Inner and Outer Voices in Research: How Dialogical Approaches Can Enhance Knowledge Development in Mental Healthcare

Abstract

This article contributes methodological reflections on how dialogical and reflective approaches can enhance many voices in research. An epistemological assumption in research with a participatory design is that knowledge can be developed by collaborative processes between researchers and individuals with lived experiences. The study was conducted by arranging a reflective process meeting with different participants: researchers and mental health service providers and users. Using reflective thematic analysis and an analytical perspective, it describes the reflective process as the tailoring of different voices, which is a way of facilitating research that enables different participants to contribute their experiences in a dialogical process. The findings show that reflective processes can encourage people to both listen and talk and, in that sense, have both inner and outer dialogues that endorse the use of different types of knowledge, including research and lived experiences, to create new understandings together. This can have an impact on both collaborative research and practice in mental health services.