“That's what they talk about when they talk about epiphanies”: An invitation to engage with the process of developing found poetry to illuminate exceptional human experience

Amos, India

Abstract

This paper illuminates some of the journey taken by me, the researcher, whilst completing my doctoral research into the lived experience of epiphanies. The research journey is conceptualised as one of discovery; into the task of qualitative research to ‘carry forward’ the meaning of human experience that is considered ‘more than words can say’. Six participants took part in an unstructured interview aimed at exploring how they made sense of their epiphanic experiences. Following the application of an interpretative phenomenological analysis an arts-based representation of the research findings, in the form of found poetry, was chosen to supplement the emerging interpretation. Six found poems are dispersed throughout the paper. The aim is to offer the reader the crucial opportunity to simultaneously engage responsively and rationally with an exploration of the value of found poetry. Moreover, this style of presentation may offer the reader more space and time to notice, observe, and reflect on the impact of research poetry as they move through the paper. An evaluation of the utility of found poetry is also offered. By providing an insight into the process of constructing found poetry is it intended that the merits of its integration within qualitative inquiry are highlighted as successfully being able to bring the meaning of exceptional human experience alive to the reader. Furthermore, the experiential knowledge offered here is considered particularly relevant to professionals working in caring or therapeutic roles.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 11, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Nov 16, 2018
• Publication Date: 2019-03
• Deposit Date: Oct 19, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 16, 2020
• Journal: Counselling and Psychotherapy Research
• Print ISSN: 1473-3145
• Electronic ISSN: 1746-1405
• Publisher: Wiley
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 16-24
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12195
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12195
• Related Public URLs: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17461405