A Feminist Family Therapy Research Study

Abstract

In Hong Kong no one has ever explored a female anorectic's experience of family therapy by inviting her to review her family sessions. By using a retrospective approach, this single case study adopted an interpretative paradigm with an open-ended question regarding how the patient experienced the family sessions. The distinct feature of this data collection was that the patient served as a research instrument and was invited to review six family sessions in order to review her past session experiences. Five themes emerged from the patient's storied review of the sessions: (1) how she viewed her own personal characteristics; (2) her changed perceptions of her family relationships; (3) her perceptions of her family quarrels' dynamics; (4) her resistance to recovery; and (5) her significant events in family therapy. With this unique client-driven approach for qualitative inquiryher hands were writing for her heart; her words expressed her experience. Thus, the client was allowed to give her own voice to her subjective experience and, thereby, to enhance the future of family therapy practice.