Browsing by Author "Matheson, Jennifer L."
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Marriage & Family Therapy Faculty Member's Balance of Work and Personal LifeMatheson, Jennifer L. (Virginia Tech, 2002-04-26)This mixed-method study examines the work and personal life balance of Marriage & Family Therapy faculty members across the U.S., 16 of whom were interviewed to gain a deeper understanding of their work and personal life balance issues. Of those, six felt they had good balance, six felt they had poor balance, and four were "middle of the road." More men than women felt they had good balance. Faculty members indicated external and internal indicators such as family and workplace messages, health cues, feelings of contentment, and congruence with personal values help them determine how they feel about their work and personal life balance. Other findings indicate that many factors impact MFT faculty member's sense of their work and personal life balance, including child and relationship status, tenure status, and gender issues. Balance enhancers included job flexibility, setting healthy boundaries, their ability to say no, spirituality, positive work esteem, and participation in non-work activities. Balance reducers included developing bad habits, negative work esteem, problematic but temporary life circumstances, and poor work boundaries. Faculty members also discussed some of their coping strategies and made recommendations for future MFT faculty members such as good self care, not viewing work as a race, being intentional, prioritizing, and strategizing.
- Using Metaphors to Explore the Experiences of Powerlessness Among Women in Twelve-Step Substance Abuse RecoveryMatheson, Jennifer L. (Virginia Tech, 2005-04-08)Twelve-Step programs of substance abuse recovery are the most popular and most used mutual-help model in the U.S. One of the pivotal aspects of Twelve-Step is the often controversial idea of powerlessness. While a few recent dissertations have been conducted to look at issues related to women in Twelve-Step, most of what has been published in the literature on powerlessness in Twelve-Step is hypothetical, anecdotal, and theoretical. There is debate about the usefulness of the concept of powerless, especially for women in recovery, though no research was found specifically exploring this issue. The current study examines the experiences of powerlessness among women who are using Twelve-Step substance abuse recovery. Because experiences of powerlessness are abstract and may be difficult to articulate, a data collection method called ZMET (Zaltman, 2004) was utilized. This method helped women discuss their thoughts and feelings about powerlessness through the use of images of representative metaphors and analogies. Participants were 13 women who were in various stages of recovery using Twelve-Step. In-depth interviews were used to understand women's experiences of powerlessness in their recovery while two surveys were used to determine women's levels of affiliation with Twelve Step programs and their level of agreement with the First Step of Twelve Step. Overall, women felt positively about powerlessness in their recovery and felt it provided a sense of relief. Eleven of the 13 women felt powerlessness was an important aspect of their recovery while two felt it was either not relevant or not something they fully embraced. In exploring the metaphors women had for their experiences of powerlessness, a number of themes emerged. Many of the metaphors indicated processes while some were static. Themes also included metaphors of current events, nature, and babies. Other themes were: Higher Power; a general sense of powerlessness over many things in life and; choosing not to share certain experiences in Twelve-Step meetings. Implications for women in recovery, clinicians, and future research are included as well as strengths and limitations of the study.