Murmurations: Journal of Transformative Systemic Practice

Aspects of Reading

2021-02-18T17:18:02+00:00

Abstract

As a tutor and a teacher on various psychotherapy and supervision courses over time, I became aware of the need for a structured framework that would guide discussions on the literature during the sessions with students.

The feedback from tutors and students has encouraged me to continue to use it and particularly emphasised its potential to stimulate self-reflexive thinking.

The Model is presented as a format for reading papers, discussing the material with others, and giving an account of reading such as writing a critique or a literature review. The purpose of the ‘Aspects of Reading’ is to enhance possibilities for learning by highlighting different positions a reader can take during these activities.

Abstract

The feedback from tutors and students has encouraged me to continue to use it and particularly emphasised its potential to stimulate self-reflexive thinking.

Editorial

2021-02-15T23:14:14+00:00

Invitations to mutual learning: Reflections on co-researching a social prescribing model of care during the COVID 19 pandemic

2021-01-31T17:28:43+00:00

This paper offers some reflections on the creative and ethical approaches to participant inclusion in a research project which is currently taking place in the time of the COVID 19 pandemic. The project is based in the county of Bridgend, South Wales, UK. An account of one of the storytelling projects this paper refers to was published in the last edition of Murmurations (Salter, 2020).

These reflections focus on the early invitation to intervention phase of the research that might traditionally be thought of as the recruitment phase, followed by interview-conversations with participants. The language of recruitment and interviewing suggests or assumes that the researcher goes in blindly and coldly with some kind of promotional campaign to find people they previously did not know and then co-opt them into a study where they are the participant or the object of study. In relational, practice-based research such as the one featured here, this does not reflect the ethics of systemic values nor community-based practice. This paper describes an alternative model to think about co-inquiry as an invitation to mutual learning. The method and the ethics of inquiry are spotlighted in this paper, within an overview of the context to inquiry - that of researching a social prescribing model of care. The paper also offers a brief reflection on learning in this early stage with contributions from co-researchers.

The “proof” of the pudding is not just in the eating. Savouring the richness of the research process experience.

2021-01-31T11:34:51+00:00

There is much written on research methodologies and the merits of each within academic texts. Researchers provide written accounts of their methodologies, their results locating these in literature previously reviewed. New ideas, models and frameworks of knowing develop from the discussion of the findings than contribute greatly to knowledge within a given discipline. What is seldom captured is the actual process of engaging in research, the ups and downs of the journey, whose voices are captured and for what reason and the relational and ethical dilemmas along the way that need to be negotiated. This article aims to give voice to my experiences of a research process with social care students as I attempted to develop a new model of relational reflexivity within their education and practice preparation. I discuss some of my experiences as a practitioner researcher as they relate to the research aims, design and method of inquiry. I offer my perspective as a way of challenging the clean-cut process often portrayed, where the researcher objectively and seamlessly goes through the various stages of the research process, before arriving at their conclusions in a tidy and comprehensive fashion

Meadow. “Patchwork of Practice” as autoethnography for personal and professional development

2021-01-24T16:01:47+00:00

In this paper, I demonstrate the use of an exercise that I devised as a teaching intervention for student counsellors and therapists – Patchworks of Practice (Meakin, 2019). It facilitates exploration of contextual influences on their human being and aids reflexivity on how these influences shape their practice.

I explain how Patchworks of Practice work and show how I adapted the exercise as a form of autoethnography. I share learning of the process and findings from one part of my doctoral research in which I used autoethnography to explore how my personal influences shaped me and my way of working as a couple therapist and as a university lecturer teaching on counselling courses. I use examples of my own patches and my reflections on them to illustrate the reflective research process and discuss my learning. The Patchworks of Practice exercise has been useful in collating different theoretical concepts for me as a couple therapist and my approach to teaching. It offers a way of highlighting resources for navigating professional landscapes particularly in times of uncertainty such as during the pandemic.

In this practitioner research, I extend the patchwork metaphor to a rural landscape to communicate how I see my life and the contexts in which it has evolved - and which have shaped it. I hope this paper will inspire others to use the Patchwork of Practice exercise in their own reflexive learning, self-supervision and research.

