Innovative moments and change pathways: a good outcome case of narrative therapy.
OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to explore the development of innovative moments (i-moments) in therapeutic conversation and to study how they match our heuristic model that accounts for the development of change, drawn from previous empirical research.


METHODS
In this therapeutic process research, we analysed a good outcome case of narrative therapy with a woman victim of intimate violence.


METHODS
This case, composed of 12 sessions, was analysed with the Innovative Moments Coding System: Version 1. This coding system allowed the identification of five different types of innovations (i-moments) that appeared during the therapeutic process: action, reflection, protest, re-conceptualization, and performing change. For each session, an index of temporal salience was computed, as the percentage of the time in the session that client and therapist spent talking about each i-moment. Our analysis procedures provided a quantitative and also a complementary qualitative approach.


RESULTS
Data showed that the types of i-moments emerged differently throughout the process. Early sessions were characterized mainly by action and reflection (low temporal salience), middle sessions were found to have mainly protest i-moments (low or middle temporal salience), and final sessions were characterized by the combination of high salient re-conceptualization and performing change i-moments.


CONCLUSIONS
Findings suggested that narrative change seems to develop in a cyclical way, in which different types of i-moments contribute to the development of a new self-narrative in different phases.
Santos
Anita
A
Instituto Superior da Maia (ISMAI), Maia, Portugal.
Gonçalves
Miguel
M
Matos
Marlene
M
Salvatore
Sergio
S
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007207:Individuation; D008960:Models, Psychological; D033262:Narration; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D011340:Problem Solving; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*