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Topic

Bodies of Work: Exploring Anti-Violence Counsellors’ Embodied Narratives of Trust

Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies

Date & location

• Monday, March 17, 2025

• 10:00 A.M.

• Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Jon Woodend, Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies, University of Victoria (Supervisor)

• Dr. Breanna Lawrence, Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies, UVic (Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Allison Foskett, Counselling Psychology, Yorkville University 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Nathan Lachowsky, School of Public Health and Social Policy, UVic

   

Abstract

Community-based anti-violence counsellors provide vital support to survivors of gender-based violence. In this phenomenological qualitative study, I explored anti-violence counsellors’ embodied experiences of trust, and how these experiences of trust contribute to the sustainability of their working roles. I conducted five individual interview sessions with community-based anti-violence counsellors, incorporating the arts-based method of body mapping to focalize embodied experience. In analyzing collected data, I employed reflexive thematic analysis, in the tradition of Braun and Clarke (2006, 2022). Four central themes emerged, framed within the greater pattern of Trust and Sustainability as Relational and Related. In the first theme, Trust, as Connectedness, as Safety, trust was presented as an interactive process that is rooted in safety, involving relational connection between the body and the mind, and the self and others. The second theme, The Trustworthy Counsellor: Self-Trust and Sustainability through Role Affirmation, highlighted how affirmation of one’s role through one’s felt sense of competency and trustworthiness contributes to role sustainability. In Sustainable Trust as Connected Assurance, trustworthiness was explored as being built through knowledge, connectedness, and intentions that are aligned between self and others, including one’s colleagues and employing organization. The final theme, Reflexive Realism, emphasized the importance of reflexivity, attunement, and relational care in creating sustainability in anti-violence counselling work. These findings indicate that trust, as a process occurring both within and beyond the self, played a substantial role in the sustainability of community-based anti-violence counsellors’ working experiences. This study identified a need for a multifaceted approach to bolstering trust, which involves embodied connection, reflexivity, relational safety, and organizational support, in order to encourage sustainable working practices for anti-violence counsellors.