Emerging Perspectives 
ep.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca 

Corresponding author: alysha.chankent@ucalgary.ca 

 
An Autoethnography of my Journey through Autoethnography 

Alysha S. Chan Kent 
 

University of Calgary 

Autoethnography is a qualitative method which allows the researcher to incorporate 
one’s professional and personal identities to share an aspect of their everyday 
experiences. Upon examining my experience of parental divorce, I discovered that my 
personal voice, one of a Chinese-Canadian woman, was missing from the dominant 
discourse within the divorce literature. Due to the incongruence between the literature 
and my experiences, I was drawn to autoethnography as a method which would allow 
me to add a personal voice to the body of literature on divorce. This project did not 
unfold as expected. My journey through autoethnography led me to re-engage with the 
emotional experience that originally inspired my research. This shifted the focus to 
how autoethnography can be used as a transformative tool which reconnects 
researchers to the personal and emotional experiences that initially motivated their 
interest in a specific topic. Therefore, autoethnography can be used as a method to 
answer questions in which researchers must move from cognitive to emotional 
domains of experiencing. As autoethnography is an important but under-used 
qualitative methodology, this study provided evidence for the utility of 
autoethnography in thickening the storyline of an experience, awakening and re-
inspiring one’s desire to explore research questions with a newfound passion. 

Chan Kent, A S. (2020). An autoethnography of my journey through autoethnography. Emerging 
Perspectives, 4(2), 79-88. 

 
 
Autoethnography is an approach to qualitative research that has been used to depict elusive 

and complex feelings or experiences which cannot be tapped into conventionally, allowing 
researchers to tell stories and share personal experiences so that others may better understand 
them (Muncey, 2010). All autoethnographies start with a personal story as this provides purpose 
and direction for the research (Wall, 2008). I began this project as a part of a qualitative research 
course, in which my course instructor suggested autoethnography as a method for exploring my 
experience of parental divorce as a young child. This journey commenced with the primary aim 
of articulating my understanding of parental divorce, and how my status as a Chinese-Canadian 
woman influenced this experience. 

To construct an understanding of this divorce experience, I sought to examine moments 
which significantly influenced the trajectory of my life. In the beginning, I assumed that I would 
be able to offer a narrative of how familial and cultural obligations distinctively shaped one such 
experience. My own experience of parental divorce contributed to my budding curiosity to study 
familial dynamics, pursue research in the realm of relationships and culture, and finally led me to 
a career in counselling psychology. I initiated this project because I felt as though the existing 
literature did not accurately represent my experience as a Chinese-Canadian woman, particularly 



Chan Kent - Emerging Perspectives (2020)   80 

 
pertaining to how the consequences of parental divorce ultimately altered the trajectory of my 
life. I identify as belonging to a racial/ethnic and gender minority; therefore, I believed it was 
imperative for the literature to represent my story, knowing that there are others who share this 
experience. In essence, I felt that due to the underrepresentation of these intersections of identity 
(i.e., Chinese-Canadian woman) in the literature, this was a gap that I could help address.  

I began with the question, “How do I, as a Chinese-Canadian woman, understand my 
experience of childhood parental divorce?” However, as I progressed through this project, it did 
not unfold as expected. The nature of qualitative research is “reflective, interpretive, descriptive, 
and usually reflexive” (Fischer, 2006, p. xvi); therefore, the final results of a study may look 
vastly different from what the researcher may have originally anticipated. Although the findings 
were unexpected, Morrow (2005) noted that this outcome is normative, with reflexivity as one of 
the strengths of qualitative research. My journey through autoethnography became a 
transformative process of re-engagement with the emotional experience that originally motivated 
my research question. The focus shifted to “How can autoethnography be used as a 
transformative tool to re-engage researchers in the personal emotional experiences that motivate 
their research questions?” In this article I outline how this unexpected process unfolded and what 
I learned from undertaking autoethnography as a method of qualitative research. 

