Diary of a PhD student

My qualitative research explores how adults recover from interpersonal trauma and abuse. The focus is on investigating key processes and ingredients, and on emotional and interpersonal aspects that contribute to survivors’ well-being. Capturing survivors’ perspective is important here in order to optimise treatment and deliver survivor-centred support. Keeping a research journal is widely recommended for qualitative research because it allows researchers to document, reflect on and lay open their practices, assumptions, values, choices and experiences. However, there is little guidance on how journals are used and how they aid in the research process. This presentation shows how keeping a research journal has become a crucial part of this study. My journal not only documents how my project develops and how I as a researcher develop, but it also provides space to reflect on and capture how my assumptions, values, choices, actions, thoughts and feelings influence my decisions and my interpretations. Recording all this helps develop and justify my methodological decisions as well as the evidence for my findings and my theory of how adult survivors recover. Thus, it increases confidence in the process and the results. Ultimately, this will be an invaluable resource to draw on when writing my thesis.