Expressive writing and telling and participatory action research: developing a relational ethics of practice for story-based interventions in crisis settings

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recent work in Expressive Telling, an oral form of Expressive Writing, has demonstrated the usefulness of a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach in the design of narrative therapeutic interventions in post-conflict and crisis settings. This paper outlines how a combined PAR/relational ethics approach informed a recent Expressive Telling project supporting vulnerable families in the Akkar region of Lebanon (2020–21) enabling the development of strong relational bonds among stakeholders that sustained the project in the face of Lebanon's social and economic upheaval and the COVID-19 crisis. This collaborative, iterative methodology enabled the development of thics in practice forged by attending to relationships and valuing the voices of all stakeholders, UK and Lebanon-based, through life storytelling practice, generating new knowledge and practices to meet the challenges of the crisis. This approach enabled stakeholders to jointly consider the effects of crisis settings on ethical research practice principles in wider creative narrative interventions.