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The Qualitative Report 2017 Volume 22, Number 6, Article 4, 1565-1579
Nurturing Self: Psychotherapeutic Implications of Women’s
Reflections on the Meaning of their Cherished Possessions
Stephanie L. Martin
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Experiencing the importance of one’s personal treasures is ubiquitous to the
human experience, but what is the depth and meaning of this lived phenomenon?
An interpretive phenomenological method was used to explore the meaning and
significance of women’s experience of their cherished personal possessions.
Nine women participated in three individual semi-structured phenomenological
interviews each. Interpretive analysis revealed that women’s experience of their
cherished personal possessions is one of nurturing self. Through their cherished
personal possessions, women nurture their sense of self by connecting with
others, affirming personal experience, supporting self through change, and
cultivating a sense of self. Implications for responsive psychotherapeutic
practice with women clients are identified. Keywords: Women, Feminist
Methodologies, Active Interviews, Clinical Research, Interpretive
Phenomenology
Most people can identify with the experience of collecting and protecting personal
treasures. However, this experience and the depth of meaning individuals attach to such objects
remains relatively understudied. The majority of empirical and theoretical work on the meaning
we ascribe to things derives from the fields of consumer research, marketing, and nursing and
focuses on possessions in general, rather than those considered “most treasured” (Kamptner,
1991). Any “thing” to which we are emotionally attached can represent a cherished personal
possession (Belk, 1989, 1992). Such possessions tend to have “… intense symbolic meanings
that defy rational explanations and sober reasoning” (Belk, 1991a, p. 19) and appear to be
involved in the creation, enhancement, and preservation of a sense of personal identity
(Csikzentimihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981; Kamptner, Kayano, & Peterson, 1989;
Whitmore, 2001).
The propensity to develop affective attachments to things, and to imbue them with
phenomenologically relevant meanings occurs throughout the life span for both genders
(Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981; Dyl & Wapner, 1996; Kamptner et al., 1989;
Myers, 1985; Wallendorf & Arnould, 1988; Whitmore, 2001) and across cultures (Joy &
Dholakia, 1991; Mehta & Belk, 1991; Wallendorf & Arnould, 1988). In fact, the study of
peoples’ cherished possessions has been referred to as the study of human psychosocial
development in a microcosm (Kamptner et al., 1989). Cherished items are thought to function
as signs to the self (Dittmar, 1989, 1991; Prentice, 1987; Rochberg-Halton, 1984) and provide
a useful methodological tool for investigating aspects of persons’ experience of self in context
(Dittmar, 1991; Redfoot & Black, 1988; Whitmore, 2001).
There is little written in the psychology of women and psychotherapy literature
regarding women’s experience of their cherished personal possessions and what this experience
may suggest for understanding and working with women in psychotherapy. Of the sparse
research that has been conducted, it appears that women tend to value the emotional, relational,
and symbolic elements of their possessions, while men value possessions for their self-referent
and utilitarian elements (Dittmar, 1989, 1991; Kamptner et al., 1989; Kamptner, 1991;
Sherman, 1991; Wallendorf & Arnold, 1988; Wapner, Demick, & Redondo, 1990). These
findings correspond to the empirical and theoretical work in the area of the psychology of
1566 The Qualitative Report 2017
women, which suggests that women’s identity develops through their experience of connection
with others, and is commonly referred to as the “relational self” (Enns, 1991; Jordan, Kaplan,
Miller, Stiver, & Surrey, 1991; Miller, 1986; Surrey, 1991). As the goal of this inquiry was to
extend understanding of the meaning and significance of women’s cherished personal
possessions, an interpretive phenomenological method was appropriate (Klein & Westcott,
1994; Munhall & Boyd, 1993; Osborne, 1990, 1994; Van Manen, 1990).
Interpretive Phenomenology
The fundamental objective of phenomenology is to uncover the essence of a particular
human experience, thereby answering the question of what it is like to have a particular human
experience (Spinelli, 1989). Interpretive phenomenology yields a thematic account, which
elucidates various facets of a particular human experience, which may become more refined
with further inquiry (Addison, 1989; Bergum, 1991; Osborne, 1990; Van Manen, 1990). From
this perspective, essence(s), or core meanings are not considered to be universal; rather, such
meanings are domain specific and contextual (Klein & Westcott, 1994; Polkinghorne, 1989).
