Narrative Inquiry in the Psychotherapy Professions: A Critical Review

The importance of stories in understanding people’s relationship to food: narrative inquiry methodology has much to offer the public health nutrition researcher and practitioner

“…It adopts a range of orientations, including 'constructivism', 'post-modernism' and 'poststructuralism' (7,(15)(16)(17)(18) . It was the influence of the sociolinguists Labov and Waletzky in the 1960s, with their analysis of the structural features of oral narratives of people's ordinary everyday experiences, that was pivotal in the shift away from realism for many narrative researchers.…”

“…Polkinghorne's (20) methods of organising story were chosen, given the participants' and researchers' understanding of Western narrative structure (7) , acknowledging that there are always diverse, alternative narrative representations (16,27,28) . Polkinghorne (20) describes 'story' as a particular type of discourse that shapes events and actions into a unified whole by means of a plot.…”

“…A notable exception comes from a group researching food justice, who has acknowledged the importance of narrative inquiry to more deeply understand the constraints on people as they try to nourish themselves (see Dixon) (8) . Yet narrative inquiry has much to offer public health nutrition researchers and practitioners, as it shows how knowledge is constructed in people's ordinary, everyday experiences as they interact and communicate with one another and make sense of their lives through what narrative researchers name 'story-telling' (7,9) . The present paper suggests that examining more closely the storied landscape of people's everyday food experiences can improve our understanding of people's complex relationship to food (10) .…”

“…If qualitative research is to be viewed as worthwhile and credible by a broad community of nutrition researchers and practitioners, it must be well-designed and rigorous, with clear description of the chosen methodology or guiding theoretical framework (6) . Narrative inquiry, a wellestablished qualitative research methodology, has been embraced by professions such as education, nursing, medicine and occupational therapy (7) ; however, its uptake in food and nutrition research is limited. A notable exception comes from a group researching food justice, who has acknowledged the importance of narrative inquiry to more deeply understand the constraints on people as they try to nourish themselves (see Dixon) (8) .…”

A Narrative Account of the Life Experiences of Older Somali Refugee Women

“…Integrating intersectional feminist theory, aging, and life experience, it places the 'subject' as the driver of the inquiry allowing for the increased complexity; indeed Randall [17] discusses ageing as individuals increasing rather than decreasing in complexity. Narrative is particularly valuable in feminist scholarship as it allows for "…sequence and consequence: Events are selected, organized, connected, and evaluated as meaningful for a particular audience" [18]. Thus, participants are able to relate their life experience organically allowing, "respondents in various settings, such as interviews, to impose order on the flow of experience to make sense of events and actions in their lives" [19].…”