What inspired you to choose this particular research topic?
Personal history
Clients
Supervision
Good research topic
Can you explain the significance of studying spiritual healers and spirit possession in your chosen context?
Global phenomenon, with rising reports
Possession related to somatic conditions
Important with primary care psychology
Fear/aversion from sharing
Dearth of existential contribution
How does your study contribute to the existing body of knowledge on spiritual healing and spirit possession?
Provides an existential contribution
Summarise the current literature
Existential orientation (distinct)
Takes place in an intersubjective space
Healer is a part of the process
Individuals are able to externalise a failed process, with the healer
Allows a way of understanding how this could be reframed from clinical practice
What are some of the key theoretical frameworks that underpin your research?
Critical realism (mind independent world where knowledge can be generated by understanding the structures. Where one can also be wrong.)
Phenomenology (Husserl, structural elements, what makes experience possible)
Existential analysis (jaspers, binswanger, ontico-ontological relationship)
What research methodology did you use for this study, and why did you choose it?
Qualitative methodology
Research Q
Marking the territory (lit review)
Understand the structure of kn (theory)
Semi-structured approach
Questions which focus on the how and the why
Descriptive vs interpretative
SCK approach - Keen mentions using the single situation as a way to get insight
Used a pilot project to identify the challenges
Can you describe your process for selecting participants for your study?
Lit review (heterogenous)
Identify the spaces
Traditional forms of advertising
Gatekeepers - healers trust and the guild
Problems
Adults, English and identify as spiritual healer
How did you ensure ethical considerations were addressed when working with spiritual healers and their clients?
Ethical approval (applied)
PIS states the ethical considerations
Consent - verbal and written
Process of confidentiality and its limitations
Anonymity:
Ensuring personal identifiable characteristics were removed.
Safeguarding and wellbeing concerns:
A) Debrief after interview
B) Check in with supervisors
Identify the safeguarding lead at MDX
What were the main challenges you faced in conducting your fieldwork, and how did you overcome them?
Time spent developing gatekeepers (healing trusts)
Mistrust of some participants (pulling out, reluctance) (better screening)
Ensuring confidentiality and ethical compliance (PIS, choosing a pseudonym)
Time constraints (reluctant to carry on) (interview schedule)
Follow ups
Can you discuss the tools and techniques you used for data collection?
Semi structured interview
Singular case/situation
Tape recording
Transcribing
Coded file
Things done differently - asked for 30 mins extra for interview or follow ups
How did you analyze the data collected from your participants?
Transcripts and audio file check
Read them through multiple times
How and the what of the experience
Familiarised with bracketing interview (biases)
Meaning units and themes
Invariant pieces
Imaginative variation (a key aspect)
SCK approach
Can you explain your coding process and how you identified themes in your data?
Ground up coding
Read multiple times to identify invariant from the variant (example of invariant)
How and the what
Imaginative variation
Structural coding
Sub codes into a narrative
How did you ensure the reliability and validity of your findings
Define each one.
Creswell mentions having 2
- bracketing
- reflective journal
- adhering to the SCK process
- accuracy of findings (listen and check against original file)
- participants verification
What are the main findings of your research
4 primary and 14 secondary themes
Possession as an ontico ontological relationship of existence. Antinomical structure.
The healer helps to resolve the antinomical factor by seeing it as an intentional object.
Were there any unexpected results or themes that emerged from your data?
Considerable overlap between themselves.
Clinical similarities
Spectrum
Foundational experience
How do your findings align with or differ from existing literature on spirit possession and spiritual healing?
Align:
Heterogenous healers
Possession as an agent entering body
Clinical perspectives
Hypnosis
Differ:
Something individual
Trauma
Whether possession proper exists? (SPECTRUM)
What insights do your findings provide into the lived experiences of spiritual healers?
Foundational experience
Prestructured and perceptual prior
Non categorical of looking at possession
Intersubjective mechanism
Working overlap with psych
Future free state
What practical implications do your findings have for the field of spiritual healing?
How to work with possession (anomalous experiences)
Working with adjacent professions
Unpacking the intersubjective mechanism
Healer as a receptacle, which can be used as a framework
Therapist as a screen to allow intersubjective experience to be rectfied
What is your existential contribution?
Dearth of studies
Explores experience from existential framework
Orientation and intersubjective aspect
Fluctuating body
Disrupted intersubjective experience
Forebodying - The primordial relationship that emerges to alleviate the tension
Healer as active screen
What recommendations would you make for future research in this area?
3 parts to the research
Healers, individuals, and then the social context such as families
Relating some of the structural aspects to other conditions like eating disorders, hearing voices,
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently in your research process?
- Sample: Built time to develop relationship with psychologists and counsellors who practice depossession.
- Follow ups: stressed this as being an impotent aspect of the process to ensure validity and reliable.
- Literature review: expansive and would have liked to have covered more: exceptional circumstances,
What are the main limitations of your study?
First time as a researcher. (Used a structured process)
Literature review felt expansive and continuing to expand. The more reading was throwing up multiple ideas. (Covered the main areas relevant to research)
Influence of the researcher’s Presence (reflexive)
Follow-ups were not accepted by researchers (accuracy and verification)
How do you address potential biases in your research?
Bracketing and interview
Reflective journal
Phenomenological attitude
Multiple play and read throughs of transcription
How has conducting this research impacted your own perspectives on spiritual healing and spirit possession?
Saw it as a cultural bound syndrome and something occurring in the head.
Existential orientation (me and not me)
Failed intersubjective experience.
Also as something that has overlaps in other areas which may seem to be unrelated…eating disorder voices.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of your research?
Strengths:
Existential grappling
Intersubjective triad
Structural elements
Weaknesses:
Literature review
1st attempt at descriptive phenom
Follow ups
