Background: This article shares the story of a critical creative reflection that was prompted by my need to understand my ‘self’ when I was beginning my PhD and started to realise the place of person-centredness in my work. I used painting to reflect on my self and on specific experiences I had at the beginning of my PhD journey. This process of self-reflection resulted in the emergence of human flourishing.

Aims: To demonstrate a process of critical creative reflection and to outline how this process can facilitate understanding of self, and of the philosophy and theory underpinning my PhD work and, consequently, lead to human flourishing.

Conclusion: Self-reflection underpinned by critical creativity facilitates understanding of ‘self’ and of work that can result in human flourishing.

Implications for practice:

• A facilitated process of critical self-reflection is a necessary step towards becoming a person-centred researcher/practitioner who knows self
• Using creativity in reflection can take us beyond structured reflection in practice and introduce critical learning that incorporates intelligence held in the body
• Engaging in critical creative reflection can result in human flourishing, which lays the foundations for a person to achieve their potential and facilitates continued critical reflection in future work

This article by Niamh Kinsella is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License.