The Cape Flats is characterised by widespread poverty, unemployment and frequent incidents of domestic and gang related violence. The presence of gangs in and around many of the schools in this area poses a serious problem for the community and the Western Cape Education Department. Schools are disrupted, while principals, teachers and learners are in constant fear and danger of gangsters' bullets. Families in these communities are exposed to chronic traumatisation from both gang and domestic violence. This qualitative study was concerned with exploring a narrative pastoral therapy approach to trauma counselling in schools. It focused specifically on crisis counselling as well as counselling with regard to loss and abuse. Informed by contextual and feminist theology, an action research model was used in this study. I documented my own developing practice by telling the stories of adults and children struggling against the trauma threatening to overwhelm their lives. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology -Pastoral Therapy)

This dissertation is concerned with pastoral care with men in the Anglican Church. It is grounded in the rapidly changing post-apartheid years in the East Rand region of South Africa. It seeks to explore through participatory action research the negative effects of patriarchy as a discourse of power and entitlement on the lives of men of differing cultures in South Africa as victims and perpetrators of abuse. It also seeks to explore ways of pastorally caring with men through the creation of participative care groups that enable personal stories of men to be told, invitations to responsibility for abuse made, and the negative effects of patriarchal cultural and theological discourse deconstructed, and alternate understandings of masculinity constructed and performed. The work is done from a contextual theology, pro-feminist perspective, and collaborating with postmodern philosophers Derrida and Foucault, the social anthropologist Bruner and the narrative therapists White, Epston and Jenkins. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology, Specialisation in Pastoral Therapy

This qualitative action research was activated at the junction between three sites of operation of modern power: the site of the woman in the family, religious and cultural power discourses and the professional discourses of therapy. Using an action research design for this study focused the research on reaping benefits in real terms for the research participants. The researcher applied a postStructuralist, feminist and narrative approach to the phenomenon of failed personhood as manifested in the lives of two White Afrikaans women. Narrative therapy methodologiElS, steeped in a religious studies ethic were valuable guides on the therapy-as-research journeys, ensuring the exposure and deconstruction of dominant cultural and religious power discourses. In the course of the therapeutic and research journeys, various narrative therapy methodologies were used with positive effect on the life world of the participants. These methodologies included the externalisation of problems and the discovery of unique outcomes that constitute alternative, preferred life stories that contradict problem-saturated life stories of failed personhood. The research participants engaged in individual and communal conversations, relanguaging their self-narratives and religious narratives as part of the coconstruction of their preferred identities of moral agency and hope. Support networks were created for the research participants, Mara and Grace, to strengthen their new self- and religious narratives and to dislodge the power of the normative cultural and religious discourses of rugged individualism. In one instance, the researcher incorporated the healing power of South African bush veld, by inviting a group of women on a series of expeditions into the wilderness as part of Mara's journey. fn Grace's narrative, we utilised the modern technologies of the internet to connect her with a virtual response team and the Anti-Anorexia/Anti-Bulimia League. Storytelling and reflecting conversations formed the basis of the therapy-asresearch processes. The research participants extended therapy conversations beyond the therapy room, by actively participating in their therapy-as-research journeys. In line with narrative approaches, the researcher encouraged them to honour their skills and knowledges on their journeys: Mara extended her therapy by making resistance quilts while Grace assimilated her art, poetry and resistance writing into her healing process. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

This research project arose from my journeys with Protestant Christian women who were living in sexually unhappy marriages. In South African Protestant faith communities there is the expectation that Christian marriages will experience sexual fulfilment. For many Christian women however, sexual unhappiness becomes their reality. Sexuality is cocooned in silence not only within the church, but also in many Christian marriages. This leaves many Christian women (and men) with little or no recourse to address sexually unhappy marriages. My research journey briefly explored the social construction of sexuality within the history of Christianity to see which discourses underpin current constructions of White Christian female sexuality. This participatory feminist action research journey centralised the voices of present-day contexts: Protestant Christian women, as well as clergy, were invited to share their understandings and interpretations of matrimony and sexual practices in relation to their faith. With the help of narrative therapeutic practices, some of the dominant social and religious discourses that constitute White Christian female sexuality were explored, deconstructed and challenged. This research journey aimed to penetrate this silence and to invite Christian women, who are living in sexually unhappy marriages, to share their experiences. This exploration included the faith predicaments and relational complexities, challenges and dilemmas Protestant Christian women experience when living in sexually unhappy marriages. This feminist-grounded action research explored the effects and consequences which living in sexually unhappy marriages held for the cosearchers. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Th. (Specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

