The sector often uses the term reflexivity, which is like reflection. Simply, reflection leads to insight about something, whereas reflexivity involves finding strategies to question our ‘attitudes, values, assumptions, prejudices, and habitual actions’. Reflexivity helps us understand how we contribute to the dynamic with others.[1]
Reflexivity extends the reflective learning cycle. It is a deeper process, like critical and process reflection. Reflexivity can prevent generalising client stories and enables supervisees to see what is unique about every case. It involves clarity and awareness of the way practitioners are experienced and perceived by others.
We make sense of situations through stories. Therefore, strategies to enhance reflexivity include journalling about the work and regularly doing through-the-mirror writing.[2] This is where practitioners use imaginative stories, drawn from experience, to explore the problems, anguish and the joys of practice. These can be shared and discussed with colleagues and supervisors to increase learning about the self.
‘To be reflexive is to examine … how we – seemingly unwittingly – are involved in creating social or professional structures counter to our own values (destructive of diversity, and institutionalising power imbalance, for example). It is becoming aware of the limits of our knowledge, of how our own behaviour plays into organisational practices and why such practices might marginalise groups or exclude individuals.’
— Bolton, 2009[3]
References
[1] Bolton, ‘Reflective practice: an introduction’.
[2] Bolton, ‘Reflective practice: an introduction’.
[3] Bolton, ‘Reflective practice: an introduction’.
Updated