Participants
Through “snowball” sampling (Merriam, 2002), nine women were recruited for
inclusion in the study. Each woman was able to: a) acknowledge that she had the experience
of having cherished personal possessions; and, b) articulate her experience. The women ranged
in age from 27 to 69 years. Four of the women were living in marriage or common law
relationships, five relationship breakups via divorce were reported, three women commented
on being single without a current interest in a significant other, one single woman was enjoying
a new partnership, and one woman was widowed and currently involved with a partner. Of
these nine women, eight were heterosexual and one was lesbian. Three of the women had no
children, two were living with a partner who had children, and four each had three children of
their own. All of the women were Canadians of mixed English, British, European background,
with English as their first language. The women also reported varying socioeconomic
backgrounds. Seven of the women had achieved, or were pursuing, varying levels of post-
secondary education; two had completed high school and not pursued additional training. Two
of the women were retired, the other seven were either attending school, working for pay, or
doing a combination of both.
Data Generation
Three phenomenological interviews (Moustakas, 1994) per participant were used to
generate data. Each of these interviews involved an interpersonal engagement wherein women
were encouraged to share the details of their experience of their cherished personal possessions.
Prior to the first meeting, the women were requested to consider and select a small collection
of their most cherished treasures to bring to the interview, which provided the primary focus
and structure for the first interview. The women brought between two to seven cherished
possessions each to their first interview. The first interview focused on encouraging an in-depth
description of their experience of their selected cherished personal possessions; the second
interview served as an extension of the first interview and occurred within two weeks’ time;
and the third interview occurred after all the first and second interviews with each woman were
completed, transcribed, and analyzed in depth, and focused on encouraging each woman’s
feedback on the composite interpretive phenomenological account. Each interview was
audiotaped and transcribed.
Stephanie L. Martin 1567
Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis
Data analysis took the form of a recursive, dialogical process beginning immediately
and continuing through the course of this research process and involved a constant shifting
back and forth between whole and part, part and whole (Leonard, 1989). Oiler-Boyd and
Munhall (1993) contend that the importance of data analysis as a creative process cannot be
overemphasized. The process of grasping and formulating a thematic understanding is not a
rule-bound activity, but a free act of “seeing” meaning (Van Manen, 1990).
The following eight general phases of data analysis assisted in revealing the essence of
women’s experience of their cherished personal possessions: (1) each individual transcript was
read and the audiotape reviewed to grasp a sense of the “whole” (Benner, 1985; Osborne,
1994); (2) transcripts were then reviewed several times and statements that appeared essential
or revealing of the phenomenon were identified (Van Manen, 1990); (3) each significant
statement was assigned an interpretive statement or comment that was closely related to the
data and which could help classify the transcripts; (4) with each addition of new interpretive
comments, transcripts were again reviewed and eventually an exhaustive list of all possible
interpretive comments was compiled; (5) from the composite list, interpretive comments that
were highly interrelated were clustered into themes that alluded to meaningful aspects of the
phenomenon; (6) for each theme, transcripts were further examined in search of further
definition and delineation of the meaning of the theme and women’s statements in which strong
instances of the theme were identified; (7) themes were then tied together in a common
interpretive account of the phenomenon; and (8) in the final interview, the common interpretive
account was shared with each woman and they were asked: “Is this what the experience is
really like?” (Van Manen, 1990, p. 99).
After the final interview, participants’ feedback and comments were integrated into the
composite interpretive account. While the point is never reached where new material can no
longer enrich data analysis (Van Manen, 1990), toward the end of the analysis there were few
important phenomenon that significantly extended, deepened, or qualified the various thematic
components of the composite interpretive account (Weiss, 1994). The experience of each
treasure discussed by the women was subsumed by at least three, if not all, of the following
four sub themes. Therefore, the following common interpretive account and four sub themes
capture the similarity, dissimilarity, and thus the breadth of women’s experience of their
cherished personal possessions.
Common Interpretive Account: Nurturing Self
The common, overarching interpretive account of women’s experience of their
cherished personal possessions is one of nurturing self. Through their cherished personal
possessions, women nurture self through connecting with others, affirming personal
experience, supporting themselves through change, and cultivating a sense of self. Although
these results are presented thematically, within the interpretive phenomenological research
tradition “themes” are not static, mutually exclusive meaning categories; rather, they are more
like knots in the web of human experience (Van Manen, 1990) chosen to illuminate particularly
meaningful and telling aspects of women’s experience of their treasures.