Thesis in Afrikaans with summaries in Afrikaans and English. / Sosiale diskoerse kan moontlik 'n bepalende invloed op 'n individu se manier van lewe he. Hierdie studie bring enersyds, deur van die narratiewe gespreksbenadering gebruik te maak, 'n aantal diskoerse na vore wat op vyf wit Afrikaanssprekende mans in die Ned Geref Gemeente Vereeniging-Oos se manier van lewe 'n invloed gehad het of nog het. Die diskoerse wat deur die studie navore gebring word is: (a) 'n man is as broodwinner die primere versorger in die gesin; (b) 'n man is doelgerig en op sukses gefokus; (c) 'n man is dominant en aggressief; (d) 'n man fokus nie op emosies en verhoudings nie en (e) 'n man verander nie maklik nie. Andersyds toon die studie ook dat mans ten spyte van die sosiale diskoerse wat moontlik 'n invloed op hul lewens kon he, self alternatiewe wyses van manwees kon ontwikkel en dus nie noodwendig dlenooreenkomstig die sosiale diskoerse hoef te leef nie. / Social discourses may have a decisive influence on an individual's way of life. By means of a narrative conversational approach, this study introduces a number of discourses that had or still have an influence on five white Afrikaans-speaking men in the Dutch Reformed Congregation Vereeniging-East. The discourses are: (a) a man is as breadwinner the primary provider for the family; (b) a man is goal~oriented and focused on success; (c) a man is dominant and aggressive; (d) a man does not value emotions and relationships and (e) a man does not change easily. On the other hand the study indicates that men are able to develop alternative ways of being men in spite of social discourses influencing them. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

Text in Afrikaans with summaries in Afrikaans and English / Despite the fact that many people in South Africa are affected by divorce, not much research is done on divorce recovery. This study on divorce recovery is shaped by a feminist theological perspective and a postmodem social constructionist discourse. As qualitative research, narrative group work was embarked on over a period of a year with five women who went through divorce. Through therapeutic letters different themes emerged. These themes formed the focus for each chapter and are enriched by relevant literature reflections. In the first chapter the stark reality of divorce in South Africa, the discursive positioning, epistemology and research methodology are discussed, and the stories of the participants are told. Divorce is deconstructed by the participants as resistance to patriarchy and not only an interpersonal crisis. The majority of claimants in divorce cases in South Africa are women. The dominant oppressive biblical discourse that divorce is always sin is reconstructed. An alternative religious discourse is co-constructed amongst the participants: that divorce under certain circumstances is God's will for women who are caught in humiliating and oppressive marriages. The various spheres of life that women reconstruct after divorce are discussed. These include: • practical matters such as the legal proceedings, housing and finances • emotional reconstruction where emotions such as fear. senses of guilt, and rage from a feminist perspective view are discussed. • reconstruction of social relations which includes aspects such as the relation with the former husband, family, new male friends and children • spiritual reconstruction which includes a feminist perspective on the Bible, sin, the will of God, and also a divorce ritual • the reconstruction of identity. Finally the five participants' reconsructed stories are told. / Ten spyte daarvan dat baie mense in Suid-Afrika deur egskeiding geraak word, word daar nie veel navorsing oor egskeidingsherstel gedoen nie. Hierdie studie oor egkeidingsherstel word gedoen vanuit 'n feministies teologiese perspektief en 'n sosiale konstruksieteorie diskoers. Oor 'n tydperk van 'n jaar is deur middel van kwalitatiewe navorsing saam met vyf vroue wat deur egskeiding geraak is, groepswerk gedoen. Uit die terapeutiese briewe wat geskryf is het verskillende temas uitgekristalliseer. Hierdie temas het die grondslag gevorm vir elke hoofstuk wat deur 'n relevante literatuurstudie aangevul is. In die eerste hoofstukke word die harde werklikhede van egskeiding, die diskoersposionering, epistemologie en navorsingsmetodiek bespreek. Die verhale van die deelnemers word vertel. Egskeiding word deur die deelnemers dekonstrueer as weerstand teen patriargie en nie net 'n interpersoonlike krisis nie. Die meerderheid eisers in egskeidingsgedinge in Suid-Afrika is vroue. Die onderdrukkend dominante Bybelse diskoers dat egskeiding altyd sonde is word rekonstrueer. 'n Alternatiewe godsdienstige diskoers, dat egskeiding vir vroue wat in vernederende en onderdrukkend huwelik vasgevang is, onder sekere omstandighede die wil van God kan wees, word saam met die deelnemers rekonstrueer. Die verskillende lewensterreine wat vroue na egskeiding rekonstrueer, word bespreek. Dit sluit in: • praktiese aangeleenthede soos die regsproses, behuising en finansies • emosionele rekonstruksie wat emosies soos angs, skuldgevoelens en woede word vanuit 'n feministiese perspektiefbespreek • spirituele rekonstruksie wat 'n feministiese perspektief op die Bybel, sonde, die wil van God en 'n egskeidingsritueel insluit • die rekonstruksie van identiteit Ten slotte word die vyf deelnemers se nuwe verhale vertel. / Practical Theology / D.Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

