Coming to an end: A case study of an ambigous process of ending

Aim: When the duration of therapy is not preset and the outcome is a matter for negotiation, the decision to end psychotherapy will be an experiential concern for the two participants. This case study draws attention to how ambiguities may be settled in a process where ending is initiated by the therapist and resisted by the client. Method and analysis: The actual case was strategically selected as exceptional owing to a combination of circumstances. The client and the therapist had developed a ‘good enough’ alliance (WAI) and reached a ‘good enough’ outcome (OQ-45), and still the client felt she was far from finished. A close inspection of interactional data in sessions together with both clients' and therapists' reflections in post-therapy interviews elicited information about both substantial content and structural aspects of this complicated process of ending. Findings and discussion: The discrepancy between therapist and client was not addressed, but rather postponed and revisited again later. Structural elements like preparations for a break for vacations and reducing the frequency of sessions were used to test experiential qualities, such as how the client managed life without therapy. Carefully preserving a ‘good enough’ emotional bond through the negotiations seemed important to both parties. Significantly, the client's autonomy was interpreted as the final proof of improvement and the client came to a point where she could affirm that she had got better only by accepting that treatment was coming to an end. This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Counselling and Psychotherapy Research: Linking research with practice, Copyright 2012 British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, available onlin

Forhandlinger om erotikk og autoritet i det terapeutiske rom

How to understand the consequences when psychotherapists are involving their clients in sexual behavior. The concepts of transference and countertransference cannot count for the fact that most involved therapists are men, and most involved clients are women. Better modes of understanding are developed by comparing the frame for interpretations of acts in the relationship between therapist and client with the frame for interpretations of acts in heterosexual relationships. By oscillating between thetwo frames of interpretation the male therapist is both concealing and increasing his power, and correspondingly the possibilities for development are limited in the female client. This is a serious form of maltreatment not just because sex is given as a substitutefor treatment and cure, but also because she is falsely diagnosed as psychologically vulnerable and unreliable. The abuse is the betrayal of her subjectivity created through his efforts to protect himself from detection and professional degradation.Hva er det som skjer når en psykoterapeut inndrar en av sine klienter i et seksuelt forhold? Dette forklares vanligvis medhenvisning til begreper som overføring og motoverføring; egne seksuelle følelser kan gli ut av terapeuters kontroll, og egenterapiskal forhindre at dette skjer. Denne forståelsesmodellen kan ikke forklare at dette oftest skjer når mannlige terapeuter utnytterkvinnelige klienter, og at de terapeuter det gjelder både kan ha omfattende klinisk erfaring og egenterapi. Forekomsten og følgeneav seksuelle handlinger i psykoterapi blir bedre forklart dersom en del kjennetegn ved det terapeutiskeforhold sammenholdesmed kjennetegn ved det heterofile forholdet. Det er parallellene i forholdet mellom en mannlig terapeut og en kvinnelig klientog forholdet mellom en mannlig elsker og en kvinnelig elskerinne, som fører til at hans makt over henne styrkes, mens hennesmuligheter for utvikling begrenses. Dette blir en alvorlig og skadelig form for feilbehandling, der utnyttingen av klienten ikkebare består i at hun får seksuell kontakt istedenfor psykoterapi, men også består i at hun blir sykeliggjort og avskåret fra å fåsine subjektive opplevelser bekreftet. Overgrepetfortsetter gjennom terapeutens anstrengelser for å hindre av sløring

Anna G. Jónasdóttir & Ann Ferguson (2014). Love. A question for feminism in the twenty-first century.

Kjærlighet i vår tid â hva er det som skjer? Dette er vel et spørsmål som roper etter en feministisk analyse. Anna G. Jónasdóttir og Ann Fergusson gir svar â sammen med 17 andre forfattere. Dermed føyer de seg inn i rekken av samfunnsforskere som studerer kjønnsrelasjoner når slike relasjoner er under sosial og kulturell endring. Det er det heteroseksuelle kjærlighetsformatet det dreier seg om. Ikke fordi disse forfatterne avviser kjærlighet mellom personer av samme kjønn, men fordi det er heterofiliens gåte de sirkler omkring. Hva er det som står på spill når en mann og en kvinne beveger seg inn i et felles kjærlighetsprosjekt? I sin videste forstand er kjærlighet den subjektive opplevelsen av å elske en annen person på en måte som kan få denne andre til å elske igjen. Men her er det et mer spesifikt fenomen de er ute etter: Det gjelder kjærlighet som er kjennetegnet ved (A) at erotiske praksiser og/eller forestillinger og fantasier inngår som et konstituerende element, kombinert med (B) et erkjent ønske i retning av å etablere og/eller vedlikeholde et personlig engasjerende forhold preget av varighet. Både erotiseringen og det personlige engasjementet går altså på tvers av kjønn og gjør noe med hvordan akkurat dette forholdet er kjønnspreget. Det institusjonaliserte og det personliggjorte virker sammen og skaper utveksling og bevegelse fra henne til ham, og fra ham til henne