 
Deepening the Story: Tensions Arising Between the Existing Literature and My Experience 

As I initiated the literature review for this project, I noticed that despite the magnitude of 
divorce literature within the western context, the consequences of parental divorce on the 
adjustment of children from Chinese families, including the long-term impact, are largely 
unknown (Eldar-Avidan, Haj-Yahia, & Greenbaum, 2009). Indeed, most of this divorce literature 
focused on individualistic cultures, was largely quantitative in design, had limited 
generalizability, and, thereby, inadequately addressed the experience of divorce in collectivist 
cultures, such as the Chinese (Xu, Zhang, & Xia, 2008). In addition, the vast majority of research 
regarding the experience of parental divorce for women, in particular, primarily focused on 
implications for female development. However, results of such studies yielded conflicting results 
pertaining to the impact of divorce on girls (Kalter, Riemer, Brickman, & Chen, 1985). 
Specifically, Kalter and colleagues (1985) explained that several studies determined that parental 
divorce minimally or only temporarily affected daughters, while others demonstrated intensified 
difficulties in the areas of self-esteem, depression, and rebellious behaviours. Although the 
existing divorce research has considered gender, specifically that of being a woman, 
investigations into the intersections of identity (e.g., racial/ethnic and gender identities) are 
missing. I am uniquely situated to have insight in this area not only because of my experience of 
parental divorce, but also because of my identification with a particular racial/ethnic group (i.e., 
Chinese-Canadian) and my gender identity (i.e., cisgender woman).  

Consider the following excerpts from the dominant literature which I viewed as 
incongruent to my own experience: 

1) “Offspring from divorced families hold ambivalent views about intimate relationships 
and marriage” (Amato & Booth, 1997, p. 108). 

Contrary to this, my experience of parental divorce has led me to seriously uphold the 
sanctity of marriage. This attitude is notably prevalent in Chinese societies, because marriage 
cuts to the core of the Chinese family value system: a focus on the centrality of family (Hung, 
2008). 



Chan Kent - Emerging Perspectives (2020)   81 

 
2) “Children with divorced parents, compared to children with continuously married 

parents, have more emotional problems, obtain lower academic scores, and have more 
problems with social relationships. Disadvantages persist into adulthood” (Amato, 2010, 
p. 653). 

Following my parents’ divorce, I did not encounter these disadvantages. I remained hyper-
conscientious of these issues and focused on building healthy relationships and achieving 
academic success. 

3) “Adult children of divorce tend to look back on this period of their lives with some 
degree of negative affect” (Amato, 1988, p. 460). 

Looking back, I believe divorce prompted positive, growth-inducing effects in my life. I 
had to mature quickly, fostering skills such as independence, decision making, empathy and 
compassion, all of which have contributed to my development as a person and a counsellor. 

Due to the incongruence between the literature and my experience, I was drawn to 
autoethnography as a method which would allow me to add a personal voice to the body of 
literature on divorce. Researchers have used autoethnography as a method to depict elusive and 
complex feelings or experiences which cannot be tapped into conventionally, allowing 
researchers to tell stories that may have been neglected in the dominant literature (Muncey, 
2010). In addition to exploring experiences which are missing in the dominant literature, 
autoethnography connects these personal experiences with the larger social realm, providing 
readers with a mechanism through which “personal experiences are explored as a window to the 
understanding of others in society” (Chang, 2016, p. 445). My original goal was to share my 
experience of parental divorce as a Chinese-Canadian woman and express this as a valid and 
credible lived experience (Peterson, 2014). I was curious as to why my experience starkly 
contrasted those which I had read about; therefore, I intended to weave a story of my parental 
divorce experience so that others could imagine or make sense of this life event. An additional 
goal for autoethnographers, and for my originally planned study, was to sensitize the reader to 
important client issues, which may be beneficial to researchers and clinicians alike.  

However, secondary findings emerged from this study; specifically, that researchers may 
be able to utilize autoethnography as a tool to assist them in moving from cognitive to emotional 
domains of experience. Therefore, this article explicitly focused on how researchers may be able 
to personally reconnect to emotionally-rich experiences and enhance their description of their 
experience by engaging in autoethnography. Consequently, individuals pursuing 
autoethnography as a method of qualitative research may find value in the results of this study. 

Methodology 

Autoethnography produces meaningful, accessible, and evocative research grounded in 
personal experience (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2011). Researchers hold twofold identities of 
academic and personal self to share stories about an aspect of themselves in their daily lives 
(Ellis et al., 2011). Therefore, researchers use themselves as their primary research subjects. The 
subjective nature of this methodology can enhance one’s work (Muncey, 2010). Emotions are 
placed in the foreground to acknowledge the subjective nature of knowledge (Butz & Besio, 
2009), enabling authors to produce a thick description of an experience and serving to facilitate 
understanding for those who have or have not experienced a particular phenomenon (Peterson, 
2014). My journey through autoethnography not only provided me with the opportunity to tell 
my story but it was also a transformative process that reminded me of the emotions that I had 



Chan Kent - Emerging Perspectives (2020)   82 

 
previously experienced throughout my parents’ divorce, thereby re-engaging me in the emotional 
experience that originally motivated my research question. 

