ABSTRACT

Collaborative Writing and Psychotherapy delves into the relationship that develops between client and therapist as they embark on a collaborative autoethnographic writing practice.

The book explores the notion that both client and therapist change as a result of engaging in a psychotherapeutic process. The dialogic approach allows both voices to be heard together in the exploration of autoethnographic methods (collaborative autoethnography and dialogic autoethnography) and creative-relational approaches. This book will encourage therapists to be more vulnerable with their own life experiences and how these shape and influence therapeutic encounters with clients. Additional contributions include the expansion of psychotherapeutic literature to explore co-creative (creative relational) methods, and to expand autoethnographic scholarship to include psychotherapy narratives. Finally, the book offers ideas to therapists who might want to develop the ‘fellow traveller’ aspect of their professional identity, either in working directly with clients, or as part of their reflective practice.

This book will be suitable for therapists and scholars looking to explore the use of qualitative, autoethnographic and narrative methods in research and practice.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|11 pages

Irv Who? (Trish)

chapter 2|11 pages

Unstable Sense of Self (Dan)

chapter Dialogue 1|12 pages

How Do we Define Collaborative Writing?

chapter 3|10 pages

A Fine Balance (Trish)

chapter 4|10 pages

Letting Go (Dan)

chapter Dialogue 2|11 pages

The Book of Laughter and Remembering

chapter 5|12 pages

Writing into Healing (Trish)

chapter 6|10 pages

Butterfly Moves (Dan)

chapter Dialogue 3|12 pages

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

chapter |5 pages

Conclusion