"If you could look in a mirror through another person's eyes": An ethnography of marital therapy. (Volumes I and II)

James Anthony Beer, Purdue University

Abstract

Therapists have their theories to explain what happens in therapy, but little has been written about how clients experience therapy. In this study of one case of marital therapy, informed by a social constructionist perspective, therapy was conceptualized as a culture that emerges among therapist and clients--one that is itself embedded within other cultures. The researcher interviewed the client couple and the therapist before therapy began, in order to develop an understanding of what assumptions each would bring to the therapeutic process. He observed all therapy sessions, and interviewed participants immediately after each session. After selected sessions, the researcher reviewed the videotape with the couple and with the therapist, in order to stimulate their recall of therapy events. This made it possible to explore how differences and similarities between researcher and client perceptions contributed to the emerging culture. The researcher's participation and its effects on therapy were included as a focus of the study. The report of the study includes a chronological narrative of the therapy illuminated by excerpts from post-session interviews and videotape replay sessions. The researcher then elaborates various interpretive themes which occurred to him as he immersed himself in the transcripts of the therapy sessions and research interviews. The themes are organized under the following topics: the evolution of local therapy culture, the broader cultural context, how therapy works, what participants found helpful, and the interaction of research and therapy. Therapist and clients reviewed and commented about the researcher's interpretations. There was a consensus among the participants that the research component somehow enhanced the effect of therapy. Ways in which participants accounted for this phenomenon included the amount of time clients spent with the researcher, the added perspective that the videotape review afforded the couple, the "different set of eyes" that the researcher provided, the contrast between "talking about" vs. "doing" therapy, the egalitarian relationship that the research context implied, and the recognition of the couple's expertise.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Sprenkle, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology|Psychotherapy|Social psychology

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