| dc.description.abstract | This research investigates the ways mental health therapists are positioned by social-cultural expectations that incite notions of "right" or "normal" ways to make sense of and respond to young people. The influence of social-cultural expectations, referred to as discourses, in these therapy relationships often compels psychotherapists to conform to established norms, limiting their perceived choices. When therapists resist these expectations they often experience themselves to be failing or less than. The researcher addresses this dilemma through the lens of autoethnography, a method that involves scrutinizing one's own experiences from within a particular culture. Ellis, Adams, & Bochner (2011) describe autoethnography as “an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze (graphy) personal experience (auto) in order to understand cultural experience (ethno).” This study described and systematically analyzed the researcher’s personal experiences as a psychotherapist navigating normative discourses while working with a young therapy client who refused traditional therapy. By doing so, this research responds to a gap in the existing literature of first-hand accounts exploring therapists' navigation of normative discourses, particularly in the context of working with young people. By examining his own experiences as a therapist, the researcher aims to contribute to and critique the prevailing research and practices in the field. A narrative therapy worldview was utilized in the collection and analysis of the data in the re-authoring autoethnography research.
Rigorous processes of data collection and analysis culminated in the creation of an evocative narrative revealing relevant parts of a 10-year relationship between a psychotherapist and a young person who refused traditional therapy. This story makes visible many of the complexities faced by the psychotherapist in navigating normative expectations of ‘how’ and ‘how not to’ respond throughout this particular relationship.
This study shows the value a re-authoring autoethnography can offer psychotherapists. Through writing about themselves, therapists gain further awareness of the socio-cultural context that positions therapeutic interactions while also becoming clearer about their preferred values, purposes, intentions, actions, and responses. One of the most profound implications of completing this re-authoring autoethnography was the expanding of researcher’s preferred ways of knowing himself. Even though the stories were particular to the researcher, one of the assumed effects of reading stories in research is that it will provoke readers to reflect on their own resonances, histories, and ideas. Additionally, the findings also offer practical implications for therapists to navigate the pressures of normative therapy expectations. | |