Research Question 

Immersing myself in the existing literature raised my awareness to the underrepresentation 
of my own experience in the dominant discourse around divorce. This prompted my desire to 
construct a narrative that could speak to others who experienced parental divorce similarly. My 
early intentions were to relay my own divorce story; one that had not yet been represented. In 
particular, I wanted to focus on how being a Chinese woman may have contributed to the 
differences I observed between my experience of parental divorce and those studies illustrating 
the experience within the dominant western culture. Therefore, my preliminary research question 
was: How do I, as a Chinese-Canadian woman, understand my experience of childhood parental 
divorce? This guiding question evolved, and although highly unanticipated, a second question 
emerged as a natural result of the qualitative process: How can autoethnography be used as a 
transformative tool to re-engage researchers in the personal emotional experiences that motivate 
their research questions? For the purposes of this paper I have chosen to concentrate my attention 
on the process of autoethnography and how it can act as a catalyst for researchers to reconnect to 
the experiences which may have originally led them to pursue autoethnography. 

Data and Analysis 

As per the autoethnographic tradition (Ellis et al., 2011), I began by writing journal entries 
specifically for this project. I chronicled details of my life, from 3–22 years old. As I wrote, I 
asked: How did I make sense of the divorce? How have I changed as a result of my parents’ 
divorce? What were some of the typical situations I encountered through the process of parental 
divorce? How was my divorce experience similar to, or different from, those described in the 
literature, given my being raised in a Chinese-Canadian household? How did my gender role 
socialization as a female shape my experience of divorce? I analyzed my journal entries in an 
attempt to organize my experience, but I struggled to accurately depict and establish a coherent 
meaning regarding that experience. Although autoethnography is flexible in its approach, it is a 
complex method that does not proceed linearly. In fact, Ellis (2004) equated the undertaking of 
autoethnography to “being sent into the woods without a compass” (p. 120). My project had 
come to a standstill, and upon re-reading my detailed journals, I found that they sounded 
disconnected from the emotionally charged event that had originally compelled me to pursue 
parental divorce as a research topic. 

Upon sharing this struggle with my father, he asked me if I would like to read the 
psychological assessment conducted on me and my family members, used during child custody 
proceedings in 1998. This document provoked a re-engagement with my personal emotional 
experience of the divorce event, breathing new life into a story that had, after numerous 
retellings, become overshadowed by my thoughts around the experience. My review of this 
document reminded me of the emotions I had associated with the divorce event (e.g., initial 
sadness, followed by relief, contentment, and motivation to grow) and also led me to better 
understand the thoughts I had connected to this experience.  

I recalled and reconstructed conversations, following the example by Ellis and Bochner 
(2000) to substantiate my findings. These snippets of reconstructed narrative are not verbatim; 
rather, the intention was to capture the essence of each conversation.  



Chan Kent - Emerging Perspectives (2020)   83 

 
Findings: A Movement Through Five Stages, from Inquiry to Inspiration 

My involvement with autoethnography moved me through five key stages: inquiry, 
stagnation, re-engagement, transformation, and inspiration. These conversations illustrate how I 
developed and experienced a movement from inquiry to inspiration through this project. These 
key stages are briefly explained, with an example of each provided in the following diagram: 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1. The Development of the Five Stages: A Movement from Inquiry to Inspiration 

Inquiry 

An experience or event which holds significant meaning to an individual is commonly the 
motivator that attracts researchers to particular areas of interest; this is the case with 
autoethnographies, which stem from deeply personal stories (Wall, 2008). At the commencement 
of this project, I wanted to find a way to express how my experience of parental divorce was 
uniquely shaped by family and cultural obligations. My instructor recommended I pursue 
autoethnography as this method would allow me to develop a personal narrative of my 
experience, integrating personal aspects of myself that are routinely siphoned out when using 
other qualitative methods. For example, as is intended through the practice of bracketing (i.e., 
identifying preconceived beliefs about the phenomenon being studied and “bracketing” them out 
in an attempt to approach one’s research from an unbiased perspective) in traditional 
phenomenological research (Tufford & Newman, 2010). 

 

Inquiry
Autoethnography
starts with a 
personal story. I 
began with the story 
I had woven of my 
experience of 
parental divorce as 
a child. To construct 
an understanding of 
this experience, I 
sought to examine 
moments which 
significantly 
impacted the 
trajectory of my 
life. 

