scholarly journals The Roots Of Practice: An Anti-Colonial Critical Discourse Analysis Of Western Nature-Based Mental Health Therapies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Chui

<div>This study seeks to explore how nature-based therapies are understood in Western “mental health” practices. Specifically, horticultural and equine-assisted therapeutic models are examined for discursive themes tied to mind-body connections, attachment and healing. Additionally, texts used to teach specific therapeutic modalities are examined to further explore common concepts such as mindfulness and coping. In conducting a review of relevant literature, similar themes were revealed which contributed to a base knowledge for understanding the discourse around nature-based therapies. Engaging in an anti-colonial theoretical framework and a modified critical discourse analysis methodology, this qualitative study explores the research question: “What are the discourses which inform Western nature-based therapies?” Ultimately, this study aims to develop a more thorough understanding of how these therapies are linked to Indigenous approaches, how practices may be appropriated and used by Western practitioners, and the shift in social work towards more wholistic therapeutic practices. </div>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Chui

<div>This study seeks to explore how nature-based therapies are understood in Western “mental health” practices. Specifically, horticultural and equine-assisted therapeutic models are examined for discursive themes tied to mind-body connections, attachment and healing. Additionally, texts used to teach specific therapeutic modalities are examined to further explore common concepts such as mindfulness and coping. In conducting a review of relevant literature, similar themes were revealed which contributed to a base knowledge for understanding the discourse around nature-based therapies. Engaging in an anti-colonial theoretical framework and a modified critical discourse analysis methodology, this qualitative study explores the research question: “What are the discourses which inform Western nature-based therapies?” Ultimately, this study aims to develop a more thorough understanding of how these therapies are linked to Indigenous approaches, how practices may be appropriated and used by Western practitioners, and the shift in social work towards more wholistic therapeutic practices. </div>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Getchell

Sexual violence is a relevant topic in the Canadian mental health system. However, the dominant bio-medical understanding of mental health can be harmful to survivors. This study is focused on analyzing how sexual violence is discussed within the bio-medical mental health system. The bio-medical understanding of mental health is one that conceptualizes “mental illness” is brain disease and emphasizes pharmacological treatment. Sexual violence is a broad term that describes any violence, physical or psychological, carried out through sexual means or by targeting sexuality. Critical Discourse Analysis is used in this study to find and analyze discourses in the bio-medical mental health system found in three interviews with mental health service providers. The discourses that emerged were as follows: 1. people were “boiled down” to their diagnoses or experiences of sexual violence; 2. professionalism; 3. being funneled into “streams of care”; 4. what makes someone credible; and 5. who “gets it”. The MRP concludes with a discussion of implications of these findings for social work.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 326-334
Author(s):  
Helen Brooks ◽  
Kelly Rushton ◽  
Karina Lovell ◽  
Rebecca McNaughton ◽  
Anne Rogers

There is increasing recognition of the role pets play in the management of mental health conditions. Evidence suggests that pets promote social interaction and provide secure and intimate relationships which support the management of symptoms. This paper aimed to extend this evidence by exploring the phenomenological understanding of relationships and relationality with companion animals as therapeutic agents in the context of people’s wider social networks.A qualitative study was undertaken incorporating 35 interviews with 12 participants with a diagnosis of severe mental illness who identified a pet as being important in the management of mental health. Participants took part in three in-depth interviews centred on ego network mapping over a 12-month period (baseline, 6 and 12 months). A critical discourse analysis examined therapeutic relationships with pets in relation to mental health and compared these to other types of support over time. Summative discourse analyses were combined with a cross-case thematic analysis to look for commonalities and differences across individuals.Compared with interactions with other therapeutic agents, relationships with pets were free from the obligations and complexities associated with other types of network members and provided an extension and reinforcement to an individual’s sense of self which militated against the negative experiences associated with mental illness. Relationships with human network members were more variable in terms of consistency and capacity to manage demands (eg, network members requiring support themselves) and the emotions of others associated with fluctuations in mental health.This study adds weight to research supporting the inclusion of companion animals in the lexicon of mental health self-management through the therapeutic value attributed to them by participants within a wide personal network of support. The findings point to how consideration might usefully be given to how relationships with companion animals can be incorporated into healthcare planning and delivery.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (07) ◽  
pp. 1850058 ◽  
Author(s):  
IZABELLE BÄCKSTRÖM ◽  
MALIN LINDBERG

