This 'dance' of study gives us, both the researcher as and reader, the opportunity to take part in
the 'dancing movement' of pastoral therapy with grieving parents after traumatic child death.
The 'pastoral therapeutic dance' becomes the existential participation in parentsâ life struggle
to co-search for an escape of traumatic child death in the light of Godâs story. The
conversations that took place in the therapeutic processes served as mediation between God
and grieving parents. Through these conversations God entered grieving parentsâ existential
needs and met them with new hope. In three 'pastoral therapeutic dances' I saw myself as an
instrument of Godâs love which includes the all-inclusive actions of various kinds; thus, all
the actions and reactions in word and deed between therapist, grieving parents and God within
the therapeutic conversation. This love made me a conversational partner with a wider
circumspect attitude; a more humble approach; a deeper sensitivity to mystery, miracle and
meaning, and a higher respect for grieving parents within a person-centred framework. The
therapeutic approach that highlights the importance of language and meaning, and
simultaneously moves away from a mechanistic, reductionist and deterministic method with a
tendency to reify the social status quo and power hierarchies, is Narrative Therapy.
Narrative Therapy is based on the postmodern epistemological framework of qualitative
research. This view represents movement away from definitive conclusions and labels based
on taken-for-granted assumptions. As a postmodern researcher, I see my main task as
discovering, by means of a process of interpretation, the patterns of meaning that emerged
from the observation and examination of grieving couplesâ words, actions and records. The
process of discovering is on the way, and is always as if not yet plainly understood, and relies
on the clues that were given. I present those patterns of meaning in this 'dance' of study as
close to the construction of the world as the participant grieving parents originally
experienced it. I remained the participant-observer and the participant-manager throughout the
therapeutic conversations without becoming the expert who took charge of the therapeutic
conversations by influencing them in a particular direction or towards a certain outcome, or
who analysed and diagnosed on the basis of what should and what should not. However, the
grieving couples remained the experts of their own stories and meanings: they were encouraged to accept responsibility for their own lives by acting on their own behalf
according to their own capabilities, capacities, resources and strengths.
By means of Narrative Therapy, grieving parents were enabled through externalisation and
deconstruction, to separate themselves from their problem-saturated dominant stories that had
been constitutive of their lives and relationships after traumatic child death. Problems only
survive and thrive when they are supported and backed by particular truths and beliefs from
the dominant cultural discourses within the family of origin or within the broader social
context such as gender specifications based on cultural stereotyped norms, or cultural
specifications and expectations on how bereaved parents should grieve appropriately.
However, these constraints within parentsâ marriage relationships were overcome.
Gradually, a new story was co-created and a new reality began to emerge. As an alternative
dominant story became rooted in parentsâ imaginations, it took over and had no end. This new
direction was built upon unique outcomes and was dependent on parents who assumed
responsibility for the problem, for new choices in their lives and for pursuing new
possibilities. The new alternative dominant story was also dependent on parentsâ ability to
become engaged in emotional patterns and interactions that are based on the Biblical view of
the 'dance' of marriage. In this 'dance' of study it was found that parentsâ new alternative
dominant story after traumatic child death developed by means of Narrative Therapy towards
a new emotional attachment between them as marriage partners. Thereby, as soon as gender
differences were balanced, and parents were liberated from other taken-for-granted truths of
the broader social culture and their families of origin, a meaningful and alternative marital
discourse emerged. The pastoral trauma therapist, as a conversational artist, had to facilitate a
therapeutic dialogue that had the ability to direct the 'dance' towards a happy ending.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-01252008-091220 |
| Date | 25 January 2008 |
| Creators | Botha, Schalk Willem Jacobus |
| Contributors | Dr BF Joubert |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-01252008-091220/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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