My mother, my mirror? Three generations encounter family therapy

Abstract

This article tells the story of the encounters of my mother, my daughter and myself with family therapy during divorce. The narrative employs evocative autoethnography, a research method in which my voice is viewed as a continuance of other voices emanating from the culture. I am researcher and informant both, and thereby, my own source. Events from the marital break-ups of three generations are explored in relation to family therapeutic practice using an insider perspective. The results indicate that shame has been prominent for all of us. A common thread through our stories is how shame can be seen in the ways we each experienced the distribution of power through the exercise of family therapy, in which practice appears to be strongly shaped by social discourses. The method of autoethnography can be useful to expand the concept of knowledge as well as produce detailed research into family life through elevation of intimate stories often suppressed by larger meta-narratives.