"Adding What Is Life-Giving to My Years.” A Collaborative Therapeutic Positive Autoethnography on Transforming Kidney Failure

Authors

• Frederik Crous, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South AfricaFollow
• Claude-Hélène Mayer, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South AfricaFollow

Abstract

Chronic physical health conditions may challenge mental health conditions. This collaborative therapeutic positive autoethnography (ThePosAE) presents a discourse between two authors regarding one author’s ability to transform his extremely challenging physical health conditions into positive learning and development from a salutogenetic perspective. The authors, through dialogue and reflective thoughts, explore the one author’s life story and his successful attempt to transform physical challenges into an embodied “up” schematic structure and finally into an “inside-out” schema. The author’s strengths and his ability to create comprehensibility, manageability and meaning while facing extreme health challenges is part of his latest discovery of the “inside out” schema which makes the personal universal. The methodology used is a collaborative ThePosAE perspective to describe one author’s experience of kidney failure at the age of 36 and his lifelong experience to transform this extremely challenging physical condition into positive, transformational and post-traumatic growth through narration and arts. The authors present conclusions and recommendations for future theory and practice of ThePosAE.

Keywords

positive psychology, Therapeutic Positive Autoethnography (ThePosAE), collaborative autoethnography, sense of coherence, post-traumatic growth, healing, positive health, kidney failure

Author Bio(s)

Prior to his retirement the first author, Frederik (Freddie) Crous, served as Head of the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management at the University of Johannesburg and currently serves as Professor Emeritus in the same department. Freddie's kidneys failed when he was 36 and ever since then has tried, as an academic, to make sense of his experiences in relation to the numerous health challenges related to his kidney failure which he was and still is faced with. He is known for incorporating the insights into his life experiences on a personal, academic and professional level. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3550-4770 Please direct correspondence to [email protected]

Claude-Helene Mayer, the second author, joined the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management at the University of Johannesburg in 2019 as a full professor. Her research focus is anchored in positive psychology, mental health and wellbeing. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9445-7591 Please direct correspondence to [email protected]

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

Crous, F., & Mayer, C.-H. (2026). “Adding what is life-giving to my years.” A collaborative therapeutic positive autoethnography on transforming kidney failure. The Qualitative Report, 31(11), 7114-7141.

ORCID ID

Frederik Crous ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3550-4770; Claude- Helene Mayer ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9445-7591