Integrating Postmodern Therapy and Qualitative Research

Dr. Carlos Perez is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Psychology and Counseling at Lubbock Christian University. He is a licensed professional counselor, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and a certified family life educator. His research efforts focus on issues of masculinity and marital infidelity.

"The journey of qualitative inquiry is like the therapeutic process. Both are tricky and complicated, and both lead to rich rewards. In these chapters, Dr. Carlos Perez offers important guidance on how to help researchers be better thinkers and better people, and this will result in better scholarship." – Jason B. Whiting, PhD, LMFT, author of Love Me True: Overcoming the Surprising Ways We Deceive in Relationships"Integrating Postmodern Therapy and Qualitative Research is a landmark text that emphasizes being with participants and being for conversation rather than the traditional question-driven approach. Dr. Perez’s articulation of the trustworthiness of the researcher is novel, and a good reminder that it is from this starting point that qualitative research should ensue rather than be pursued. Through postmodern therapies, epistemological and philosophical reflection, and systemic thinking, he invites the person-of-the-researcher to examine critically their own way of being, their biases, and ultimately what is to be gained from research. This book embodies the ethics of qualitative research that both seasoned and beginner researchers should read." – Josh R. Novak, PhD, LMFT, assistant professor of marriage and family therapy; director of the Relationships and Health Lab, Auburn University"Counselors and marriage and family therapists typically develop as therapists before they establish their identity as researchers. With this in mind, Dr. Carlos Perez summarizes three models of marriage and family therapy and offers a map for postmodern therapists as he considers how to integrate those frameworks into a qualitative methodology. Dr. Perez addresses common questions around the nuances of self-disclosure and positioning of the researcher. Students, therapists, and beginning researchers will gain insight into how the fundamental tenets of each model can be organized into a feminist-informed, postmodern approach to scholarly inquiry." – Sara E. Blakeslee Salkil, PhD, LMFT, IMFT-S, assistant dean; graduate programs program coordinator, Online Marriage and Family Therapy, Abilene Christian University

• 1. What is a researcher? What is a therapist? 2. Epistemology and Philosophy 3. Postmodern Therapies and Approaches 4. Collaborative Language Systems in Research 5. The Narrative Interviewer 6. Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Approach to Research 7. Hierarchy and Self-disclosure 8. On Writing