Naked narrative: Real research?

A multi‐layered narrative is presented as a way of inviting discussion about narrative as research in the talking therapies and social sciences. The core issue under consideration is the challenge of researching lived experience and how this is distorted or eliminated by many traditional approaches to research. The paper contains an account of a first experience of presenting a narrative about ethical decision‐making to a national research conference by someone more accustomed to writing and researching in traditional propositional discourses. The aim of this narrative is to focus attention on the lived experience of generating new understanding and practice and to raise questions for discussion about the role of narrative in research, especially research directed towards developing insight into lived experience.     

Process, Content, and Feminist Reflexivity: One Researcher's Exploration

This article explores the unraveling of the relationship between research methodology, process, and content as revealed through my own feminist research project. I examine the evolution of my research process with one participant from a larger study, as I sought to better understand a story she told about racism. First, I address the theoretical underpinnings of feminist reflexivity and research, which challenge traditional paradigms. Next, I present the participant's (a white family day care provider's) story about racism in her practice which was revealed during an interview process. Subsequently, I present a second dialogue around the story in which we (researcher and participant) later engaged. In the process, I analyze my struggles, as a researcher trained in positivist methods, to engage in reflexive research methods. Finally, I evaluate the gains made for me as a researcher in the process and content of research conducted with a feminist reflexive frame and suggest their utility in deconstructing White racism.     

读后续写在医学生叙事能力培养中的应用

叙事性阅读和写作能力是叙事能力的重要组成部分,在叙事能力培养过程中应得到充分的重视。读后续写作为一种把语言的输入和输出紧密结合的语言教学方法,对于培养学生的阅读和写作能力有重要作用。所以,在叙事能力培养的过程中,尤其是初级阶段,读后续写可用于训练和培养学生的叙事性读写能力。通过教学实践发现,读后续写把叙事性阅读和写作联系起来,能提高学生的叙事性阅读和写作能力,并帮助学生进行换位思考,提高其共情能力,最终提升学生的整体叙事能力。     

Reflections on a psychiatric placement

Abstract

During a seminar last year, I was teaching a group of counselling students on the subject of depression. One of the students asked me what I thought of referring a depressed client to a psychiatrist. I replied that in my opinion it was better to keep a person out of the psychiatric services as much as possible. This was an opinion I began to reconsider over the course of a six-month psychiatric placement, undertaken as part of an analytic psychotherapy training.     

Identity and counsellor preference†

This study investigated the relationship of identity development, measured by the Self-Identity Inventory (SII), universal-diverse orientation (UDO), measured by the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale- Short (M-GUDS-S), to counsellor preference in a sample of 365 university students. After controlling for personal identity demographic variables, multiple regression analysis indicated SII and UDO accounted for significant additional variance in counsellor preference with Immersion (SII Scale 3), Relativistic Appreciation (MGUDS-S Subscale 2) and Comfort with Differences (MGUDS-S Subscale 3), identified as significant unique predictors. A canonical correlation analysis performed with 11 individual counsellor preference variables as criterion variables and 9 identity salience variables as predictor variables to explore the relationships between identity salience and counsellor preference yielded three significant canonical functions.     

“We are better and happier if we are inclusive.” Therapist perspectives on the importance of LGB cultural competence in a mental health setting

Lesbian, gay and bisexual people are more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to report dissatisfaction after accessing a counselling or psychological service. Greater dissatisfaction may result from therapists who focus on psychopathology without considering cultural context. Research has demonstrated therapists' cultural competence (attitudes, knowledge and skills) may influence effective service provision to LGB people. Counsellors and psychologists (N = 10) were interviewed to determine the sources of information influencing the cultural competence and LGB cultural competence practices used by therapists in their clinical practice. Three themes were developed from semistructured interviews: (1) the importance of multiple sources of cultural competence; (2) applying cultural competence improves the therapeutic process; and (3) ensuring visual cues of affirmation are affirming, not pathologising. Theme 1 highlighted that initial professional training, cultural competence training and lived experience could be triangulated to assist therapists in improving their cultural competence. Theme 2 highlighted that cultural competence improves the therapeutic process by ensuring therapists can demonstrate affirming attitudes, knowledge about LGB people and culturally affirming skills to work effectively with LGB clients. The final theme explored the need for therapists to create an inclusive space for LGB clients. Recommendations for improving clinical practices and tools to enhance cultural competence are discussed.