Performance and Performativity of Emotions in Systemic Psychotherapy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Performance and Performativity of Emotions in the Process of Systemic Psychotherapy in a General Adolescent Unit
IRAS ID
320952
Contact name
Christopher Loh
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Adolescence is a period of rapid developmental change. When adolescents require support from mental health services, they often present with risks of self-harm, suicide, and emotional dysregulation. Systemic psychotherapy is essential in the treatment of adolescent mental health issues. It offers a useful frame to understand emotions from a relational and contextual perspective. The aim of the study is to understand how emotions are communicated, understood and attended to in the process of systemic psychotherapy in a General Adolescent Unit (GAU). I hope that the findings will inform systemic psychotherapists on how to work with emotions in a moment-by-moment process to help adolescents and their families create changes, as well as provide insights to the emotional climate and complex processes of working in a GAU.
There are three parts to this study. The first part, which is also the core of the study, will involve video recording three sessions conducted by a systemic psychotherapist with three different families in a GAU. The recordings will be transcribed and analysed using Multimodel Conversation Analysis (MCA) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). These sessions are routine treatment offered to the families. The second part of the study will involve doing participant observation in a GAU over one week. The observation will involve only clinicians. This will provide insight to the emotional climate and how emotions work within the service. The data will be interrogated using descriptive and thematic forms of analysis. In the third part of the study, I will use autoethnography to connect my personal and professional selves to the study throughout the entire study process. I will document my thoughts, feelings and reflections on the topic of emotions and the research process in a diary. Data created in the three parts of the study will be triangulated to form a coherent narrative.
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
23/WA/0233
Date of REC Opinion
26 Sep 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion