"You feed and water a rose bush and eventually it blossoms": Constructions of self-transformation among mental health court defendants.

This study qualitatively examined adaptive responses to mental health court mandates through individual interviews with defendants in a mental health court (n = 31). Thematic analysis of interview data revealed that defendants engaged in meaning-making to comprehend and adapt to the perceived programmatic demands of mental health court. Programmatic burdens, court-enforced accountability, and intrinsic rewards were themes that converged to form a distinct adaptive response: construction of self-transformation narratives.