Date of Award
2008
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Program
Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Supervisor
Dr. Sandra DeLuca
Second Advisor
Dr. Anne Kinsella
Abstract
“Good” and “bad” clients traditionally define successful therapeutic relationships between clients and occupational therapists. Such dichotomies are over-simplistic, and lack contextual understanding. An alternative is for therapists to engage with critical reflexivity in an attempt to see therapeutic relationships as more complex. In this manner one can adopt a posture Maxine Greene (1973) calls “making strange” whereby one re-examines that which is taken as given in therapeutic relationships. This critical autobiographical research sought to gain a deeper understanding of critical reflexivity in therapeutic relationships. I began by authoring an autobiographical text that was a personal examination of my experiences with looking reflexively. Two participants’ voices than joined mine as we shared stories to make sense of critical reflexivity. The four themes that I have unearthed are labeled as “Fugu and Skydiving” (risky behaviour), “A Beautiful Mess” (role of emotion), “Prisms: A Metaphor” (taboo practice), and “Curators” (caring practices).
Recommended Citation
McCorquodale, Lisa Carroll, "PALIMPSEST: REWRITING THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP THROUGH A CRITICALLY REFLEXIVE LENS" (2008). Digitized Theses. 4825.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/4825