Journal of Trauma & Treatment

Ways of Knowing and Unknowing in Psychotherapy and Clinical Practice

Abstract

Susan Stevens

Carper’s theory is used to explicate and illustrate ways of knowing in psychotherapy and clinical practice. White and Munhall’s expansion of Carper’s theory, particularly the pattern of unknowing, is highlighted to explore psychotherapeutic intervention to illustrate context, intersubjectivity, and new perspectives leading to confidence and change. A creative encounter using poetry in psychotherapy with a bereaved caregiver who subsequently becomes a widow provides a lesson in hope versus hopelessness and is used to elucidate the process of how one struggles with despair to yield to the return of hope. The potential for growth through mutuality and reciprocity for both the patient and the nurse as embedded with the context of healing relationships is explored. Integrated case narrative and analysis includes the expertise of a psychiatric nurse practitioner over a one-year period.