The Narratives Which Connect…

Summary

In this chapter the actual analytic process are accounted for. That includes how memos are used all through the entire research project. The coding procedures are shown with an example and the analysing flow chart illustrates the initial analytic process. This process is brought forward by the patterns that connect the transcripts with the videos and both of them with the literature review. This shows the way to saturation and the development of categories and the thesis.

Section B. Research Findings, Researcher Reflexivity, Discussion of the Thesis and Suggestions for Further Research

Orientation to chapters 5-9

The findings in this research project are divided into two main forms of presentation. One is the Grounded Theory categories with their subcategories. I will present the seven Grounded Theory categories with their sub-categories and sub sub-categories. The other form of presentation is the Paradigm Cases. The Paradigm Cases are used to illuminate topics from the research in terms of a “thicker” narrative derived from the GT analysis of the interviews with the participating family therapists, in order to offer a wider perspective on some of the GT categories presented. Both the Grounded Theory categories and the Paradigm Cases emerged through analysis of the interview transcripts and from thematic analysis of the videotapes of a first family therapy session.

In Chapter 5, the research findings are divided into parts A, B and C: Part A is a description of the participants’ backgrounds and their contemporary lives. Throughout the thesis the participants will be presented by first (fictitious)name and with the number they were allocated in the research project. For example Elisabeth, who was the first participant, will be presented as “Elisabeth (1),” Erik as “Erik (2)” and so on. This will be done to help the reader keep an overview when reading.

In Part B. the seven Grounded Theory categories that emerged from the analysis will be presented along with their sub- and sub sub-categories. The categories are further organized into four main areas:

1. The first area concerns becoming a family therapist.

2. The second area is about personal and private values and attitudes.

3. The third area deals with therapists’ dilemmas.

4. The fourth area concerns the influence of working as a family therapist on the therapist’s personal and private life.

In Part C four main paradigm case topics are presented. Several sub-topics are presented as paradigm cases. In connection with topics under Parallel Cases, four major sub- topics will emerge.

Chapter 6 deals with reflexivity and self-reflexivity. Professional and personal background to entering the research project and possible limitations of the methodology will be presented. Ethical issues and the questions of validity and trustworthiness are also included here.

In Chapter 7, the discussion of the lack of research that includes the meaning of the therapist’s personal and private life in psychotherapy research will be discussed. In addition, some of the main findings will be discussed linked to the psychotherapy research literature and to some extent the supervision literature connected to systemic family therapy.

In Chapter 8, a middle range theory will be presented based on the relations between the GT categories and paradigm cases. This theory will be discussed as a theory for understanding the influence of personal and private experiences on systemic family therapy practice.

Finally, in Chapter 9, I will give some thoughts and ideas about further research.

5. Narratives that Connect Family Therapists’ Private and Personal Lives to their Clinical Practices, and Vice Versa

The Therapist’s Background and the Grounded Theory Findings

The findings are divided into Parts A, B and C. In Part A, the participants’ professional backgrounds and their experiences are presented. In Part B, the influence of private and personal experience on clinical practice and vice versa are presented. These findings are derived from the GT analysis and from GT categories with their sub-categories. All categories and sub-categories are documented with examples from the transcribed interviews. In Part C. the paradigm cases are presented.

Part A: The Therapist’s Background and Experience

Introduction

The participants in this research project will be presented in such a way as to contextualise the research findings. The material presented here is drawn from the interviews and from later supplementary e-mails from the participants. All participants are Norwegian family therapists with different backgrounds in terms of gender, family of origin, education, experience, theoretical orientation and where they come from in Norway.

The participants’ backgrounds and experience will be viewed in a professional context and their relevance for practice as family therapists discussed further on. First some elements from their family- and cultural backgrounds influencing their decision to train and work as family therapists will be illuminated to help the reader understand their background and who they are.

The family of origin forms one important context for understanding the family therapist’s background. Alongside this aspect comes the therapists’ political and cultural backgrounds, their social and economic settings and the religious commitments and values that have formed the therapists.

Family Background, Private and Professional Lives

The seven participants are between 40 and 59 years of age. Five are women and two are men. They originate from different parts of Norway and work currently as therapists in the southern and eastern parts of Norway. I have detailed the family backgrounds of the first four of the participants but have not gone into detail about the final three. This is because the last three were brought in to provide some more specific narratives about parallel connections. I have similar information about all seven participants’ personal lives and circumstances.

Family backgrounds

Six of the participants come from traditional Norwegian nuclear families. That means that they have grown up with a mother, a father (or a stepfather) and sisters and brothers. All of the participants have siblings. One of the participants was born abroad and grew up in Norway. Some members of her family still live abroad. One of the participants grew up in a step- family and one of the participants lost the father in her family of origin when she was young. The participants have working class or middle class backgrounds.

Private and Contemporary Lives

Six of the participants live with a man or a woman. One of the participants lives alone. Five of the participants are divorced one or more times and one has never been married. Two of the participants are in their first marriage. All of them have one or more children and two of them have children that still live at home.

Professional lives

The participants consist of two psychologists, three nurses and two social workers who all have family therapy training. There are two men and five women. When I interviewed them, they worked in adult psychiatry, in child- and adolescent psychiatry, Family Counselling Offices and in private practice. All except one family therapist asked to participate in this research project said “yes” to participation in and contribution to my research. I interviewed them in order of appearance (see p. 60)

There is insufficient information in my material to explain how and why the participants went from being professional health- and social workers to becoming family therapists. For example, I did ask all of them about these topics but I do not have enough material to include Evelyn (5), Anne (6) and Janne (7) in this section. For the four first participants, becoming a therapist is connected to early ideas and experiences in life. For the other participants it is more of a coincidence that they began training as therapists.

The Therapist’s Experience and Expertise

The participants’ years of experience as family therapists varies as mentioned earlier from six to 33 years. I have insufficient material to discuss differences between novices and expert therapists. It was, however, only the most experienced therapists who mentioned the ability to see two different views at the same time and ambivalence and that talked about these phenomena as assets in their therapeutic work.

Summary of the therapists’ backgrounds and experience

The seven participants’ family backgrounds are all Norwegian and they form a rather homogenous group when it comes to their socio-economic backgrounds. Some of them are able to point out how they became a therapist by telling stories from childhood and adolescence and some of them claim that their becoming a family therapist is more of a coincidence.

The researcher’s personal reflections:

This reflection is from the end of the research process. I have often wondered how important the therapist’s background is when we try to explain what is going on in therapy. Will the social class from which the therapist stems offer any advantages or any challenges when she or he meets someone from a similar or different background? I was born into a big working class family where no one had an academic education, from my generation and earlier. I recognised this starting point as shared by some of my participants. Other participants have a more middle class background; no one came from a traditional upper class background. My own view of the world and ideas of how to live life have been dramatically changed and widened since I started to work as a family therapist thirty years ago. I think about my journey as a family therapist as a great privilege. To learn to know this many different people and this many different ways of thinking and solving problems represents un irreplaceable aspect of my own life. I felt that all my meetings with the participants represented strong and genuine meetings in an atmosphere of trust and openness. Did I choose participants of “my own kind”? Is that some of the foundation for my experience of an atmosphere of trust and openness? Should I also have looked for participants that represented variation not only when it came to the topics but also when it comes to me?