Critical psychology broadly aspires to engage researchers, practitioners, and the field as a whole in understanding and responding to the ways that psy-disciplines are exercised towards oppressive aims and reorienting them towards liberatory ones. However, the specific ways that researcher-practitioners can do so without re-imposing limiting dichotomies can be difficult to discern and effectuate.
The proposed presentation draws on the researchers' current project, "Understanding the Social Worlds of Unhoused Urban Inuit," to describe methods that align with critical psychology theory. Specifically, we will describe the organic web of diverse relationships from which the project has grown and "Visiting" as a method of nurturing these foundational relations. As described by Indigenous feminist scholars, "Visiting is a relating that is imbued with accountability, vulnerability, and mutuality". Visiting was a necessary opportunity for us to enter street and shelter spaces and be questioned, known, and, if earned, invited into deeper levels of mutual knowing. These encounters could not be more invaluable to the quality of the work and the process. The proposed presentation will discuss the lessons and insights gained from practicing Visiting as a research method, its connection to critical psychology, and invite participants to explore how Visiting can be integrated across other topics.