Adolescence, Interrupted

“Do people always tell you things they've never told anyone before?” 

We'd just completed a 2-hr interview in a participant’s home and were headed back to the office.  

In the interview, I too, had been struck by our participants’ vulnerability 

but it was in line with what I typically encounter

{occupational gift / occupational hazard}

so by the time I climbed into the car, I was mostly feeling relieved the digital recorder worked and the interview was completed within the allotted time frame.

 My colleague {trained as a lawyer and social worker without clinical or qualitative research experience} was floored.  

“Overcome by so many emotions"

The participants we are interviewing are my colleague’s clients.

They are individuals incarcerated for a lifetime at age 14 – 17 yo.

Then, re-sentenced & released following the Supreme Court determination that juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences are unconstitutional.
They have spent more time in prison than I have been alive.

My colleague has worked countless hours, without pay, to assist with his clients’ cases and knows the complex depth and breadth that accompanies each.

He knows the grief, sadness, and pain they’ve inflicted on others.

He knows the challenges they’ve had to face + overcome to be sitting in their home with us.

He knows the costs of their freedom.

He knows the importance of their stories to impact public perception and sentencing policy.

For months, my colleague has been worried the research won’t be able to get very deep given our allotted interview window.  I have been fastidious with developing the interview protocols and training our study team, which I think instituted a sense that the interview might feel constrained or artificial.  For months, I have assured him we would be able to honor their stories through this research project but as he expressed this concern again while we walked up his client’s porch steps, the only thing left to say was:

“It’ll be okay, you’ll see”

And it was.

{phew}

During this, his first interview, he heard information and perspectives he hadn’t heard before – even though he has been listening for months and months.  

As we drove away, he was already generating ideas for ways their agency could immediately support their clients better during mitigation and re-entry.  

He was moved to attend to his work differently.   

Policy informs practice.

Practice informs research.

Research informs practice.

Research informs policy.

Y’all,

Trauma-informed, community-based research.

This is why I, as a clinician, feel compelled to do research.

This.

This why I am doing the whole PhD thing.

#soexcited