Conference Agenda

Inspired by the conference theme, in this talk I will argue that research employing qualitative, discursive methodologies adopting a social epistemology approach can contribute to living with uncertainty in mental health clinical practice from a perspective of knowing in context. With regard to scientific knowledge, post-modern epistemological approaches and related methodologies have celebrated uncertainty, suggesting that we can reach no single, certain or absolute knowledge/truth about phenomena, including mental health clinical practice. Similarly, systemic, dialogic and collaborative approaches to psychotherapy have celebrated the tolerance of uncertainty, regarding the understanding and treatment of mental distress. On the other hand, societal challenges, like contemporary multi-faceted crises and related inequalities or global health threats like the COVID-19 pandemic remind us of the broader societal, ideological and political context of clinical practice, and flag the need for knowledge certainties to cope with fluidity and change. In my talk, I will start with an illustration of key features of discursive research methodologies, that is of methodologies espousing a contextualized view of language use, highlighting its performative and intersubjective aspects. I will discuss the employment of such methodologies in mental health clinical practice research, focusing on their strengths and limitations. I will then share examples from research projects, where I have engaged with methodologies like critical discursive psychology, conversation analysis or qualitative meta-synthesis, focusing on the study of discursive processes in systemic and constructionist psychotherapeutic approaches and on the study of how power intersects with clinical practice and psychotherapeutic dialogue. While doing so, I will share reflections on how putting to the fore (discursive) research as a means to construct knowledge in context could facilitate a “both/and” approach to uncertainty in clinical practice, that is an approach which celebrates an alternation between reaching and questioning certainties. I will argue that discursive methodologies adopting a social epistemology perspective, that is, a perspective situating knowledge construction within social context, could play a role to undertaking such a “living with uncertainty” approach in mental health clinical practice.