Table Of ContentTransforming Encounters and Interactions:
A Dialogical Inquiry into the Influence of Collaborative Therapy
In the Lives of its Practitioners
PROEFSCHRIFT
ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Tilburg, op gezag van de rector
magnificus, prof. dr. Ph. Eijlander, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het
college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de Ruth First zaal van de Universiteit op
maandag 24 november 2008 om 10.15 uur
door
JANICE NADINE DEFEHR
geboren op 6 januari 1965 te Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
TRANSFORMING ENCOUNTERS AND INTERACTIONS ii
Promotores: Prof. Dr. H. Anderson
Prof. Dr. J.B. Rijsman
TRANSFORMING ENCOUNTERS AND INTERACTIONS iii
Acknowledgements
Independent scholarship is a misnomer; others always join with us in our learning
endeavors. Many people have nurtured the development of this project in ways that made a
difference. I am grateful to the international collective of anonymous practitioners who so
generously and courageously shared personal reflections, stories, and even authorship in
response to our central question. Their participation is the pulse in this shared inquiry.
For each gesture of interest and support, I am deeply grateful to Tapio Malinen, Dan
Wulff, Sally St. George, Christopher Kinman, Carrie and Arthur Walker-Jones, Kerstin
Hopstadius, Christiane Kolberg, Lora Schroeder, Rocio Chaveste Guiterrez and her colleagues at
the Kanankil Institute, and Klinic Community Health Centre friends and fellow practitioners.
Taos-Tilburg Doctoral program faculty facilitated stimulating workshops, conference and
telephone conversation, and fellow Taos-Tilburg program candidates added great fun and
camaraderie—special thanks to Frank Kashner and Rodney Merrill. Professional English and
Spanish translators, Christine Hildebrand and Julio Rivas, delivered cheerful, dependable
services in every phase of this project. Tom Strong and John Shotter responded generously to my
many questions, shared their own manuscripts-in-process, and introduced me to additional
textual resources, many of which directly formed and reformed the underpinnings of this inquiry.
I also pause to gratefully acknowledge the many persons who have met with me as ‘clients’ over
the years. Together we have created practical understandings that could never be learned from
professional journals and textbooks, and moreover, we have affected one another in our ways of
being and becoming in this world. This project is a tribute to the ongoing mutual influence of our
conversations.
TRANSFORMING ENCOUNTERS AND INTERACTIONS iv
To the dissertation examining committee, I extend my deepest gratitude and respect:
Harlene Anderson, John Rijsman, James Day, Sheila McNamee, John Shotter, and Tom Strong.
It is the greatest honour for me to present this dissertation to each member. I thank my faculty
advisor, Harlene Anderson, for welcoming me into the global collaborative practices community,
for encouraging me to choose a topic I was passionate about, and for patiently attending to this
text and earlier drafts. Never imposing direction, Harlene allowed me to ‘feel my way forward’
in collaboration with project participants, enabling this dissertation to take on a shape and
character of its own. Even in the most difficult moments, her trust in dialogic process never
seemed to waiver. I conclude this project with the greatest admiration for Harlene’s contribution
to my field of practice.
I lovingly acknowledge the presence of my family in this work. My husband and closest
conversation partner, David Willems, and our daughters, Jade and Georgia, made sacrifices,
endured The Long Wait, and shared with me the exhilaration and loneliness of doctoral studies in
ways that still touch and astonish me. I offer gratitude beyond words to David. With unrelenting
hope, he has witnessed every tentative emergence in this project.
TRANSFORMING ENCOUNTERS AND INTERACTIONS v
Abstract
Featuring the voices of 14 Collaborative therapists from 6 different countries, this
dissertation presents a series of spoken and written dialogues in response to the following
question: “How could you describe your practice as generative and transforming for yourself?
