Self-redescriptions and group process: the places of women living with HIV/Aids

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to describe the self-description change process of a female participant in a support group for people living with HIV. The analysis of the transcripts of 10 sessions, in a social constructionist perspective, was based on a ‘thematic axis’ related to the disclosure of HIV status and a ‘process axis’ related to her participation as woman and mother. It was possible to identify moments of emergence of new self-descriptions, forms of group interaction facilitated by her caring posture and the importance of social meanings of AIDS in the making sense of the female experience. This study invites the consideration of the conversational conditions of the emergence of other self-descriptions, gender issues on the construction of the group process, as well as the contribution of social discourses in the definition of the problem and the change in therapy.