This paper examines a digital employee-oriented innovation program at a global IT-firm. It addresses the research question: how is the generation and promotion of employee ideas organised by the management, and what are the behavioural implications in terms of participation of such an organising? Drawing on the literature on inclusive innovation and employee-driven innovation, the authors explore the extent to which ordinary employees are included in innovative processes at work. The critical discourse analysis of written and spoken text exposes inclusiveness concerning the managements’ production and distribution of innovation discourse in the initial phases of the program. However, the analysis simultaneously reveals considerable excluding elements in the ordinary employees’ consumption of this discourse in its latter phases, particularly regarding the parallel discourses “we are all innovators” and “the single winning entrepreneur”.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bader Nasser Aldosari

This paper attempts to present a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Nelson Mandela’s defense speech I am prepared to die, which was delivered in 1964 during his trial in what is often called as Rivonia Trial. More specifically, the paper tries to explore the hidden relations of power and ideologies that have been encoded in Mandela’s defense speech. The main research question is: what are the ideological meanings Mandela tries to communicate through his speech, and how are these ideologies conveyed by CDA strategies? The paper draws on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), as discussed in the writings of Fairclough (1989, 2013) and Van Dijk (1993, 2001, 2014). The analysis covers two levels of analysis: the lexical level and the pragmatic level of analysis. Both levels are discussed under the theoretical umbrella of CDA. The paper reveals that Mandela managed, by using specific CDA strategies, to communicate particular ideological meanings that reflect his political stance, as well as his rebellious spirit as the most distinguished revolutionary leader who struggles against racial discrimination in South Africa.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
McKaila Sullivan

This major research paper is a modified critical discourse analysis of lived experience testimonials from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)’s Coping with COVID-19 campaign. Social work practitioners and researchers must consider the inherent violence in the complex manifestations of sanism and racism (re)produced through discourse and their inextricable confluence with institutions, colonial legacies and realities which operate at this juncture in support of white supremacy. The identified discourses reproduce the ideal neoliberal subject and operate as technologies which maintain the colonial project and white supremacy. If we stake any claim to anti-racist praxis at this juncture, it is necessary to radically disclose our complicity within this colonial project, acknowledge our confluent realities and interrogate any claim to anti-racism. If we fail to interrogate these discourses constructing madness, we not only permit the violent trajectory of sanism but operationalize the deeply entrenched (re)production of violent white supremacy. key words: critical discourse analysis, sanism, racism, white supremacy, psychocentrism


Affilia ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 088610992097855
Author(s):  
Heather L. Storer ◽  
Erin A. Casey

At a societal level, postfeminist and neoliberal companion discourses have minimized structural determinants of dating abuse while elevating individual characteristics such as personal responsibility and agency. Adolescent survivors of dating abuse most frequently seek help from their peers; thus, the substance of that support is critical to reduce stigma and support survivor’s well-being. Using critical discourse analysis methodology, this article examines how postfeminism has been enacted in teens’ discursive constructions of dating violence and describes the ramifications of such constructions. Analysis used structured questions to unpack teens’ constructions and discursive formations of dating abuse. Teens participated in 11 in-person and online focus groups nationally. Results indicate that teens discursively construct abuse survivors in ways that privilege postfeminist discourses of personal choice, agency, and empowerment. Specifically, teens employed discourses of direct and indirect culpability to describe why survivors enter and remain in abusive relationships. Such framings contribute to constructing a “stigmatized identity” for abuse survivors consistent with postfeminist discourse. Multitiered interventions must be developed that both challenge postfeminist discourses and support teens in developing more empathetic responses to abuse survivors.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Getchell

Sexual violence is a relevant topic in the Canadian mental health system. However, the dominant bio-medical understanding of mental health can be harmful to survivors. This study is focused on analyzing how sexual violence is discussed within the bio-medical mental health system. The bio-medical understanding of mental health is one that conceptualizes “mental illness” is brain disease and emphasizes pharmacological treatment. Sexual violence is a broad term that describes any violence, physical or psychological, carried out through sexual means or by targeting sexuality. Critical Discourse Analysis is used in this study to find and analyze discourses in the bio-medical mental health system found in three interviews with mental health service providers. The discourses that emerged were as follows: 1. people were “boiled down” to their diagnoses or experiences of sexual violence; 2. professionalism; 3. being funneled into “streams of care”; 4. what makes someone credible; and 5. who “gets it”. The MRP concludes with a discussion of implications of these findings for social work.


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