During the past week or so i have been revisiting the literature to discover quotes etc for the two powerpoint presentations I am preparing for this coming week: one for the review panel and one for the research conference. The two presentations are on the same topic, my research, buthave different audience, different purpose and different style. I notice that i find it far more difficult to prepare the slides for the review panel: this is cause the style is to be less personal, more based on the ‘to do’ and the facts of the research and it is to be presented to non-counsellors who will maybe ‘critisize’ (i hope in a constructive atmosphere) my work and kind of decide on whethere i can proceed. On the other hand, the presentation for the conference has the more ‘personal’ flavour of the research, i feel the freedom to tell my story to the audience of peers and feel that I am allowed to ‘move’ and ‘touch’them if i wish to, without feeling threatened, i can be more myself … Read more »

After having spent much time with reading, writing, agonising over research dilemmas (in conjunction with many dilemmas and conflicts in my personal life, deeply related to the process of finding peace with my ‘roots’ and working towards integrating my host and original cultures within) i felt the urgent desire to connect with nature and be nurtutred by it. I went for a walk with JP at a park and after walking around in the greek, feeding ducks etc, we lay down on the soil. I so much needed to feel the sun on my skin and be connected to the Earth…is there something around the need for grounding? (i somehow see this as very necessary for anybody in a heuristic research journey, as it appears quite demanding for the person).

This makes me think about what we call Ecopsychology and i guess that since location and space,place, ground are concepts deeply connected with the topic of culture, this area doesnt seem at all irrelevant. … Read more »

As the review panel approaches, i know that one of the maain points i will be asked to defend will be the cloice of methodological chance in relation to the research.  I have read so many things around methodology during the past couple of years in particular. Earlier today i was reading a chapter by Colin Feltham titled “The Therapist as Researcher and Inquirer” cited in the Handbook of Counselling and Psychotherapy (2000, London : Sage) by Feltham and Horton and fond some useful quotes worthe recording for later use: … Read more »

Yesterday i had quite an ‘intensive’ supervision session with W. and i have to do a lot of work now to clarify things about my research proposal etc…I am deeply grateful to W. for being such a good companion to all this journey, we have a very good working alliance and i receive a lot of support from him. My difficulty lies on the fact that my concentration is very low due to my personal grievings and frustrations in my personal life (which also affect my sleep patterns etc, i need to rest more so that i can produce ideas and be able to write etc). Anyway, during early hours this morning, i had a dream that seems to be telling me sth about my research proposal but i cant quite remember the details … Read more »

I came accross this article by Dave Hiles, titled Heuristic Inquiry and Transpersonal Research (to view full document, click here). He comments on the book of Braud & Anderson (about transpersonal research methods) that I have read before and proposes certain adaptations he has made to the model and applied to his own research. He has a description that simplifies many concepts and presents useful tables (especially the one around the tensions in the study of grounded – subtle human experiences). … Read more »