Recruitment Flyer

My Co-Researchers

All of the women who participated in this study went through a screening process. More than anything else, I had to be mindful that telling a story about such a personal aspect of their lives had the potential to be triggering.

One of the most important questions I posed to potential participants was whether or not they sensed it was a good time for them to have their story witnessed in the way I proposed. Not all of the women I screened were invited to participate, and not all who were chosen decided to be a part of this research.

The most important criterion was that a participant was not in crisis at the time she told her story. The semi-structured interviews lasted an average of 3 hours.

The women in this study were all over the age of thirty and experienced recurrent depressive episodes. They each lived with these episodes for a minimum of ten years.

The co researchers in this study formed a diverse circle of women. They ranged in age from thirty to seventy years old. Three identified as African American, one as Mexican American, five are of European descent, and one is of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry. The circle included voices of women living with current and past economic constraint significant enough to impact their choices for care, a woman living with a medical disability, and senior women who sought treatment in an era where the stigma of mental illness was much heavier than it is now.

I sought women who identified faith, spiritual practice, or creative expression as a means of conceptualizing, surviving, and thriving in the presence of these deep feelings. I preferred women who sought some form of treatment for their suffering, but did not make a formal diagnosed mood disorder a prerequisite for inclusion in the study. All but one of the women selected for this study had experience with formal clinical settings (through working with a therapist and/or hospitalizations).