It’s All About “We”: Negotiating Accounts of We-Building Therapy Interactions and Preferred “We” Identities with Families in Therapy
Date
2018-08-29
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Abstract
I was curious about specific interactions that facilitated we-ness (or mutuality and togetherness) for families in therapy. I was also interested in how families defined their “we” identities, or preferred sense of who they are together. Family identity research often privileges individuals and neglects the responsive interactions through which families negotiate “we” identity claims. Similarly, researchers tend to define we-ness as a stable relationship orientation, without regard for particular exchanges that facilitate a family’s dynamic sense of mutuality and togetherness. Seven families at the Calgary Family Therapy Centre participated in a video-recorded therapy session and then identified specific we-building interactions. Families later took part in a joint interview, during which we viewed their selected conversations. I invited families to account for these we-building interactions, including how members talked and acted together, and for their broader “we” identities. Drawing on social constructionism (e.g., Shotter, 1997, 2008, 2011), I approached families’ accounts as dynamic, relationally negotiated, and informed by socio-cultural circumstances. I used the narrative practice approach (e.g., Bamberg, 2004, 2012b; Bamberg & Georgakopoulou, 2008) to analyze families’ interview talk, storytelling, and bodily responses. I considered what families said about their we-building interactions and “we” identities, how members interacted with one another and with me during the research interviews, and how their accounts related to dominant discourses and master narratives about family. I describe four themes across families’ accounts of we-building therapy interactions, in which members were depicted as taking a fun, light, or humorous tone, communicating effectively, noticing positive changes or progress, and creating new shared understandings. I then outline how four families negotiated particular preferred “we” identity claims, with a focus on how members demonstrated coordination and agreement during the joint interviews. I end with implications for family therapy and family identity research. For instance, I propose that the concept of we-building interactions could be useful for therapists and families, by orienting them to specific exchanges that contribute to we-ness for those involved – exchanges that could perhaps be more readily noticed, joined with, and facilitated in future conversations.
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Keywords
Family therapy, Family identity, Identity, Narrative, Discourse
Citation
Rogers-de Jong, M. (2018). It’s all about “we”: Negotiating accounts of we-building therapy interactions and preferred “we” identities with families in therapy (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/32882