WHO AM I? ISSUES OF IDENTITY AS RESEARCHER Dr. Claire Asherson Bartram clairebartram21@gmail.com My name

WHO AM I? Self identity as researcher for my thesis: Narratives of mothers in stepfamily situations Who am I? Dimensions of identity – arising from the field What was I born into: gender, ethnicity, culture, class, country, family history What were my personal interests: music, hippy culture, meditation, gestalt Major life influences: marriage, having children, stepfamily situation, training Project: gestalt therapist, doctoral candidate Core: identities that connect to my research: woman, mother, stepmother. Who am I? – there are layers of how I identify myself, some from birth, others I have acquired over the years.

HOW DO OTHERS SEE ME? Participants: psychotherapist, academic, researcher, woman, Peers: Tutors: Others perceptions don’t necessarily match my own. In relational, heuristic, gestalt framed research, how I am perceived and how others perceive me is embedded in the data. The data being the narratives obtained through interviews.

Layers of identity which connect or seperate researcher Gestalt therapist Stepmother Woman and Mother Human being

Woman, mother, stepmother Layers of identity Wish to do research Inadequacy around academic ability Scientific family Creative and explorative Wanting to do it my way (adolescent attitude) Hippy/improvisation Heuristic methodology – a methodology that connects and allows me to be included (concept of co-creation) Trying to fit findings into a Gestalt model Gestalt therapist Connects me with the women I interviewed Challenged to step back Woman, mother, stepmother

Exercise Take some time to list some of your identifications As you list them think what each draws you towards? Which type of research What do you think you would you never do? What connects you to your research participants, what distances you? With a partner explore the hierarchy of your identifications, from core to surface Choose one to be. Walk around the room them with a partner. What does this feel like? What happens in your body? Talk in group

Claire Asherson Bartram Contact details Claire Asherson Bartram +44 8361 6146 clairebartram21@gmail.com