Practitioners of open dialogue report their personal transformations as a result of conducting network meetings

• Published in: Frontiers in Psychology
• Main Authors: Alita Kathryn Taylor, Fletcher Brandon Taylor, Deborah Ann Anderson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-02-01
• Subjects: collaborative-dialogic approaches to mental healthcare; practitioner personal transformation; Open Dialogue network meeting; dialogical supervision; mutual transforming
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1083996/full

As health care providers practicing Open Dialogue, we cleave to the notion that the support we provide to users and their communities will lead to the kind of enduring personal transformation that they would consider an improvement. But what effects do Open Dialogue network meetings have toward instilling enduring personal transformations within the practitioners themselves? This subject is rarely addressed, particularly in academic settings. In this autoethnographic account, an experiencer/occupational therapist, a marriage & family therapist, and a psychiatrist each describe enduring transformations that they attribute to working together as Open Dialogue network meeting facilitators at one stand-alone clinic over 2 years. Our report illustrates the potential of Open Dialogue network meetings, particularly the depth and breadth of transformation that can occur in all who attend them.