The cat, the foal and other meetings that make a difference: posthuman research that re-animates our responsiveness to knowing and becoming

In this chapter the author invites you to accompany her into an exploration of research that draws on posthuman and new-materialist ontologies and epistemologies. Research as a processual matter of engagement makes room for unexpected encounters with, for example, cats and foals, that make a difference to the way we think and redirect the pathways of our research. These diffractive meeting places bring a focus to potential; ie. what things can become, rather than definition, ie. what things are. The author illustrates how a post-qualitative approach to research offers the potential to open channels for divergent ways of perceiving and processing research material, with examples from prior research projects that bring together dance movement psychotherapy, ecopsychotherapy and critical disability studies.