RESEARCH

We have both been engaged in different kinds of research since 2007. For us, it has become a way of life. Here is a brief description of our individual and joint projects. If any of this inspires you, or you want to hear more, we would love to hear from you.

Charlotte’s research

I have been an action researcher since 2007 and this method has become integral to how I work and live my life. My experience as an entrepreneur, executive, coach and educator is that a research mindset inspires an attitude of questioning and wonder.

Over the years, I noticed that the way we attend to ourselves and the world around us has moral implications. I started a process of capturing my own practice of attention and this led me to work with other executives in a longitudinal action research project that eventually culminated in a PhD. The process changed my life both professionally and personally.

As Senior Lecturer in Leadership at University of the West of England’s Bristol Business School, I have the privilege of teaching MBA and MSc students from all over the world. This work has inspired me to research how our personal narratives inform how we make sense of the world, how we act and what we choose to pay attention to.

There are three themes that weave through my current research and writing -

  • The impact of self-leadership on healing and health

  • The ethics and practice of attention

  • Working in uncertainty with Negative Capability

I am currently working closely with Fergus on the first theme - our journey with his Parkinson’s diagnosis has been an incredible ‘laboratory’.

I have a long-standing research partnership with Dr Peter Simpson in which we are investigating the interplay between the practice of attention and Negative Capability. We published a book that explores this in some detail - you can find it here.

A full list of my publications is available here.

Fergus’ research

I completed my PhD in 2018. The title is The Dynamic Phenomenology of Conscious, Occurrent Thinking: A First-Person Approach. In it I explore the nature of the experience of thinking from a phenomenological perspective. Drawing on concepts and terminology from the field of cognitive phenomenology in philosophy of mind, I make various claims about the experience of thinking that challenge some of the current and traditional views. You can download the final text and other related papers here.

My PhD is also available as a paperback book which you can buy on Amazon here.

Current research with Parkinson’s

There are two main aspects to our current research. The first is researching the symptoms and characteristics that fall broadly under the condition of ‘Parkinson’s disease’, with the aim of finding non-drug approaches to minimising and even eliminating the symptoms. Our approach has been to look at mental, emotional and physical lifestyle habits and understand how these are an expression of underlying, deeply engrained patterns that were established mostly in childhood through more or less traumatic experiences. We then work with these patterns using a range of methods such as trauma work, art-based methods, life coaching and meditation. This is an ongoing research process and we have also learned a lot from others, for example: Janice Hadlock, Lilian Sjoeberg, Gary Sharpe, Laura Mischley. One advantage is that we both have a background in qualitative research and one of us has a Parkinson’s diagnosis, so in many ways this is an ideal opportunity to research the condition in a very practical and immediate way. Our hope is that through this work we will find ways to help and support others with the diagnosis. It is of course hard to generalise from a single case, but that does not mean that generalisations can’t be made or that single-case studies are not sometimes highly informative. We are not yet at a point where we can make our findings publicly available but we hope that this will be possible when the time is right.

We are also planning a more formalised research project. The aim here is to find others who have chosen a ‘self leadership’ approach to a Parkinson’s diagnosis (more on this below). We are currently in the early stages of planning this research, and what follows is a very brief outline as it currently stands. A more in depth outline will be available shortly.

Research question

What is the impact of individual agency and self-leadership on the quality of life and wellbeing of people living with a Parkinson’s diagnosis?

Rationale

There has been a significant increase in the prevalence of Parkinson’s disease in recent years, and, according to the WHO, Parkinson’s is increasing faster globally than any other neurodegenerative disease. Parkinson’s is an established field of research in the health sciences and there are also a growing number of studies that explore the impact of interventions such as exercise, mindfulness and dance. But there is a growing need for research into strategies for improving quality of life and for better understanding the factors that impact this, particularly for those who choose a non-drug approach.

This study aims to contribute to this field by exploring the experience of up to twenty individuals who have chosen a ‘self-leadership’ approach to managing a Parkinson’s diagnosis. Self-leadership in this case means that they have taken ownership of forming their own response to the condition. This might mean significantly different things in different cases but the common element is that they have not simply followed the standard procedures but have in some way developed interesting or unusual methods and insights. Things we would like to explore are what do people do when they take a ‘self-leadership’ approach, and what do they experience in their journey with the condition? The aim in this study is not to test whether a self-leadership approach ‘works’ but to explore the pro-active and agentive mindset as a response to a Parkinson’s diagnosis, and the impact that this might have on quality of life and wellbeing.

It is important to emphasise that we are not making claims about a cure for Parkinson’s disease rather, we want to contribute to the increased quality of life and wellbeing of people who have been diagnosed with the condition.

 

Aims

This research aims to document and understand the role of active self-leadership as a response to a Parkinson’s diagnosis. The hope is that findings from this research could be valuable in helping others who live with this or related conditions. The research aims to understand the role that self-leadership and personal agency might play in living well with a Parkinson’s diagnosis.

Current status

This research is still very much in its early stages and we are currently looking for possible participants and potential funders. Please get in touch if you would like to contribute or participate in some way or would simply like to hear more.