The project derives its methods from the everyday dialogical practices and premises of its
participant-practitioners and from the project dialogues themselves. Part 1 of the following text
orients primarily to the project’s face-to-face group dialogue at the International Summer
Institute (ISI) in Playa del Carmen, Mexico; the author narrates an account of this inaugural
conversation in chapter 1. Chapter 2 addresses the question of how to understand the dialogues in
this project: Drawing on both literary sources and collaborative therapy practice, this chapter
invites and articulates dialogical understandings of dialogue. Chapter 3 explores connections
between three distinct inquiry methods relevant to this project: (1) social poetics methods
articulated by John Shotter and Arlene Katz (2) the non-systematic ‘shared inquiry’ of
collaborative therapy, and, (3) the unique inquiry method developed within this project. Chapter
4 exposes the “behind the scenes” doing of inquiry in this project, articulating decision points,
regrets, changes of direction and developmental landmarks. Chapter 5 returns to the face-to-face
group dialogue in Mexico to explore part of it in greater detail, concluding part 1 of this text. Part
2 relates primarily to participants’ written dialogues. Chapter 6 of part 2 prepares readers to
participate in the journaling and responsive writing comprising chapter 7, a bi-lingual chapter
presenting multiple texts written by 10 participant-therapists, each responding to the project’s
central question. In chapter 8, the author responds to the project as a whole, exploring its
potential relevance for dialogic practitioners and future qualitative social inquiry.
TRANSFORMING ENCOUNTERS AND INTERACTIONS vi
Abstract
In deze dissertatie worden de stemmen van 14 Collaboratieve therapeuten uit zes
verschillende landen gepresenteerd, die via gesproken of geschreven dialogen antwoord proberen
te geven op de vraag: “Hoe zou U uw praktijk kunnen beschrijven als zijnde generatief en
transformerend voor Uzelf?” De methodes die in dit project worden gebruikt zijn ontleend aan de
dagelijkse dialogische praktijken en uitgangspunten van de deelnemende praktijkmensen zelf,
alsook aan de dialogen in dit project. In deel 1 van dit boek richten we ons vooral op de face-to-
face dialogen in de groep, die gehouden werden in het International Summer Institute (ISI) in
Playa del Carmen, Mexico. In hoofdstuk 1 geven we een beschrijvend relaas van deze initiele
conversaties. In hoofdstuk 2 stellen we ons de vraag hoe we deze dialogen kunnen begrijpen, en
steunend op zowel literaire bronnen als op bronnen uit de collaboratieve praktijk spreken we ons
uit voor- en nodigen de lezer ook uit om deze dialogen op dialogische manier te begrijpen. In
hoofdstuk 3 kijken we naar de verbindingen tussen drie verschillende onderzoeksmethoden die
relevant zijn voor dit project: (1) de sociale poesie methode, zoals die werd beschreven door door
John Shotter en Arlene Katz (2) de methode van het niet-systematisch ‘gedeeld onderzoek’ uit de
collaboratieve therapie, en, (3) de eigenstandige onderzoeksmethode die in dit project zelf werd
ontwikkeld. In hoofdstuk 4 nemen we de lezer mee in onze manieren van doen “achter de
schermen” van dit project, zoals belangrijke beslispunten, dingen die we betreuren,
veranderingen van richting en mijlpalen in de ontwikkeling. In hoofdstuk 5, tenslotte, keren we
terug naar de face-to-face dialogen in de groep in Mexico, om deze nu meer gedetailleerd te
bekijken, en daarmee sluiten we deel 1 af. Deel 2 gaat vooral over de geschreven dialogen van de
deelnemers. Het eerste hoofdstuk in dit deel, hoofdstuk 6, bereidt de lezer voor op de deelname
aan het dagboek- en antwoordend schrijven zoals dat in hoofdstuk 7 uit de doeken wordt gedaan,
TRANSFORMING ENCOUNTERS AND INTERACTIONS vii
en waarin op twee-talige manier verschillende teksten van 10 deelnemer-therapeuten, die elk
antwoord proberen te geven op de centrale vraag van dit project, staan beschreven. In hoofdstuk
8, tenslotte, kijken we terug op het project in zijn geheel, en proberen aan te geven wat zijn
mogelijke relevantie is voor mensen in dialogische praktijken, en voor verder kwalitatief
onderzoek in de toekomst.
