Building a Community of Inquiry Around Narrative Practice

Authors

John McLeod, Institute for Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy, DublinFollow

Abstract

This paper offers a commentary and reflection on papers included in the Narrative Practice Research Network Special Issue of The Qualitative Report. A brief introductory account is offered around the distinctive nature of narrative therapy and community work, in contrast to more widely used models of therapy. Challenges and dilemmas associated with research into counselling and psychotherapy are discussed. It is suggested that the work of the Narrative Practice Research Network represents a promising means of addressing these challenges through a combination of grounding in practice, commitment to an ethics of care, and creative reconceptualization of standard research tools such as qualitative interviews. The paper then moves on to consider possibilities around the further development of the Narrative Practice Research Network as a community of inquiry that supports dialogue among narrative researchers and practitioners, service users, and colleagues from other disciplines. The paper concludes by identifying the task of decolonialization of both therapy practice and research as an essential dimension of this field of work.

Keywords

care, dialogue, participative methodologies, qualitative research, solidarity

Author Bio(s)

John McLeod is a counsellor, service user, educator, researcher, and author who lives in Scotland and has worked in England, Ireland, and Norway. His career has focused on the development of flexible, pluralistic, co-produced ways of working with clients, the relevance for practice of case-based, qualitative, and participative approaches to research, and most recently, the urgent need for a more socio-politically and decolonised approach to therapy. Publications include Narrative and Psychotherapy (Sage, 1997), Case Study Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy (Sage, 2010), Qualitative Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy (2^nd ed., Sage, 2011), Using Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy (Sage, 2016), Doing Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy (4^th ed., Sage, 2022), Ethics in Participatory Research on Counselling and Psychotherapy: Justice, Solidarity and Care (with Julia McLeod, Routledge, 2025), An Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy: Theory, Practice, Research and Social Purpose (7^th ed., Open University Press, 2025) and Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy (2^nd ed., with Mick Cooper, Sage, 2025). johnmcleod2016@gmail.com. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8545-2844

Publication Date

1-2-2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2024.7913

Recommended APA Citation

McLeod, J. (2024). Building a community of inquiry around narrative practice. The Qualitative Report, 29(12), 232-246. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2024.7913

ORCID ID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8545-2844