The inner guide: an exploration of biographical patterns

• Main Author: Lozinsky, Miles Rodney
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4226

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.