TRANSFORMING ENCOUNTERS AND INTERACTIONS viii
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements iii
Abstract v
Introduction x
Project Focus x
Outline of Project Events: Spoken Dialogue, Written Dialogue, xi
Responding “Into” the Dialogues xi
Seven Features of Project Method xvi
The “So What?” Question: To Whom is This Inquiry Important, and Why? xxiii
Invitation to Readers xxvi
Part One: Orienting to the Spoken Dialogue
Chapter 1: The Playa Dialogue 1
Chapter 2: Understanding Dialogue Dialogically 23
How Shall We Go On? 23
What is Dialogue? 25
Dialogic Understanding 32
Chapter 3: Dialogic Method of Inquiry: From Systematization
to the Social Poetics of Collaborative Shared Inquiry 70
Preparing For This Chapter 70
Method in Qualitative Social Inquiry: Background 72
Social Poetics as Method of Inquiry 81
Summary and Reflections 89
Chapter 4: Exposing the “Doing” of Method in this Inquiry:
Returning to the Playa Dialogue Reflexively 92
Divergence From Qualitative Research Methodology 107
Questioning the Legitimacy Of Dialogical Methods of Inquiry 120
Looking Back, Looking Forward 126
Chapter 5: Returning Again to the Playa Dialogue of June 2005:
Responding to Differences 129
TRANSFORMING ENCOUNTERS AND INTERACTIONS ix
Part Two: Orienting to the Journalled Dialogue
Chapter 6: Preparing to Participate:
Navigating the Multi-voiced, Multi-textual, Bi-lingual Text 143
Chapter 7: “As a Collaborative Therapist, How Could You Describe Your Practice
as Generative and Transforming for Yourself?” 160
Written Dialogues With Pasha 160
Written Dialogues With Emelie 182
Written Dialogues With Anaclaudia 195
Written Dialogues With Abigail 203
Written Dialogues With Preciosa 215
Written Dialogues With Olaf 219
Written Dialogues With Olivia 226
Written Dialogues With Abelinda 264
Written Dialogues With Geavonna 294
Part Three: Responding to the Project as a Whole
Chapter 8: Acknowledging its Influence in My Learning Process 310
From “Then” to “Now” 310
“What Questions Linger?” 311
“How Did Your Role in this Project Change?” 312
“Where Might We Go From Here?” 314
“What Did You Let Go of and What Are You Holding On To?” 319
“What Has Touched You Throughout This Project?” 324
Appendix A: Brief Introduction of Project Practitioners 328
Appendix B: Inter-related Characteristics of the Collaborative Approach to Therapy 330
Appendix C: Introduction to the Project’s Conversational Consulting Circle 332
Appendix D: Introduction to Project Translators 334
Appendix E: Letters of Invitation to Prospective Project Participants 338
References 342
TRANSFORMING ENCOUNTERS AND INTERACTIONS x
Introduction
“The complex event of encountering and interacting with another’s word has been almost
completely ignored by the corresponding human sciences…”
(Bakhtin, 1986, p. 144).
“The therapist is not an expert agent of change; that is, a therapist does not change another
person. Rather, the therapist’s expertise is in creating a space and facilitating a process for
dialogical conversations and collaborative relationships. When involved in this kind of process,
both client and therapist are shaped and reshaped—transformed—as they work together”
(Anderson, 2003b, p. 133).
Project Focus
Research Question
This dissertation is a dialogical, shared inquiry (Anderson, 1997, pp. 112-122) into
collaborative therapist experience of generativity and transformation within everyday
collaborative therapy practice. A total of 14 therapists, including myself, come together from
Mexico, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Canada and the U.S.A. to participate in a two-part set of
spoken and written dialogues responding to the following question: How could you describe
your practice as generative and transforming for yourself? The dialogues that form in response to
this question constitute both the data and the central event in this project. (See Appendix A for an
introduction to project participants.)
Philosophical Premises and Practices
This dissertation is situated within a particular dialogical approach to therapy practice
that has come to be known as postmodern, collaborative, or, collaborative therapy (Anderson,
1997; Anderson & Gehart, 2007). Known in some circles as one of the “discursive” (Strong &
Pare, 2004a) “social construction therapies” (Anderson, 2003b; McNamee & Gergen, 1992)
collaborative practice is variously described: as “mere conversation” (Hoffman, 1997), as
