Using Gubrium and Holstein’s (2009) approach to narrative analysis, I examine how couples and I co-authored and co-edited shared meanings while talking about “we-ness.” I pay particular attention to my role as researcher and how I was active in inviting these conversations. I also attend to how participants and I developed joint meanings, negotiated individual and relational identities, and managed couples’ public image through processes of collaboration and control; specifically, by indicating agreement, navigating disagreements, and passing over alternative stories. Participants observed that talking about we-ness, with one another and with me, increased their sense of closeness. Thus, orienting to moments of togetherness and discussing past, present, and future experiences as a couple had implications for their understandings of “we” and “us.” I discuss the implications of my results, inviting researchers and therapists to consider how they may be active in shaping meaning- and identity-making conversations with participants and clients.
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Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
Kostetskaya, Anastasia
2024.
A baby to save their marriage:
Little Alexander
(1981) as USSR-GDR ‘family therapy’ by way of historical wish fulfilment
. Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema 18:1 ► pp. 52 ff.
Baglieri, Michael & Corinne Datchi
2018. We-ness in Couple and Family Therapy. In Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy, ► pp. 1 ff.
Baglieri, Michael & Corinne Datchi
2019. We-ness in Couple and Family Therapy. In Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy, ► pp. 3155 ff.
Mudry, Tanya E., Tom Strong, Inés Sametband, Marnie Rogers‐de Jong, Joaquín Gaete, Samantha Merritt, Emily M. Doyle & Karen H. Ross
2016. Internalized Other Interviewing in Relational Therapy: Three Discursive Approaches to Understanding its Use and Outcomes. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy 42:1 ► pp. 168 ff.
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