A group of eight mothers of differently abled children undertook a research journey, reflecting on the sorrow and pain, as well as the hope and humour of our lives. Narrative pastoral practices guided our conversations, and prophetic and political challenges our actions to bring about change in our lived reality. Reflective and summarising letters after each group meeting played a central part In the research. The letters were structured to make visible the "taken-for-granted truths", which informed us about who and what we are. The alternative stories of preferred mothering practices that emerged during and between sessions were centralised in the letters. The group compiled letters of appeal to the faith community, doctors, nursing staff, therapists and teachers in order to make them more sensitive towards differently abled people and their families. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

The purpose of this research journey was twofold: (1) to investigate the ways in which the lives of women married to clergymen have been influenced by their position in the Dutch Reformed Church and (2) to collaboratively present ways of caring and supporting these women living within this reality. Discourse analysis explored the taken-for-granted truths and power relationships that inform these women's daily lives. Fifteen women embarked on this feminist narrative participatory action research journey, not only to tell their stories but also to negotiate for change in current practices as well as their own contexts. This research journey challenges the institutional structure of the Church through narratives of hope, survival and pain, as storied in a book (Lamentations and Butterflies, 2003), that were collaboratively constructed by the women living these realities. This book and research journey offers a deeper understanding of the experience of being a clergyman's wife in the Dutch Reformed Church. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

From a feminist theology of praxis the appreciative inquiry used in this research reflected on the constituting role the living of values by facilitators play in transforming the lives of children who suffer the effects of poverty, neglect and abuse. The concretisation or the living of values within the school community linked with the theme of solidarity with the marginalised. The facilitators' solidarity with children as "concrete others" became ways of doing participatory ethics. As part of a postmodern paradigm, a social constructionist discourse made it possible for therapist-researcher and participants to view the facilitators' work and the research itself as part of a relational process. Appreciative inquiry invited a reflective stance towards action, relating and personal knowledge. The research also reflected on poststructuralist theory and practice, and the power of imagination and language to re-describe of the work of facilitators. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology, with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

HIV/Aids is a worldwide pandemic and as South Africans we are at the epicentre of this global health crisis. The harrowing statistics are useful as a means to quantify a horrific situation; however, what these facts do not do is provide connection amidst the uncertainty surrounding the disease. This research aims to bridge the disconnection and break the silence that weaves a net around the illness and those infected by it. This is done by deconstructing one man’s story of his journey with HIV; by looking at his personal epistemology; and by contextualising his story within his family and within the society in which he lives, South Africa. Finally, it is my reflections and interpretations that form the bridge between a construct of HIV/Aids and a life lived with the disease. / Psychology / M. A. (Clinical Psychology)