‘From the Edge of the Abyss to the Foot of the Rainbow’ – Narrating a Journey of Mental Health Recovery

Service users are continually asked to ‘tell their stories’ within clinical settings as a tool for diagnosis, formulation and treatment plans. There is little evidence that narrative development is used systematically within an NHS therapeutic setting. Developing a personal narrative is one way of reframing and making sense of ‘the illness’ experience - integrating it with the identity and experiences of the individual ‘beyond the illness’. My research explores the process of developing a personal narrative and its possible contribution to mental health recovery. My research uses a three-phased approach, where the emergent themes inform subsequent phases. Phase 1 involved developing and analyzing my recovery autoethnography. Phase 2 used Participatory Action Research. Co-researchers (who had developed their personal narratives) were recruited to focus groups to discuss their process. In Phase 3, we will develop a Personal Narrative workshop programme using the themes and issues generated in Phases 1 and 2. My autoethnography is fundamental to my research. I wrote this version of my personal narrative as a set of 54 vignettes. A process diary was also written to capture my process. Using extracts from my vignettes, I will: • Reflect on my process as a ‘wounded researcher’ It was a ‘visceral’ experience Difficulties of developing an on-going narrative • Discuss the role and difficulties of ‘the voice of others’ in my/our narratives. Each vignette was based on something that was said to me - the starting point of each vignette was the ‘voice of another’ within my own narrative. • Share my emergent process. What I have learnt from my process that will be used in developing the personal narrative workshops