| Summary: | The purpose of this study was to explore the pattern of experience with an inner guide
within the context of biographical narrative. Despite numerous accounts of how to employ the
inner guide as a tool in counselling and how beneficial it may be, there has been little research
to inform practice. The aim of this study was to provide a holistic, contextual understanding of
inner guidance which would serve as a basis for further understanding of these experiences by
counsellors and researchers.
This was done by employing a multiple case study design and narrative methodology.
Three women, two in their forties and one in her sixties with the appropriate inner guidance
experience volunteered to participate. Intensive interviews were conducted, transcribed,
analyzed, and presented as individual narratives. Each narrative was then validated by the
respective participant and a general narrative pattern was constructed. In this way the meaning
and experience of each participant's relationship to her inner guide and the influences between
her inner guidance and her life was explored.
Findings indicate that the experience of an inner guide was intimate to the very lives as
lived, making a holistic research approach indispensable for the investigation of meaning. An
implication of this study is to offer clinicians using an inner guide technique a broader
understanding of the experience as it relates to an individual's life in a holistic manner.
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