The theoretical and methodological assumptions of this
research imply a move away from a positivist empiricist
approach with its reliance on the real, the measurable and the
predictable towards an interactive and collaborative
methodology situated in a constructivist and social
epistemology.
This thesis comprises a recursive intervention in the
researching therapist's life. The author sets out on a voyage
of self-research to investigate her "choreography of coexistence"
(Maturana & Varela, 1987, p.248), due to curiosity about personal and professional impact. The purpose is to
create a map of relational modes that in itself creates shifts:
in the therapist.
This invention-orientated research creates the context of
the researcher and moves through processes: the writing of
autobiography, detailed contextual description, the
interpreting of feedback, and deconstruction. The contents
that pour forth are many different narratives tracking the
evolvement of the self in the original family, through further
definition in new relationships and the expansion of roles in
many professional systems both with clients and colleagues.
" Extracts from conversations provide new perspectives and
feedback about impact. Thus a continual 'provoking of voices'
becomes a thesis theme that highlights the researcher's
structure, organisation and interpersonal processes.
An emancipatory and developmental process is documented
through the researching therapist's positioning as actor,
observer and then critic in relationship to the data.
Patterns and themes emerge that facilitate both self-
differentiation and connectedness and many new head-heart
connections. This new knowledge could enable the
professional's skilful and intuitive use of self.
The self comes into being as it reflects itself, ·so a
recursive process evolves where looking at the self operates
on the products of its own operations. This is an active
process, where the researching therapist constructs an
experiential reality. Given the accountability that accrues
from constructing such a reality, a focus on pragmatic,
aesthetic and ethical criteria is incorporated.
This research, like the practice of therapy, is a
departure from attempts to demonstrate what is already known
to modes of research that are recursive and improvisational. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/16240 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Valkin, Constance Beryl |
| Contributors | Snyders, Frederik Jacobus Albertus, 1946- |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xii, 306 leaves) |
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