Stagnation
The first step was to 
write about my 
experience in a 
detailed, evocative 
manner. I wrote. 
Page and pages. But 
the results were 
stale. Cold. Lifeless. I 
was lost, uninspired, 
and disconnected. I 
turned to my dad, 
an individual who 
has been with me 
through every step 
of this journey. 

Re-engagement
My research was 
motivated by the 
very event 
contained in the 
assessment 
documents, but an 
internal battle raged 
on. I struggled with 
the decision to read 
it. This meant re-
familiarizing myself 
with an experience 
that I have become 
comfortable 
thinking about, but 
no longer feeling. 

Transformation
Through 
conversation with a 
peer, I identified 
how re-engaging 
with my emotional 
experiences enabled 
me to better 
understand my 
cognitions 
connected to this 
experience. By 
exploring and re-
engaging in the 
story of my life, I 
came to understand 
my life as it is now. 

Inspiration
Autoethnography 
allowed me to 
thicken the storyline 
of my divorce 
experience, 
awakening and 
inspiring a desire to 
explore my research 
question with a 
newfound passion. 
This realization 
became apparent in 
a conversation 
between my 
supervisor and 
myself.

Professor: “What 
exactly is it that you 
are interested in 
discovering?” 
 

Me: “I’m attracted 
 to the idea of 

expressing how my 
experience of  

parental divorce  
as a Chinese- 

Canadian woman  
was uniquely shaped 

by family and  
cultural obligations.” 

 
Professor: “That 
sounds like personal 
narrative, have you 
thought about 
autoethnography?” 

 
 

Father: “Hi hun, how’s 
it going?” 
 

Me: “I’m frustrated! 
I’ve been working on 

this project, writing 
and writing, but I feel 

disconnected, like I 
don’t even know why 

I’m doing this  
research anymore...” 

 
Father: “Hmm… I 
have an idea. I can 
send you a report that 
might help. I don’t 
think I’ve shared it 
before…” (in reference 
to the assessment used 
in child custody 
proceedings) 

 
 

Excerpt from Journal: 
“I am afraid that what 
I read will change how 
I view a situation that 
has become my reality. 
I am afraid to be thrust 
into the consuming 
darkness I once 
considered 
inescapable. The 
sadness of a child who 
experienced the love of 
four parents, but did 
not know what to make 
of this love. I fear that 
this reality, an 
insidious darkness, 
will creep back in. A 
reality that took me so 
long to escape, so long 
to recover from.” 

 
 

Me: “I don’t know 
what to make of it. I  
re-engaged with an 

emotional side of the 
experience I thought 
was lost... that I had 

purposefully replaced 
with logic.” 

 
Peer: “Do you think 
there is a way your 
emotions and 
cognitions can come 
together, as a woven 
tapestry?” 
 

Me: “I never really 
thought of it like that. 

It’s almost as if 
autoethnography re-

opened a locked door 
to those emotions.” 

 
 

Supervisor: “What has 
this process been like 
for you?” 
 

Me: “Discouraging. 
Aggravating. 

Challenging. But as a 
result, I’ve changed. 

My identity, as a 
daughter, as a 

researcher, has 
evolved because of 

this. For years I felt 
obligated to remove 

myself from  
my work. Through 

autoethnography I was 
finally able to find a 

place where I fit back 
in, and that was 

inspiring. Uplifting. 
Encouraging.” 

 
 
 



Chan Kent - Emerging Perspectives (2020)   84 

 
Stagnation 

The first steps of autoethnography are to write about the experience. Autoethnographers 
are challenged to present their experiences in a detailed, evocative manner (Ellis & Bochner, 
2000). Following this procedure, I wrote pages and pages, but the results were stale, cold, and 
lifeless. I was lost, uninspired, and disconnected from how the divorce had truly impacted me. 
Autoethnography is commonly used as a form of expressing self-narratives because it is 
adaptable. The lack of prescribed stages allows the user to adjust their next moves based on what 
best suits the given circumstance (Ellis & Bochner, 2000). However, as an emerging researcher 
attempting autoethnography for the first time, the lack of a “how-to” guide left me feeling 
overwhelmed. My depiction of parental divorce read as a mechanical story. Although this event 
was saturated with personal emotional turmoil, numerous reiterations and re-tellings of the 
divorce had allowed me to package and present it as a clean-cut process. Years of critically 
analyzing the paradigm of divorce in my life and in the lives of others led me to view this event 
through a clinical and objective lens, a far cry from my initial goal for this project. 

