I have heard examples of published psychotherapy case study research having therapeutic value for the client whose case is being reported on, for example. The idea being that the published study crystallised the work done in therapy.
Alternatively it may be that participants, perhaps particularly in longitudinal or ethnographic research, gain personal benefits from being able to tell and even reframe their experiences and stories. So if anyone is aware of any good studies in this line I would be most interested!
The Journal of Social Work Practice has some excellent articles that may be relevant for your research.
Hello John,
Interesting question.
Haynes, K. (2006). A therapeutic journey? Reflections on the effects of research on researcher and participants. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 1(3), 204-221.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/33042334
Bondi, L. (2013). Research and therapy: generating meaning and feeling gaps. Qualitative Inquiry, 19(1), 9-19.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Liz_Bondi/publication/258182086
These papers are fairly now, but still relevant:
Hutchinson, S. A., Wilson, M. E., & Wilson, H. S. (1994). Benefits of participating in research interviews. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 26(2), 161-166.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/47945016/j.1547-5069.1994.tb00937.x20160810-755-q837s0.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1511517960&Signature=3NaYr%2B8LZpiwmrP34McjtzzE%2Fo4%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DBenefits_of_Participating_in_Research_In.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/15136573
Gale, J. (1992). When research interviews are more therapeutic than therapy interviews. The qualitative report, 1(4), 1-4.
http://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2036&context=tqr
I have not seen the full text to this paper:
Murray, B. (2003). Qualitative research interviews: therapeutic benefits for the participants. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 10(2), 233-236.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/10834190
Very best wishes,
Mary
Dear Mary and Robyn,
Many thanks for your suggestions, I'll look forward to exploring these!
All best wishes,
John
I would recommend:
Hutchinson, S. A., Wilson, M. E., & Wilson, H. S. (1994). Benefits of Participating in Research Interviews. Image: The Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 26(2), 161–166. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.1994.tb00937.x
Many thanks Agnieszka - I've already downloaded the article (recommended by Mary too) and look forward to studying it.
Dear John,
Another recommendation:
Rosenthal, G. (2003) The Healing Effects of Storytelling:
On the Conditions of Curative Storytelling in the Context of Research and Counseling. Qualitative Inquiry, Vol 9, Issue 6, pp. 915 - 933. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077800403254888
Best,
Ignacio
This is a paper is good and might be useful:
Lucy Biddle et al., Qualitative interviewing with vulnerable populations: individual’s experiences of participating in suicide and self-harm based research’. Journal of Affective Disorders, 3, 356-362.
Dear Ignacio and Jane, many thanks to you too for your suggestions. I'm pleased to see this question has generated interest and some interesting leads!
Great answers here - in our project - see youthsay.co.nz and the publications on Researchgate we have written discussion on this in the methods section of our articles and technical report
Although may be it is only indirectly related to the question, I would strongly recommend the studies of Pennebaker on the psychological benefits of writing about emotional experiences.
See for instance, this review:
- Pennebaker, J.W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science, 8(3) 162- 166.
Hi John, this is a case study I recently came across, it describes a reaction of a patient towards the draft of the case study about himself. He had a feeling of being recognised in his work etc. I hope it helps!
Thank you for the question and the answers. I would add:
San Román, B., Gaggiotti, H., & Marre, D. (2015). “You don’t take anything for granted”: using anthropology to improve services, practices and policies for adoptive families. Annals of Anthropological Practice, 39(2), 219.
Article “You don’t take anything for granted”: using anthropology to...
Many thanks Bruna! This article sounds very interesting and I'm looking forward to reading it! John
Hi. I know that I might be a bit late to this Q&A. However, as I'm working on a publication related to your question, I have a few papers in mind that I will include. They might be useful to you:
De Haene, L. (2010). Beyond division: Convergences between postmodern qualitative research and family therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 36(1), 1-12. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.2009.00174.x
Dickson-Swift, V., James, E. L., Kippen, S., & Liamputtong, P. (2006). Blurring boundaries in qualitative health research on sensitive topics. Qualitative Health Research, 16(6), 853-871. doi: 10.1177/1049732306287526
Kim, M. S. (2014). Doing social constructivist research means making empathic and aesthetic connections with participants. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 22(4), 538-553. doi: 10.1080/1350293X.2014.947835
Richardson, M. S. (2005). Implications of the paradigms of constructivism and social constructionism: A challenge to traditional boundaries between research and intervention. Paper presented at the Society for Vocational Psychology’s 7th Biennial Conference, Vancouver, Canada.
I hope these are useful.
Cheers
Peyman
Dear Peyman, these all sound like very interesting papers and relevant to the kinds of questions I was asking. Many thanks, and I will look forward to reading them.
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