This research investigates the lived experience of bilingual clients from a Counselling Psychology perspective using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Within the context of the experience of having therapy in a language other than one’s first, six people were interviewed. The interviews were semi-structured and conducted in English. The experiential data were analysed guided by Max van Manen’s (1990) hermeneutic phenomenology – a post-modern paradigm. The analysis brought up six distinct hermeneutic descriptions (textual portraits) for each of the participants respectively. The main thematic structures amongst participants’ responses were then organised into six main thematic categories, and their similarities and variations were presented and discussed in the light of the pre-existing literature. These themes are: “touching and losing strings of meaning-words inside”, “not finding cultural matches between words in different languages”, “working-together for ‘we’ meanings”, “the liberating effect of a different language”, “sense of restricted self in different languages”, and finally “bridging the gap between self and other: security and understanding across a language gap”. The textual portraits and the discussion of the above mentioned thematic structures amongst them, bring forward an account of the participants’ experiences of living in another language, the difficulties and challenges encountered, the impact on their sense of self and identities, and most particularly their general experiences in the therapy space. Implications for clinical practice are explored and directions for further research are offered.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:646082 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Gazis, Konstantinos |
| Contributors | Luca, Maria; Pearmain, Rosalind |
| Publisher | Regent's University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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