Reflexive encounters with embodied resistance to relational forgiveness. Issue 2 (4th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Russell, Laura D.
• Is Part Of: Reflective practice. Volume 18:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 183
• Page End: 193
• Publication Date: 2017-03-04
• Subjects: Critical reflexivity -- embodiment -- forgiveness -- interpersonal relationships -- emotion; Professions -- Periodicals; Reflection (Philosophy) -- Periodicals; Thought and thinking -- Periodicals; Self-knowledge, Theory of -- Periodicals; Career development -- Periodicals; 370.15
• DOI: 10.1080/14623943.2016.1265494
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1462-3943

Abstract

Abstract: Troubling relationships with our parents may raise unanswered questions and anxieties. Over time, our bodies harbor these sensations in ways that often may go unrecognized. In this autoethnographic account, I examine memories of my childhood and recent past to understand emotionally disturbing episodes tainting my relationship with my father. Interrogating my reflective habits, I probe meanings left undetected by my preconceived sense-making routines. At the same time, I notice and voice the embodied resistance I encounter when opening up and deconstructing intimate layers of deeply rooted pains associated with my father. In doing so, I demonstrate how reflective practices summon a dialogue between embodied emotions and re-engagements with past understandings. Such dialogue generates potential for reimagining relational meanings and apprehending possibilities for forgiveness.