Recursive Frame Analysis: Reflections on the Development of a Qualitative Research Method

Abstract

The origin of recursive frame analysis (RFA) is revisited and discussed as a postmodern alternative to modernist therapeutic models and research methods that foster hegemony of a preferred therapeutic metaphor, narrative, or strategy. It encourages improvisational performance while enabling a means of scoring the change and movement of the contextual organization of communication. Here we revisit the origin of RFA, its subsequent development, and new directions it may pursue both in the domains of organizing therapeutic discourse and post hoc critical analysis.