How Interviewing Became Therapy for Wives of Professional Athletes: Learning From a Serendipitous Experience

During field research on wives of professional athletes, several of the wives seemed to find that the in-depth interviews had a therapeutic value. Indeed, they themselves often referred to the interview sessions as “therapy sessions,” opportunities to unload suppressed feelings, innermost thoughts, and private experiences in ways that led to certain self-transformations. This article examines the nature of collaborative relationships in the interviewing process and factors that enabled some of the wives to experience a cathartic process of self-revelation and an introspective process of self-discovery, thereby gaining more from their participation than they had expected.