Elizabeth Dorvil, Shane Sweet

Stories and narratives shape how individuals understand their everyday lives. Stories are imbued with experiences, values, beliefs, and perceptions, forming a person’s perspective of themselves, the world around them, and how others perceive them. Transcending generations, stories carry cultural ties to foster community support, especially for diverse populations. Narrative methodologies provide a space for marginalized communities to have a platform to contextualize their experiences rather than having dominant social, systemic narratives speak for them. This abstract aims to present my reflection and story in engaging and listening to the stories of participants. A narrative approach was used to gain the stories of individuals living with a spinal cord injury (SCI) identifying as Black, Indigenous, or other Person of Colour (BIPOC). These perspectives are underrepresented in SCI research, specifically SCI peer support, a resource aiming to connect individuals with an SCI to support one another as they navigate the life adjustments after injury. We sought to understand the experiences and engagement of BIPOC SCI individuals with SCI peer support by conducting life story conversations. These following insights will be shared. Firstly, there are challenges in navigating the dichotomy between interviewer and storyteller. Secondly, exploring my narrative identity and its role in participants’ stories. Thirdly, the unstructured space of storytelling leaving room for uncertainties surrounding researcher-participant boundary. These reflections will deepen our understanding of narrative methods, emphasize the value of narrative methodologies in contextualizing lived experiences, and help guide qualitative research with diverse communities within sport and exercise psychology.