Ndibeer and Ned Ride Again

2021-01-25T10:07:04+00:00

This article tells a dialogical story and describes a process of mutual learning and embodiment over the course of a long therapeutic relationship. The article maps the development of relationship, between my inner voices, my supervisors and those of my client, where stories of self and other are articulated, elaborated and externalised using the metaphor of a "bundle of treasures". A self-reflexive process of personal and professional mapping, using the hierarchical model of the Coordinated Management of Meaning, is described. In a recursive and isomorphic process, supervisory and therapeutic conversations further elaborate these stories, and through joint action, enable the creation of a liminal, reflexive space, a Fifth Province position, a cauldron of creativity where practice-based theory can develop. This process will be illustrated as it arises in the story of relationship and the process of therapy, so this narrative invites the reader to become an active participant in a never-ending process where theory becomes a live metaphor in the quest for being human

In relationship with a virus

2021-01-07T12:22:46+00:00

The current COVID-19 situation offers an opportunity for us to reconsider our relationship with the world and with our theories about this relationship. While systemic theory already offers many ways and ideas to consider this, in this article I offer another perspective, “new” materialism and highlight its fit with existing systemic theories.

Editoral

2020-10-31T10:21:08+00:00

Escaping Bachelard’s Dual Anthropology. Towards a New Post-corona Version of the Self

2020-10-30T11:02:53+00:00

Absent friends in shared landscapes

2020-10-29T17:35:03+00:00

Cocooned 20 20

2020-10-29T17:28:40+00:00

Kinship: a poem

2020-10-29T17:22:39+00:00

Lockdown Moon

2020-10-29T17:15:45+00:00

. . .

2020-10-29T17:11:09+00:00

The Voices of Uncertainty

2020-10-29T17:06:07+00:00

Covid Politics

2020-10-29T16:59:25+00:00

The Invisible Hitchhiker

2020-10-29T16:54:55+00:00

I Wait

2020-10-29T16:48:22+00:00

Chaos, Fear, Conspiracy and Uncertainty

2020-10-29T16:42:38+00:00

Reflections on the results of a roundtable on creative methods in disabilities research

2020-12-03T12:24:04+00:00

In these research notes, we present the results of a roundtable and a subsequent process of reflection on the challenges facing researchers in disability studies using creative methods. The roundtable took place at a conference on disability, “Diversity & Belonging: Celebrating Difference” in Athens in 2018. The aim of the roundtable was to explore with other researchers in disability studies the challenges and joys of academic research using creative research methods. Even though the commitment to inclusive research is common in disability studies, the use of creative research methods still feels like pioneering and unconventional. The purpose of the roundtable was to discuss how we can extend the use of creative research methods so that more people can join in research work. In these research notes, we discuss some reflections on the material that came out of our roundtable and from the reflective session we held after the roundtable. From studying these conversations, we identified four insights on the use of creative methods in disability studies: embodiment, discomfort, connection and plurality of voices.

Samenvatting

In deze research notes presenteren we de resultaten van een roundtable en het daaropvolgend proces van reflectie over de uitdagingen van het toepassen van creatieve onderzoeksmethoden in disability studies. De roundtable vond plaats op het disability-gerelateerd congres “Diversity & Belonging: Celebrating Difference” in Athene, 2018. Het doel van de roundtable was om samen met andere onderzoekers in disability studies de obstakels en kansen van creatieve onderzoeksmethoden in academisch onderzoek te verkennen. Hoewel onderzoek steeds meer inclusief vormgegeven wordt voelt het gebruik van creatieve methodes nog steeds aan als pionieren, baanbrekend en onconventioneel. Het doel van de roundtable was om met andere onderzoekers samen te exploreren hoe we het gebruik van creatieve onderzoeksmethoden kunnen uitbreiden zodat meer mensen kunnen meedoen in onderzoek. In het artikel gaan we in op de resultaten van de roundtable en ons reflectieproces daarna. Door deze gesprekken te bestuderen, identificeerden we vier inzichten over het gebruik van creatieve methoden in disability studies onderzoek: rond embodiment, ongemak, verbinding en meervoudigheid van stemmen.