ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how to undertake a relational mapping interview (RMI) and how to analyse the visual data created in this approach from an experiential research project that explored the relationships of young people (18-25 years) under the care of Early Intervention Services for Psychosis, which are community outreach services providing biopsychosocial interventions for first-episode psychosis. The RMI aims to be an encounter, not an interrogation, and so is not a linear set of questions but a framework for communicating relational experience in non-linear ways. Unlike a traditional semi-structured interview, RMIs follow an ‘interview arc’ and use the format of ‘draw–talk–draw–talk’. To aid both interviewer and participant to navigate the participant’s experience, the RMI consists of four touchpoints: mapping the self; mapping important others; standing back; and considering change. The RMI provides data that is rich and polysemous, whilst also being experience-near and subjective in focus.