The women gathered and shared their experience with a variety of cherished
possessions (e.g., jewelry, spiritual objects, photographs, books). The worth, or value, of their
treasures was consistently based on how they felt about them, rather than on the objects’
physical or utilitarian qualities. All of the cherished possessions discussed were considered
irreplaceable, represented an emotional investment of self, and were imbued with personal
1568 The Qualitative Report 2017
meaning. The quality of the women’s attachment to their cherished items was remarkably
visceral and immediate and evoked a being-there-again sensation of deeply experiencing the
personal significance of the item during the interviews. Without prompting, a range of emotion
associated with their treasures surfaced and they were able to access the sights, sounds,
textures, time, and place associated with their treasures. Cherished possessions functioned as
talismans of women’s life stories and appeared to be a way of silently honoring significant
aspects of their past, current, and future selves. For example, a 42-year-old woman commented
on this aspect of her experience of her treasures:
I can have that little mountain in my backpack or, you know, my necklace, or
my ring from my grandmother, or whatever it is, and I’m the only person who
knows about what it means to me, unless I choose to share it with someone …
they are things that I have, like honoring their value to me is a way of honoring
my own growth and my own self.
The meanings associated with the women’s treasures were also non-transferable to
others and highly multidimensional, multilevel, and often complex. There was also a dynamic
quality to the meaning of the women’s treasures; as the women changed over time, so did the
meanings associated with their cherished possessions. These women did not emphasize the
utilitarian and economic meanings of their treasures, as did Dittmar’s (1991) unemployed
participants and Redfoot and Black’s (1988) working and lower class women, even though
several of these women were in the midst of coping with various life changing, and often
challenging circumstances that often impacted their sense of economic security (e.g.,
impending geographical relocation, divorce, transition into the paid work force). In fact, these
women experienced their treasures in a way similar to Hill’s (1991) group of homeless women.
Instead of typical consumer products, the women in Hill’s study valued “sacred items,” which
represented memories of happier times, important relationships, morals, values, and religious
beliefs (e.g., religious medals, pictures of children who were separated from them, items
associated with previous jobs or skills, and items that symbolized their desire to improve their
lives). However, the meanings that the women in this study attributed to their treasures were
also similar to Dittmar’s (1991) business commuters, representing a higher socioeconomic
strata, who emphasized possessions as unique symbols of their personal history and self-
development, and Redfoot and Black’s (1988) middle class women, who tended to emphasize
items that had rich biographical meanings. However, like the unemployed participants
(Dittmar, 1991), the women in this study also emphasized the mood-adjusting features of their
possessions, particularly as they pertained to supporting themselves through times of personal
challenge.
Connecting with Others
Women experienced their treasures as “connectors” to others in a variety of ways. The
meanings associated with their treasures often related to the women’s sense of self through
time, a historical and continuous sense of self. They described using their treasures as
connectors to their ancestral or familial heritage, and as a way to leave a personal legacy of
themselves for significant others. Also, through their cherished personal possessions, vivid
memories of events from various times or phases in their lives—and the people associated with
them—were brought to the surface in the form of a remembrance of their personal life journeys.
One young woman commented on how all of her treasures have a story. About her necklace
from her grandmother, she shared:
Stephanie L. Martin 1569
I think that she knew she was going to die … so, anyway, that summer when
she was starting to give away all her things she gave me this, this necklace,
which is really something I would never wear, but she told me the story behind
it … you’re getting my whole genealogy here … so her husband, they were, he
fought in the war…
Referring to her cherished ring, inherited from her mother, a 59-year-old woman spoke of the
power that her treasure had in bringing her past experiences into present time:
I take that little case out [which contains the ring] and I show it to my
granddaughter … and, sometimes I even wear it for a day, and while I have it
on I do remember different things … it just brings back memories, it’s like the
circle of life to me … the ring is a bond between my mom and dad, it’s a bond
with all my sisters and brothers, uh, it’s the ring of our life when we were all
young … it reminds me of all the years I went through as a young girl, and what
my mom went through having eight children, so I want to give it to my
granddaughter.
