Reflexivity and Qualitative Family Research:: Insider's Perspectives in Bereaving the Loss of a Child

Abstract

The author uses her experiences with death and bereavement to select her research problem and to become a sensitive collaborator and listener with others who had the same experience of the loss of a loved one. From deep listening and opening of her heart to colleagues she began the integration of personal, empirical, theoretical, practical and spiritual knowledge into her research. A reconceptualization of maternal bereavement occurred. It is an open, fluid, dialectical process of change.