to difficulties obtaining data, seeking consultation for advanced data analysis, organizing the writing process, and determining order of authorship. In addition, in mixed-methods research of psychodynamic psychotherapy, each of these challenges has interacted with the inherent challenges of qualitative research. We describe the systemic and project-specific challenges of conducting such research, as well as practical strategies that we have used to overcome them, with the aim of helping other clinician-researchers facilitate naturalistic research. The challenges reflect the problem of being “stuck” in the gap that this special section of Psychotherapy is examining, although the strategies serve as optimistic reminders that this type of work is indeed possible.

Managing Peer Support Workers in Swedish Mental Health Services—A Leadership Perspective on Implementation and Sustainability

“…Working with a naturalistic approach brings with it a number of challenges as well. These include difficulties in creating continuity in the design, in the involvement of research personnel, and in responding to local needs at the same time as the broader study (Drill et al, 2019). In this case, these were complicated by a lack of centralized research funding, building instead on the willingness of local projects to fund and support follow-up studies and share data with the national project.…”

Managing Peer Support Workers in Swedish Mental Health Services – A Leadership Perspective on Implementation and Sustainability

“…Working with a naturalistic approach brings with it a number of challenges as well. These include di culties in creating continuity in the design, in the involvement of research personnel, and in responding to local needs at the same time as the broader study (44). In this case, these were complicated by a lack of centralized research funding, building instead on the willingness of local projects to fund and support follow-up studies and share data with the national project.…”