Exploring Influence and Autoethnography: A Dialogue Between Two Counselling Psychologists

Abstract

This article utilises a dialogical approach to explore the potential of autoethnography as a research method for counselling psychology while using the method to reflect on what it means to have influence as a researcher. We use a collaborative autoethnographical approach to explore the themes of influence, curiosity, rich insight and sincerity. We attempt to bring honesty and transparency to our collaborative dialogue about our previous work on vicarious trauma (VT) and secondary traumatic stress (STS), as well as how our themes are revealed in the different paths we have taken as counselling psychologists since our earlier collaboration. We consider what it means to influence, to be influential, and to be influenced. Through our dialogue, we try to speak with authenticity about our experiences as colleagues, counselling psychologists, scientist practitioners, and human beings. We discuss both the potential contribution of autoethnographical approaches and the challenges of using these methods, for counselling psychologists.