Your post made me think of the 'marriage experts,' the Gottmans (good interview here: https://youtu.be/mS3bfCt0K88?si=lyymeUGp2SxxAujx). They are a couple in which the man began as a researcher - typical 'prestige' research that tries to objectively assess an issue in a way that can, through its approach, neglect the constantly changing context surrounding the problem and being internalised by those embedded in the context and dealing with the issue --in this case marriage. His wife joined his team as a clinician who went out each day to practice marriage therapy with couples, so she respected his research but brought her knowledge of framing, context, and individual variation and personal agency to the approach. Based on your contextualisation of research within a clear narrative, I think you'd like their discussions about how we can proactively take charge of our malleable relationships (past, present, and future) by asking ourselves and others open-ended, research-informed questions to foster a sense of collaborative co-creation in relationships rather than just accept a fixed set of roles within a system over which we have no control.