Re-engagement 

In contrast to feeling “stuck” in the cognitive reiterations of my parents’ divorce, I could 
clearly identify emotionally reengaging with my experience of parental divorce the moment I 
read the psychological report conducted during the divorce and custody proceedings. This 
document opened with a description of my parents’ marriage and subsequent dissolution of their 
relationship. However, the excerpt that had the largest impact and elicited the strongest emotions 
was a description of myself as a young girl and an account of parental treatment prior to the 
divorce. This section of the document described specific scenarios I had encountered as a child 
facing parental divorce, serving as a vivid reminder of the emotions (e.g., initial feelings of grief 
and loss, followed by an increased desire to grow and learn from the experience) that I had 
previously felt.  

Following exposure to this document, I moved from a phase of stagnation to re-
engagement with the project, as the content detailed in this text revitalized feelings I had 
associated with a previously emotionally charged event. I was reminded of the sadness I felt 
upon realizing that I would never again live in a home with both of my biological parents. I 
remembered the guilt that possessed me when wondering if I had played a role in my parents’ 
divorce. I reminisced on the anxiety I experienced when I assumed the role of mediator between 
my parents. However, I also came to realize how this experience prompted growth, development, 
and maturity in myself. My own view of marriage was influenced by my parents’ divorce, in that 
I placed intense value on the sanctity of this relationship. My response to my parents’ divorce 
was also notably different than that which was portrayed in the dominant literature; specifically, 
I focused on excelling academically and building strong relationships. Overall, I am able to look 
back on this experience through a strengths-based lens – to see how my parents’ divorce 
positively impacted and changed the trajectory of my life. The process of autoethnography 
differs from one individual to the next; however, in my experience I was able to re-engage with 
strong emotions following exposure to a document containing emotionally explicit language and 
events. 

Transformation 

The act of reading the psychological assessment that was conducted on me as a child 
facing parental divorce was a transformative experience, especially pertaining to my view of the 



Chan Kent - Emerging Perspectives (2020)   85 

 
event. Through conversation with a peer, I identified how assessment of this artifact allowed me 
to re-engage with my personal emotional experience of divorce, enabling me to better understand 
my cognitions connected to this experience. I was placed back into the shoes of my former self, 
which not only served as a transformative encounter, but also allowed me to understand how 
years of research in this particular area had moved me from emotional to cognitive domains of 
experiencing. Through the process of completing this autoethnography I was able to understand 
how this form of research has the potential to allow authors to personally reconnect to 
emotionally-rich experiences, in addition to enhancing one’s detailed description of their 
experience.  

Inspiration 

Re-exploring previous parts of my life led to a greater understanding of the influence that 
the divorce had on me. Working through the process of autoethnography allowed me to thicken 
the storyline of my divorce experience, awakening and inspiring my desire to explore a particular 
research question with a newfound passion. A true gift can come from autoethnography in that 
the process of working through one’s experience from start to finish is as much a reward as the 
finished product.  

Discussion 

I initially pursued autoethnography as a method which would allow me to share my own 
experience of parental divorce. However, as I progressed through this project, I came to realize 
that autoethnography can result in much more than sharing one’s story and experience. In turn I 
recognized that the process, not solely the final product, can generate highly informative 
knowledge to the researcher. The following is a brief summary of what I came to learn through 
this experience; specifically, my personal discoveries, applicability of this study to researchers 
and clinicians, limitations of this study, and directions for future research. 

What I Discovered Through Autoethnography 

My initial interest in the topic of divorce was due to experiencing it first-hand as an 
emotionally salient event in childhood. However, after engaging in numerous years of research 
pertaining to the experience of divorce, I was detached from the emotionally significant aspects 
of my experience, giving way to an evaluation from a primarily cognitive perspective. At the 
onset of this project, I had difficulty recalling the affective aspects of my parents’ divorce. My 
journey through autoethnography led me to rediscover a part of my family and personal history 
that would not have been made known to me had I not employed this method of research. 
Autoethnography allowed me to access and re-live the emotional experience that had formerly 
driven and inspired my research idea – the grieving and loss I felt as my family no longer 
remained a cohesive unit, followed by the subsequent motivation I felt to grow through this 
experience. In the process, an idea that had become stale was brought back to life. 
Autoethnography became a tool to not only share an authentic understanding of my experience, 
but by which a greater appreciation and use for this methodology was recognized.  

