Positive practices : solution-focused and narrative therapeutic techniques with children with sexually harmful behaviours

This article explores the use of solution-focused and Narrative Therapeutic approaches with a boy who had sexually harmful behaviours. The paper will highlight the practical challenges of working with someone who is 'problem-saturated' through institutionalisation and who is also subjected to powerful discourses claiming the 'truth' about him. The use of solution-focused and Narrative Therapeutic principles and approaches will be demonstrated in the work described, in a way that allows the reader to reflect on how these may differ from modernist understandings and responses to this behaviour

Storytelling as 'unorthodox' agency:negotiating the 2012 family immigration rules (United Kingdom)

This article attends to the lived experience of binational families subject to the 2012 family immigration rules (FIR). It seeks to enrich the pre-existing discussions of family migration within the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom, focusing on the ‘micro-political’ experiences of those whose lives have been adversely affected by their introduction. It draws on the life writings of binational families, suggesting that a micro-political focus reveals an ongoing neuropolitical experience that traditional accounts of moral agency are ill-equipped to negotiate. The article suggests an unorthodox interpretation of agency premised on storytelling, while probing the tensions that emerge when this lived experience is framed in such a manner. It concludes by positing a series of questions relating to the value of a neuropolitical labelling of the subject and suggests a need to further engage with traumatic interpretations of harm at the intersection of citizenship rights and mobility rights

The reflexive potential of silence:Emotions, the ‘everyday’ and ethical international relations

This article argues on behalf of an autoethnographic methodology as one, but not the only, method suited to the excavation of the emotions of everyday international relations. I suggest, drawing on my own lived experiences of writing the Life in the United Kingdom Test specifically, and being ordered deported from the United Kingdom more broadly, that a reflexive practice informed by silence allows scholars to attend to the otherwise discounted and excluded forms of emotional knowledge. As my story unfolds, and the transformative potential of trauma is rehearsed, the possibility of excavating otherwise silenced emotions, guided by an affective empathy, comes to the fore. I suggest, building on my own lived experience, that as the researcher cum agent embraces this position, discounted and discarded stories are revisited. In so doing I present a piece of evocative autoethnography in and of itself while demonstrating the role that emotions can play in the construction of everyday practices of International Relations

Are recovery stories helpful for women with eating disorders? A pilot study and commentary on future research

Background: Anecdotally it is well known that eating disorder memoirs are popular with people with anorexia nervosa and recovery stories are readily available online. However, no research to date has empirically explored whether such stories are helpful for current sufferers. The aim of the current pilot study was to explore the efficacy of recovery narratives as a means of improving motivation and self-efficacy and to qualitatively explore patient perspectives of such stories. Method: Fifty-seven women with anorexia nervosa and subclinical anorexia nervosa participated in this online study. Participants were randomised to either receive recovery stories or to a wait-list control group. After completing baseline measures, participants read five stories about recovery, and completed post-intervention measures two weeks later. Results: The quantitative results indicated that reading stories of recovery had no effect on motivation and self-efficacy over a two-week period. In contrast, the qualitative results showed that the stories generated thoughts about the possibility of recovery and the majority indicated they would recommend them to others. Conclusions: This study adds to a growing body of research exploring the integration of voices of lived experience into treatment approaches. Future research should focus on 1) identifying for whom and at which stage of illness recovery stories might be helpful; 2) the mechanism via which they might operate; and 3) the most helpful way of presenting such stories