A qualitative exploration of Telling My Story in mental health recovery

Nurser, Kate (2017) A qualitative exploration of Telling My Story in mental health recovery. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this thesis project is to explore the role of personal storytelling in mental health recovery.
Design: The project is presented in portfolio format, including the following sections: a brief introduction to the portfolio, a systematic review of the literature on storytelling interventions for mental health recovery, an empirical paper exploring the qualitative experience of storytelling in a UK mental health recovery context, an extended methodology chapter, and an overall discussion and critical evaluation.
Findings: The systematic review identified some preliminary evidence for the usefulness of storytelling in mental health recovery, but identified a need for inductive exploration of this in a UK mental health context to guide future developments of storytelling approaches. The empirical paper used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the experience of storytelling for individuals who had attended the Telling My Story course offered at a UK recovery college. Findings showed that storytelling has the potential to have a profound impact at the individual level, at the same time as being a social act where the role of the listener(s) is central to the experience. Five key themes were identified: a highly emotional experience, feeling safe to disclose, renewed sense of self, two-way process and a novel opportunity. The group environment of mutual storytelling was perceived as beneficial for most, although not all, participants.
Originality/value: Storytelling can be a highly meaningful aspect of one’s recovery journey and more time could be dedicated to individuals telling their story within UK mental health services. The findings of the empirical paper offer insight into how storytelling is experienced by those who use it, which can be used to guide future developments and provide direction for measurement of outcomes. Areas for further research are considered.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
Depositing User:	Stacey Armes
Date Deposited:	22 Mar 2018 15:07
Last Modified:	22 Mar 2018 15:07
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/66565
DOI:

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