The process of writing personal stories can be therapeutic for authors, as we write to make 
sense of ourselves and our experiences (Ellis et al., 2011). Autoethnography allowed me to re-
engage with a personal emotional experience as a researcher and a daughter. This process forced 
me to look at who I was in the past and integrate that into the person I am now. Further, this 
study enabled me to better understand who I am and the roles I hold within the context of the 



Chan Kent - Emerging Perspectives (2020)   86 

 
cultures I am situated in. This is not limited to the cultural understanding I have gained through 
examining the intersection between Chinese and Canadian cultures, but also the sub-culture 
within my own family, within my relationships with my parents, and with other women who 
experienced parental divorce in childhood. 

How can Re-Engagement be Useful to Researchers and Clinicians? 

Autoethnography not only sensitizes researchers and clinicians to important client issues 
but goes further in that it adds a personal voice to the existing body of research. This is 
significant when working with clients from specific populations as their concerns may differ 
from those in the dominant literature. Philaretou and Allen (2006) noted that the knowledge 
obtained through this methodology is academically valuable as it provides an insider’s 
perspective into sensitive topics that may not be readily approached by recruited participants. 
This study explicitly focused on engaging researchers in moving from cognitive to emotional 
domains of experiencing, particularly in regard to the topic they have chosen to investigate. 
Autoethnography prompted me to re-engage in the personal emotional experience that originally 
motivated my question. By engaging in the emotional aspects of my experience, I was able to 
provide a comprehensive description of this experience, which may differ from the knowledge 
obtained through using alternative qualitative methods.  

Limitations 

When taking into consideration the self-selecting nature of what I chose to speak to, a 
potential limitation of this research is the quality of the information I obtained. That is, this study 
was highly dependent on my ability to self-reflect and communicate my experiences. 
Specifically, the depth of the data I was able to obtain may have been limited by the fact that I 
was reflecting on the emotions I experienced in childhood. Therefore, this renders it impossible 
to fully access the exact emotions I felt as a child, emotions which led me to develop my current 
beliefs and values around marriage and divorce. Critics of autoethnography have judged it as 
narcissistic, excessively focused on the individual, and self-indulgent (Coffey, 1999). However, 
Bochner and Ellis (1996) countered that the subjective stance taken by the researcher “allow[s] 
another person’s world of experience to inspire critical reflection on your own” (p. 22). 
Therefore, autoethnographic research not only provides readers with a fuller understanding of a 
particular experience, but also challenges them to consider and reflect on their own experiences. 
The basis of qualitative research is humanistic in nature and therefore, the experience is 
considered through the eyes of the individual (Creswell, 2009). With this approach in mind, 
qualitative researchers consider personal stories and narratives to be valid and credible data by 
which researchers can answer the questions they have asked. Therefore, one of the main 
strengths of autoethnography is that it provides personal narratives and provides rich data 
pertaining to a particular experience (Ellis & Bochner, 2000). 

Future Research 

Exposure to an artifact prompted my movement from cognitive to emotional domains of 
experiencing; specifically, the psychological assessment which was conducted during the divorce 
and custody proceedings. Future studies could extend beyond a one-person sample and examine 
how other researchers engaging in autoethnography experience the introduction of an artifact. In 



Chan Kent - Emerging Perspectives (2020)   87 

 
this case, it would be interesting to note whether or not researchers outside of this particular 
study also experience a movement from cognitive to emotional domains of experiencing. 

Conclusion 

My initial aim for this study was to enhance my understanding of divorce within a 
collective culture, with the colossal hopes of one day furthering the development of theory 
pertaining to divorce and identity; thereby, enabling researchers and clinicians alike to provide 
more effective counselling services for young Chinese-Canadians. I intended to explore how 
family and cultural obligations uniquely shaped my experience of divorce and construct an 
understanding of this experience by examining how my parents’ divorce significantly influenced 
the trajectory of my life. Unexpectedly, the process of autoethnography moved me from a 
specific topic of exploration to better understanding how engagement with this methodology can 
allow researchers to access underlying emotions associated with particular research topics. I 
came to understand that, through autoethnography, it is possible for a researcher to not only 
thicken the storyline of their experiences, but also reawaken a desire to explore their research 
question with a newfound passion.  

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	Data and Analysis
	Re-engagement
	Transformation
	Inspiration

	Discussion
	What I Discovered Through Autoethnography

	How can Re-Engagement be Useful to Researchers and Clinicians?
	Limitations

	Future Research
	Conclusion
	References