In addressing an often neglected aspect of qualitative research, this paper explores how our research identities are constructed by those we are studying. During my field research on wives of professional athletes, I gradually became aware of the ways in which I was typified as a therapist. Despite my attempts to deconstruct this research identity, and the therapeutic role I was placed in, their construction of a therapist self persisted. I examine how this serendipitous process emerged in the context of sequential interviewing by assessing specific characteristics, and certain conditions, which shaped their typification of a therapist. The ways in which our research identities are constructed by those we study can provide us with another important dimension of knowledge about those we study