The women described a sense of community, or living with others, evoked by their
cherished personal possessions. About her cherished travel journal which contains literary
works created by herself, travel companions, friends from home, and long-deceased writers of
influence, this 39-year old woman said: “This is one way of creating roots, not with my own
life, but at least with a larger family of humanity.”
All the women experienced their cherished possessions as strong “connectors” to
supportive, significant, and influential others. Cherished others included family members and
friends who were regarded as mentors and models of strength, courage, and perseverance.
Cherishing items associated with these people seemed to be a way of honoring their importance
in the lives of these women. For example, this woman commented on the importance of a book
she received from a close friend, a “soul mate,” at a vulnerable time in her life:
It was really awful parting at the end of my marriage, I was married to someone
who was very abusive, so, for anyone who has ever been through that, you don’t
know who, who are still your friends and who are not your friends … so,
receiving the book from her, the whole book is beautiful, but this one poem in
particular, I must have cried all afternoon because she was letting me know,
specifically through this poem, that she was my friend still, and that she did not
want to lose contact, and that was so critical to me then because I really lost a
lot of people…
Finally, the women often used their cherished possessions as substitutes for cherished
others who were either temporarily absent or deceased. A woman who lost her father to a fatal
chronic illness when she was young recounted this experience form her adult perspective.
Regarding a cherished photograph of her father, she shared: “It’s the way I have of having him
with me … [tears] … ‘cause he’s not here.”
Affirming Personal Experience
Women’s cherished items were invariably about experience; specifically, their
experience as women. The women cherished items associated with particular experiences as a
way of personally marking various achievements, contributions, passages, and particularly
1570 The Qualitative Report 2017
poignant recollections of childhood. One 42-year old woman passionately shared the
importance of her university degree. The meaning of her degree centers on the process of
attaining her educational goal. Thoughts of her degree and the process it represents brought her
a sense of joy, accomplishment, and pride in herself, as well as a sense of relief that she has
completed a difficult phase of her personal journey. She also considered her degree as objective
proof, a public acknowledgement, of her accomplishment, although she felt that what counted
the most had already been internalized. She shared:
I got a degree, really important … I stared in ’82 and, um, took it at night school.
I took my first year in night school and then became fulltime, and my marriage
broke up in the meantime and all sorts of other things happened, but, um, I was
basically told I couldn’t stick through a university degree … I can look back on
the educational process and see how I’ve grown and that sort of thing, and what
I have done and what it has meant to me … it’s a multifaceted thing, it’s a piece
of paper and it’s a “I told you so! I knew I could do it! I did it myself, right!? I
wrote all the papers! I wrote all the exams! It was entirely my effort and my
brain that did it!”
Another 59-year old woman considered her photos of her three sons as cherished possessions.
For her, these photos served as symbols of an intense commitment she had to parenting and
were associated with a deep sense of pride and love. Reflecting on the meaning of her photos,
her children, and her role as a mother, she shared:
I woke up thinking about them, you go to bed thinking about them, you dream
of them, you know … I was with them 24 hours a day … my entire life was for
them, and then when you see them all grow and gone, it takes a long time to, to
uh, to fill in that gap … this is what my life was about, this is what I did …
This woman reflected on the effort she put into collecting cherished photographs: “Maybe I’m
doing it for me, maybe I’m not doing it for them, maybe I’m doing it for me in trying to
remember and try to say this is what happened in every stage of my life …”
Another 42-year old woman, after having to quickly leave her home community and
new position in the public service due to the break-up of her abusive marriage, received a
beautiful prism-crystal mountain ornament, chosen by her “closest friend” and given to her as
a gift on behalf of her colleagues. This cherished item represented many things to her, but she
commented at length on the value this possession held for her in terms of validating her
professional contribution and what it meant in terms of her beliefs about her own ability, she
stated:
To me, when I look at it, it’s about me doing it again, you know, it’s like,
because of the strength that I feel from that, and the kind of affirmation that
those people gave me about what I can do in, with my head, not like my hands,
like not being a mom and not taking care of everybody else, but being able to
push myself intellectually, that was a job that I did that in and I was respected
for it, so they gave me more than an affirmation as a colleague or as a friend,
they gave me an affirmation of my belief that I am intelligent enough to be able
to do it …
Stephanie L. Martin 1571
Cherished items were often symbolic of life cycle, relational, and personal passages. A
27-year old woman cherished a St. Christopher necklace; although she has had the necklace
since she was an infant, she shared:
I put it on, um, sometime in junior high, like grade seven or something … it
corresponded roughly to the time when I started menstruating … it was a big
symbolic moment in my life … I have worn this every day, I rarely take it off.