When singing strengthens the capacity to aspire: girls’ reflexivity in rural Bangladesh

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.In the present paper, we explore the impact of singing for girls in rural Bangladesh. Previous findings in this field-based interview study (with 18 girls) have demonstrated that singing can act as a driving force in young girls’ psychological individuation processes, implying increased agency and autonomy. A critical question, however, is to what extent the village girls will manage to maintain a feeling of agency as they pass through puberty. How do they navigate between their own wish to continue singing and pressure from cultural norms (such as getting married)? Using Margareth Archer’s morphogenetic approach and Arjun Appadurai’s approach to culture as a capacity as analytical tools, we connect different modes of reflexivity to the girls’ capacity to aspire. We discuss specific mechanisms that emerge as relevant for the girls/young women as they navigate their way through the Bengali rural society.publishedVersio

Parenting After a Natural Disaster: A Qualitative Study of Norwegian Families Surviving the 2004 Tsunami in Southeast Asia

How do parents support their children after a high-impact disaster? To answer this question, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 51 Norwegian parents. These parents and children were all severely exposed to the trauma of the tsunami disaster. The analyses show how parents interpret their children’s signs of distress, as well as their own strategies of support in the aftermath. The main strategies described by the parents were watchful waiting, careful monitoring of the children’s reactions and a sensitive timing when providing support. Such monitoring, and interpretation of signs of distress, served as an aid for the parents in determining what needs their children had and what support they therefore needed to provide. A range of support strategies were employed, including re-establishing a sense of safety, resuming normal roles and routines, and talking to their children. Parents who were themselves severely impacted by the disaster reported a reduced ability to assess their children’s reactions and thereby were unable to provide optimal care in the aftermath. Interestingly, the parents’ support strategies mirror the early intervention recommendations put forward in the NICE guidelines and in the Psychological First Aid guidelines which is a well accepted and promising practice for helping children after disasters

Medical and Psychology Student’s Experiences in Learning Mindfulness: Benefits, Paradoxes, and Pitfalls

Source:doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0521-0Mindfulness has attracted increased interest in the field of health professionals’ education due to its proposed double benefit of providing self-help strategies to counter stress and burnout symptoms and cultivating attitudes central to the role of professional helpers. The current study explored the experiential aspects of learning mindfulness. Specifically, we explored how first-year medical and psychology students experienced and conceptualized mindfulness upon completion of a 7-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program. Twenty-two students participated in either two focus group interviews or ten in-depth interviews, and we performed an interpretive phenomenological analysis of the interview transcripts. All students reported increased attention and awareness of psychological and bodily phenomena. The majority also reported a shift in their attitudes towards their experiences in terms of decreased reactivity, increased curiosity, affect tolerance, patience and self-acceptance, and improved relational qualities. The experience of mindfulness was mediated by subjective intention and the interpretation of mindfulness training. The attentional elements of mindfulness were easier to grasp than the attitudinal ones, in particular with respect to the complex and inherently paradoxical elements of non-striving and radical acceptance. Some participants considered mindfulness as a means to more efficient instrumental task-oriented coping, whilst others reported increased sensitivity and tolerance towards their own state of mind. A broader range of program benefits appeared dependent upon embracing the paradoxes and integrating attitudinal elements in practising mindfulness. Ways in which culture and context may influence the experiences in learning mindfulness are discussed along with practical, conceptual, and research implications

Når vi nå skal snakke om selvmord blant samer, hva er det viktig at vi snakker om?

Startpunktet for Jon Petter Stoors PhD-avhandling var at han organiserte en rekke fokusgruppe-intervjuer med medlemmer fra samiske lokalsamfunn, først i Sverge og så i Norge. Hans innledningsspørsmål var på svensk (ikke alle deltakere kunne samisk, og Stoor er selv «svensk/samisk»): «När vi nu ska prata om självmord bland samer, vad tycker ni då är viktigt att vi pratar om?