Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The career development of men in the predominately female profession of physical therapy is assessed in relation to the intersecting social worlds of sport and work. A critical feminist perspective on sport, masculinities and the gender order (Connell 1987) is used as an analytical framework for interpreting data gathered from 32 semi-structured interviews with two cohorts of male physical therapists in their early and mid-careers. A distinctive “domain of masculinity” characterized by a background in sports, sports injuries, and bodybuilding activities is identified as the primary mechanism for entering the field, choice of certification, and practice experience. We argue that a sports-related pathway and early emphasis on athleticism, helps to maintain “hegemonic masculinity” by easing men into a female-dominated profession through a familiar masculine terrain. However, variations on hegemonic themes are evident and respondent’s encapsulations of the essential characteristics of the “good PT” are highly androgynous, including the stereotypical “female traits” of caring and nurturing. Paradoxically the context of athleticism dialectically shapes men’s abilities to comfortably accept “alternative masculinities” in the form of caring work that departs from hegemonic archetypes of men and men’s work, while at the same time men’s choices reinforce hegemonic masculinities.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This presentation aims to explore feminist therapists’ practice around power in the counselling relationship. Themes include convergences in practice and divergences in practice, with a focus on sources of struggle for therapists. Results of this investigation suggest the importance of exploring challenges in the application of feminist principles to therapy.

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: Collaborative therapists have described their practices as not springing from expertise, at least not expertise regarding relationships. They refer to their work with clients as conversation, and they use grand language to describe how these conversations are therapeutic. I'd like to consider that if they aren't experts at relationships (certainly not the particular relationships being focused on in therapy), then one area they ought to be experts in is therapeutic conversation. If so, then they could conceivably profit from knowing how discourse and conversation analysts, not to mention prescriptive approches to conversational excellence, construe the work of governing conversations. To what extent are they picking up on the strong current of conversation scholarship that has formed since in the 1990's? What avenues of conversation research might they usefully experiment with? How could working with these experts in therapeutic conversation inform practical scholarship in conversation?

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper utilizes the methodologies of discourse analysis to examine the dialogic processes of the qualitative interview and to identify the implementation of therapeutic strategies employed by the interviewer in this context. It examines how these strategies extend or diminish the dialog between interviewer and respondent and how they contribute to the process and outcomes of the qualitative interview. It explores the nature of the qualitative interview as compared to the therapeutic encounter and considers the similarities and differences of the two processes. The therapeutic techniques included for analysis within this paper are empathy, reflective listening, focusing, and therapist self-disclosure. The text provides examples that analyze the applications and outcomes of these therapeutic techniques and presents extended portions of the individual interviews as a means of identifying the therapeutic strategies embedded in the dialog.
The paper will initially provide a general description of the qualitative interview and the therapeutic encounter. These descriptions will orient the reader to the nature of these processes and identify the basic strategies and goals of each methodology. These discrete, yet similar events provide a foundational framework for this project and offer a point of reference for other, more detailed analyses that demonstrate a blending of the two. A broad definition of discourse and discussion of discourse analysis will provide a brief overview of the strategies employed for this exploration and clarify the emphasis on interview process rather than interview content.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Substantive research has underscored the important role of the communicative therapist-patient relationship, commonly called the therapeutic alliance, in generating change during and after psychotherapy. This interpersonal bond has demonstrated to be a predictor of treatment outcome across a number of psychosocial interventions, including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), one of the most popularly employed psychotherapeutic treatments. Although the association between patient-therapist communication and psychotherapeutic outcome has been well documented, scant attention has focused on the factors necessary for a fruitful therapeutic alliance in CBT treatment specifically for social anxiety disorder (SA; also called social phobia), the third most common psychological disorder in the nation. Extrapolating from previous discourse in the area of the therapeutic alliance in both CBT and other psychotherapeutic approaches—replete with relevant concessions that take into account the unique nature of individuals with SA—this paper advances several conceptual elements deemed applicable to CBT treatment for SA in terms of trust and openness; warmth, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard; empathic understanding; and therapist self-disclosure. The reality that approximately half of all patients with SA who receive CBT do not significantly benefit also warrants this investigation. Findings suggest that it is critical that therapists and researchers alike explore further the association between key ingredients of the therapeutic alliance and treatment outcome specifically in the context of CBT in treating SA. Since this issue has been virtually uncharted, it is hoped that the preliminary guidelines presented herein stimulate a promising avenue of inquiry that may vastly improve the efficacy of this treatment modality for this debilitating disorder.