Background: In 2010 a community of practice was set up for and by doctoral students engaged in person-centred and practitioner research. After three years, this community became part of a larger international community of practice.

Aims and objectives: Captured under the stanzas of a poem and supported by the literature, this paper uses member narratives and creative expressions in a critical reflection on the experience of being a member of the Student International Community of Practice.

Conclusions: Membership in the community of practice was experienced as beneficial, providing both support and challenge to enrich the doctoral students’ development as person-centred researchers. Retaining connectivity across an international landscape and finding effective ways to integrate new members into the community presented the greatest challenges.

Implications for practice development:

• The theoretical foundation and experiential knowledge could assist others considering support structures for the development of person-centred practices
• Shared learning and co-creation of knowledge add value to the experience of being a doctoral researcher
• Membership fluctuations present challenges to continuity of learning and the maintenance of a safe space with communities of practice. Such fluctuations, however, create chances for community members to experience diverse roles within the group and encourage explicit attention to person-centredness

This article by Brighide M. Lynch and Donna Michelle Frost is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License.