Browsing by Author "Amarasekara, Natasha Amrini"

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    Exploring the narratives of people with lived experiences of eating-related distress and their stories of recovery : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology, Massey University, Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Amarasekara, Natasha Amrini
    A significant portion of the eating disorder literature prioritises a clinical perspective informed by diagnostic classification and clinical markers of recovery. Yet, research into the perspectives of people’s lived experiences provides very different accounts of eating-related distress and personal recovery. The personal recovery model privileges lived experiences, where symptom remission is not necessary to recover/y, but instead “recovery in” as opposed to “recovery from” is better aligned. Broad qualitative analyses cite factors in alignment with the recovery model; however, these studies often abstract from the daily, lived recoveries. In this study, I examined the narratives of recovery among 15 adults with lived experiences of eating-related distress. Specifically, those who self-identified challenges related to food, weight, body shape, and/or exercise, and identified as doing better currently relative to one’s own past experiences. A day in the life questioning approach allowed for a micro-contextualised view of recovery, exploring what it means to be “in” or “enacting” recovery across daily practices. A narrative analysis was conducted which attuned to complex social, cultural, and relational contexts, grounded within a social constructivist epistemological approach. Narratives included: Re-Appraising Body, Image and Identity, Neutrality and Nourishment, Routine and Structure, and Media and #Recovery. Participants formed intentional daily practices in recovery, largely described as an active process requiring continued re-appraisal. Daily practices centered around energy, function, pleasure, accomplishment, comfort, control, self-development, visibility, and routine. Participants described alignment, resistance, and opposition to master narratives and sociocultural prescriptions on recovery, offering a counter narrative to the clinician and researcher recovery perspectives that have traditionally dominated the literature and guided service provision to date. Overall, these multi-layered narratives align with critical feminist perspectives and may importantly inform evidence-based practice from the “inside out”.