Volume 30, Issue 1, 2021
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.2085
Using autoethnographic reflections to heal: Walking out of depression, anxiety and stress
Abstract
Depression, anxiety and stress have been regarded as common symptoms of those who have being under severe pressure in careers. A long-term career pressure could result in professional’s mental health and wellbeing. Motivated by a group of female life writing members, I have experimented myself in recollecting and recalling my negative and emotional experiences in a female migrant ‘betweener’ journey. This explorative and reflective writing experience provided me with ample opportunities to reflect, ponder and mirror myself as a girl, female teacher and academic staff. In this paper, I explore how I use autoethnography as a research method to write about myself through expressing my anger, depression, anxiety and frustration, as a therapeutic method. Writing from the standpoint of a female academic who was suggested to visit career counsellor, I revisited my diaries and chose the diary excerptions upon my emotional moments, negative experiences and fear in my life, through the sharing with writing members. My experience could be informed as an evidence-based medical approach to provide the first-hand data for my career counsellor. As such, I use members’ actual names, locations, and events in the article.
Keywords
Counselling, female migrant, auto-ethnography, psychology, reflexive enquiry, and writing therapy