Finally, on several occasions, women spoke of the power of their cherished items to
bring to the fore memories of their childhoods. Such recollections were not always experienced
as positive and happy, but the women spoke of the importance of not forgetting who they once
were and what they had experienced as children. Such recollections of childhood provided
impetus and guidance for their futures in terms of lessons learned for personal growth and
development. One woman talked at length about the meaning and significance of a single
cherished earring, most notably her childhood experience of the absence of her father and the
traumatic bond she experienced with her mother. Her earring figuratively contained her painful
memories of experience, which “would fill fifty books;” it functioned as a silent reminder of a
painful familial legacy that she wished not to repeat. Reflecting on her experience of her lone
earring, she shared:
I look back as an adult now, and I think, how sad that that little girl had to hold on to
that earring because her mom couldn’t work out something with her dad, and a father, who is
not the best father, uh, didn’t fight hard enough for that little person, and there was four little
persons, and I think when we have our own children, that little earring will be a reminder of,
no matter what, together or not, [we are always together].
Supporting Self through Change
Although some of the women commented on the simple aesthetic, visual, and tactile
pleasure they derived from their cherished possessions, the majority of them spoke of the role
their items played during times of challenge and change. Cherished items provided a source of
comfort, security, and even an avenue of escape at times of personal difficulty. In this sense,
their treasures seemed to function much like “transitional objects” (Winnicott, 1953) during
times of personal stress. Regarding an old ring, associated with her maternal grandmother who
lived as and represented a model of strength, this 42-year old woman stated:
Days when I feel like I need all the strength around me, and all the support
around me, and all the reminders around me that I’m okay, that’s the days I wear
it … it’s like a power, it’s like an internal sense of warmth and strength that
comes from it.
For some women, cherished items also seemed to facilitate the process of centering the
self during difficult times. In this context, “centering the self” meant getting back in-touch with,
or grounding, the self in times of change or challenge. Walker (1990) considered centering to
be a form of inner readjustment and a way of “calling one’s perceptions and powers back into
their home within the self, where they can be used to enhance personal creative thoughts and
responses” (p. 18). The women frequently used their cherished items to facilitate focusing on
sources of strength within themselves and their lives. Their items served to facilitate the
experiencing of a range of affect, and often had a spiritual or meditative function. For example,
a 42-year old woman, dealing with the after effects of the break-up of her marriage, raising
three children on her own, and working for pay while furthering her education, made a daily
1572 The Qualitative Report 2017
ritual of reading a beautiful affirmation-type poem as a strategy of self-support through a trying
time in her life:
It’s on the mirror in my bedroom on my dresser, so, every morning when I get
up and as soon as I look in the mirror, I read it … it’s wonderful, it’s like a way
to acknowledge all my feelings, it’s a way to acknowledge sadness, it’s a way
to acknowledge the things that I don’t feel so good about that happened to me
in my life, and also a way to acknowledge where I’m going … no matter what’s
going on, it’s like a way I can center myself again, when I read it, so I read it
more than once a day, some days, when I’m having a day that’s full of conflict
with my children and, or other things, or lots of stresses, or when I start to really
question myself about whether I’m doing the right thing going to school and
taking care of myself in this way … it just puts the doubts away.
Finally, some women found value in using their cherished items to facilitate their
sharing of their life stories in self-directed and empowering ways. For example, a young
woman talked passionately about the special bond she had with her pet dog. After her pet’s
sudden, unexpected death, she wore her dog’s cherished tags as a tribute to him, but also as a
way to facilitate her bereavement. She shared: “It’s sort of symbolic that after he passed away,
I put them on… I just put his dog tags on, and all the people could ask me, ‘what are those?’
and I could tell them [about him].”
Cultivating a Sense of Self
To cultivate a sense of self means to develop or improve (Oxford Dictionaries, 2009)
one’s sense of self. Through their cherished possessions, women create and support an image
of self, maintain focus on what matters to them in their lives, and facilitate the continued
development of self through the process of considering the meanings of their cherished items.
