Introduction to the Therapeutic Positive Autoethnography (ThePosAE) Special Issue

Authors

• Claude-Hélène Mayer, Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South AfricaFollow
• Ronald J. Chenail, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USAFollow

Abstract

In our introduction to the Special Issue on “Therapeutic Positive Autoethnography” (ThePosAE) published in The Qualitative Review, we frame the term and concept of ThePosAE, and then we present the eight papers which are published in the special issue, featuring authors from Germany, the US, South Africa, and Australia who share their autoethnographic pieces from or in the context of ThePosAE approach.

Keywords

therapeutic positive autoethnography (ThePosAE), therapy, healing, transformation, positive psychology, theory development, research methodology development

Author Bio(s)

Claude-Hélène Mayer is a Professor in Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management at the University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. She is an accredited Systemic Family Therapist (Germany) and a Trauma Therapist (USA). She is also trained in Existential and Jungian Therapy and works in private practice. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9445-7591 Please direct correspondence to [email protected]

Ronald J. Chenail is Executive Vice President, Provost, Chief Academic Officer, and Professor of Family Therapy at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. He is also Executive Editor-in-Chief of The Qualitative Report. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9312-9780 Please direct correspondence to [email protected]

Acknowledgements

We thank the TQR editors and publication team for their support in publishing this Special Issue. Further thanks go to our authors for their time and dedication to submitting their articles on ThePosAE and our reviewers who helped to increase the quality of the submissions.

Publication Date

11-10-2026

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Recommended APA Citation

Mayer, C. H., & Chenail, R. J. (2026). Introduction to the therapeutic positive autoethnography (ThePosAE) special issue. The Qualitative Report, 31(11), 7061-7067.