The ‘uncomfortable aunt’: Acts of resistance against NHS practices that contradict our values

Abstract

This study explores the experience of family therapists performing ‘everyday’ acts of resistance against practices within the National Health Service (NHS) that contradict their values. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyse semi-structured interviews with five family therapists working in the NHS. Themes explored include the influence of the self of the therapist on their motivation to resist, and the necessity of resisting to survive in the job and ensure families' marginalised voices are heard in the wider system. The tension in balancing competing needs in the system and the energy that resisting both gives and takes are described, as well as how others in the system influence the therapists' ability to resist. Resisting emerges as a critical role of the family therapist, as well as crucial for practitioners to work in a way coherent with their sense of self.