All of the women commented that their cherished items helped them to portray positive and
healthy images of themselves. About the possessions she considered cherished, one woman
shared:
These things are symbols of the best connections that there are! I don’t keep
things that bring back memories of something that was ugly or painful, you
know, I don’t keep those things, so the things that I do treasure are the things
that are about positive things and about special people … so all of these things
are happy things.
Often times, cherished items served as sources of inspiration and provided a window
into women’s guiding values and priorities. One woman referred to her cherished “friendship
pin” as representing a core motivational principle in her life: “To cherish your friends and treat
them as life long, as opposed to people who treat [friends] for the moment… it is just a piece
of jewelry; however, what it symbolizes in friendship for me is a lifetime of, I guess, treating
people well.”
Conversations with women about their cherished personal possessions naturally and
inevitably flowed into conversations about their current life experiences and the various issues
that they were dealing with; essentially, these conversations were about their developing sense
of self. Upon reflecting on her collection of cherished possessions, one woman shared:
Stephanie L. Martin 1573
I have never realized this before, but my connection with my mother’s family
and my lack of connection to my father’s family … I never realized before we
had this conversation how, how significant my mom’s parents were to me, it’s
just really interesting, you learn something about yourself … I never knew I had
this void of having nothing from my father’s side of the family, and when I think
of all the possessions that I own, so many of them belong to my mother’s father,
in particular … but, I never realized how much I was connected to it [maternal
side of the family] … so, maybe I’ll have to make a little more effort to learn
about my dad’s side of the family …
Discussion
An oral review of women’s cherished possessions facilitates exploration of women’s
personal histories, significant life events, sources of meaning, and unresolved issues;
essentially, such a review provides a window into the private and personal lives of women from
their own frames of reference (Cotterill, 1992; Reinhartz, 1992).
Although the experience of collecting and reflecting on their treasures was often
emotional and deeply personal, all of the women commented on their enjoyment of the process.
Most of the women also commented on the new insights and understandings about themselves
gained as a result of participating in the interviews. For example, one woman shared: “It gives
you a sense of the way your life span has gone, kind of the different periods in your life, and
things that have come from different periods, and that each one is important in itself, it’s part
of who you end up being.”
For several women, the process of reflecting upon and discussing their experience of
their cherished items had a significant positive, inspirational impact that influenced their
behavior beyond the context of the research interview. These women commented on their
motivation to align their behaviors with their beliefs, which they became more cognizant of as
a result of the interview process. For example, one woman shared:
After telling you about [friend], just the need to see her I guess, and she came
out … just taking about her so much, and realizing verbally, not just mentally,
what she means to me, saying it, made me want to see her again … I say she’s
important to me … what do I do to prove that she’s that important to me? After
I got to see her, it was just as I said, there were no changes, it was wonderful!
Another woman was enthusiastic about, and inspired by, the experience of collecting
and discussing her treasures and shared:
It’s like a celebration, it’s wonderful, it’s like a trip through my life again, to sit
and talk with you about it, and to, I mean, I’m feeling very warm, and, like I
have an energy. I’m gaining energy from talking to you about these things …
It’s really good to do this, it’s really good to put it together, you know, because
I don’t do that, I mean, I think about them, but I haven’t ever done this! The
energy is, it’s like a way of counting my blessings … talking to you about this
makes me think about what really matters to me.
The findings of this study appear to support Belk’s (1988) contention that possessions
represent parts of the “extended self” (Belk, 1988). Women may have numerous possessions,
but only a few may be considered “cherished.” Such cherished possessions evoked richly
textured webs of meaning for these women, and appeared to pertain to phenomenologically
1574 The Qualitative Report 2017
important aspects of their concepts of self. Because these items represented important aspects
of the self, cherishing them was experienced by these women as a way of nurturing their unique
sense of self.
Women and Psychotherapy
The results of this study suggest the value of engaging women clients in conversations
about their personal treasures. Collecting treasures for the interview necessitated a process of
each woman closely examining what she considered cherished, and why. Through similar
discussions in a psychotherapeutic context, therapists may help women of diverse ages and
cultural backgrounds explore conceptions of self, sources of personal meaning, and potential
unresolved issues. Ultimately, the process of discussing cherished personal possessions within
the psychotherapeutic context leads back to the client as an experiencing, meaning-making
being existing within a particular context or situation.
Early in the therapeutic relationship, an invitation to women to share their experience
of their cherished possessions could serve to facilitate client engagement and rapport building.
Discussion about personal treasures could also be employed as a way of managing impasses in
the therapeutic process. When an impasse is reached, the client may be asked to stop and reflect
on various sources of meaning contained in and represented by their personal treasures. Such
discussions may facilitate client self-understanding of unresolved issues, re-establish or refine
psychotherapeutic goals, or even consolidate learning. Finally, through such exploration,
disturbing or troublesome meanings might emerge, thereby providing possibilities for further
exploration in therapy.
Women’s experience of their cherished personal possessions is one of nurturing the
self. Women nurture themselves through their treasures by using them to connect with others,
affirm personal experience, support themselves through change, and cultivate a sense of self.
Encouraging women’s use of cherished personal possessions as a means of self-understanding
and, ultimately, self-nurturance may be the central objective for incorporating a discussion of
cherished possessions as a psychotherapeutic strategy with women clients.
Connecting with Others. Currently, the research literature suggests that the meaning of
women’s cherished personal possessions has primarily to do with interpersonal integration and
emotional attachment (Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981; Kamptner et al., 1989;
Sherman, 1991), and less to do with style and utilitarian issues (Wapner et al., 1990), personal
values and ideals, and the intrinsic value of the item (Dittmar, 1989; Sherman, 1991). Literature
in the area of women’s identity development also suggests that women’s primary identity
structure is relational in nature (Jordan et al., 1991; Kaplan, 1986; Miller, 1986). From this
perspective, women develop increasing levels of complexity, structure, and articulation of the
self within the context of human bonds and attachments. Enns (1991) contends that women’s
connections with others validate their capacities as relational beings, provide the foundation
for personal concepts of autonomy, competence, and self-esteem, and are essential for well-
being and continuing growth. Indeed, connecting with others was a prominent interpretive
theme found in women’s experience of their treasures. Hence, the results of this study further
support the notion that women’s core identity structure is one of relationships to, or connections
with, others. Personal treasures connect women to their familial heritage and ancestry, may be
used as a way to pass something important of themselves to younger generations, and serve as
reminders that they are embedded within a context of others’ lives.
Women use their treasures as a means of connecting with others. Therefore, a therapist
may facilitate a discussion of a client’s cherished possessions to gain information about the
quality of the relationships in her life. Avenues of exploration may include: which “others” are
represented through her treasures? Why are these “others” represented? What impact do such
Stephanie L. Martin 1575
associations have for her concept of self? Are the “others” represented by her treasures
supportive or unsupportive to her concept and experience of self? It may be important to
encourage women to focus on positive connections with others that are represented through
their treasures. For example, several of the women in this study commented on the associations
that their treasures had with significant others who often functioned as role models or mentors.
For women negotiating challenging life paths, which are not always supported by the social
context in which they live, cherishing items containing inspiring meanings may have an
important supportive effect.
Affirming Personal Experience. Women’s experiences have not been well represented
in traditional psychological theory and research (Gilbert, 1992). However, women have always
had their own stories to tell, despite this lack of social validation. Cherishing particular items
is one means by which women may, at least privately, acknowledge and affirm their own
experiences. Kaschak (1992) contends that “feminist psychotherapy works toward helping
women remember forgotten experiences and making invisible meanings visible” (p. 211).
Through encouraging the use of personal treasures as a means of nurturing important aspects
of self, women may be able to reevaluate, reclaim, and reaffirm (Kaschak, 1992) important
aspects of their life experience that relate to their evolving concepts of themselves. Finally,
encouraging the use of cherished possessions as markers of significant accomplishments and
life passages would be a way for clients to affirm, and thus nurture, their evolving concepts of
self. Supporting Self through Change. Because of their deeply personal nature, cherished
possessions can be considered, touched, cared for, and shared with others as women’s sense of
readiness dictates. These treasures help women through challenging times by functioning as
sources of comfort and security, and as gentle reminders to their owners that they are worth
caring for. Hence, women may use their treasures much in the same way that children use teddy
bears or blankets as sources of comfort in times of need (Wapner et al., 1990; Winnicott, 1953).
For many women in this study, their treasures contained positive, self-enhancing meanings.
Because of this, they often accessed them at times when their sense of self was somehow
challenged, perhaps as a result of a life-changing situation, such as experiencing a divorce or
going back to school. Perhaps encouraging women to connect with a cherished object that holds
self-supporting, self-nurturing connotations may be a way of helping them to restore and
maintain their sense of self through times of challenge and change (Hill, 1991).
Cultivating a Sense of Self. The findings of this study seem to support the notion that
women are actively involved in cultivating a world of meaning, which both reflects and helps
create the ultimate goals of their existence (Csikszentmihaly & Rochberg-Halton, 1981). In
fact, one of the central findings of this study is that women experience their treasures as a way
of cultivating a sense of self. Through their cherished possessions, women represent an image
of the self; maintain focus on central values, priorities, and life ambitions; and clarify various
developmental “growing edges” and unresolved psychological issues. Through their cherished
possessions, women afford themselves a means of privately honoring particularly important
aspects of themselves and their experience, thereby nurturing their conceptions of self. In this
way, they experience a sense of personal influence over shaping the meaning of their own lives
and use their cherished possessions as markers or symbols of such meanings.
Women’s cherished possessions have to do with particularly valued aspects of their
sense of self, but they also represent a means by which women actively engage in a process of
cultivating a meaningful sense of self. The power of personal possessions as a means of
nurturing one’s concepts of self appears to be the “motivational force” (Furby, 1991) behind
women’s experience of their cherished possessions. However, the power of treasures to nurture
the self does not reside in the items themselves; rather, it resides in the experience the women
1576 The Qualitative Report 2017
have in relation to their treasures. It is the women themselves who ultimately determine which
possessions are cherished and why.
Cherished possessions and the meanings that they contain appear to function as
“referents” (Myers, 1985) to the development and maintenance of women’s self-concepts
(Kamptner et al., 1989; Myers, 1985). These women reported their experiences of their
treasures to be remarkably positive, self-supporting, and even growth promoting (Myers,
1985). It is possible, perhaps probable, that the items these women chose to discuss are heavily
biased (Belk, 1991b) in their power to portray a preferred or desired version of the self.
However, it is this very characteristic of women’s experience of their cherished personal
possessions which renders it self-nurturing. Through the process of sharing the meaning of
their treasures, women become aware of how their treasures are connected to their developing
conceptions of self. At other times, these treasures help women to focus on what their personal
missions in life might be; they help women to be the people they are striving to be and therefore
may serve as tangible sources of inspiration during times of personal and cultural challenge.
The participants in this study were from a relatively homogenous demographic group.
Interviewing women from other backgrounds and marginalized circumstances about the
meaning of their cherished possessions (e.g., Aboriginal, immigrant, refugee, and homeless
women) might provide new avenues for cross cultural understanding and ways of supporting
such women through difficult times of loss, change, and adjustment.
Conclusion
The overriding goal of conducting an interpretive phenomenological study of women’s
experience of their cherished personal possessions was to achieve greater depth of
understanding of this phenomenon, so that ultimately both research and practice may be better
informed (Benner, 1985; Osborne, 1994; Van Manen, 1990). Although exploring a client’s
experience of their cherished personal possessions in therapy holds intuitive appeal and some
possibilities for understanding women’s experience have been identified herein, to date there
has been no systematic study of this form of intervention. Continued conversations with women
about the meaning of their treasures and careful examination of the use of cherished personal
possessions in psychotherapeutic contexts with diverse populations may further refine our
understanding of the experience and implications of the relationship women have with their
treasures.
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Author Note
Stephanie Martin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational
Psychology and Special Education at the University of Saskatchewan, and a Registered
Doctoral Psychologist since 1997. Her teaching and research areas encompass the theory and
practice of counselling/psychotherapy, professional practice and ethics, qualitative research
methodology, and the psychology of women and gender. Correspondence regarding this article
can be addressed directly to: stephanie.martin@usask.ca.
Kathleen V. Cairns is acknowledged for her supervision of this research process.
Copyright 2017: Stephanie L. Martin and Nova Southeastern University.
Article Citation
Martin, S. L. (2017). Nurturing self: Psychotherapeutic implications of women’s reflections on
the meaning of their cherished possessions. The Qualitative Report, 22(6), 1565-1579.
Retrieved from http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol22/iss6/6