Virginia Braun 
Professor/Ahorangi, School of Psychology/Te Kura Mātai Hinengaro, Waipapa Taumata Rau
The University of Auckland, New Zealand

Virginia Braun (she/her, they/them) is a Professor in Psychology at Waipapa Taumata Rau the University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, where they research, teach and supervise qualitative research methods, and topics related to gender, sexuality and health. With Victoria Clarke, they have developed an approach to thematic analysis – now referred to as reflexive thematic analysis – and have written extensively around this, including in their 2022 book Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide (Sage) which won the 2022 British Psychological Society Book Award. More can be found on their website www.thematicanalysis.net. Their other books include co-authored with Victoria Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide (Sage, 2013) and co-edited with Victoria and Debra Gray Collecting Qualitative Data (Cambridge, 2017). Other qualitative methodologies they have explored (with others) include story completion (see www.storycompletion.net) and qualitative surveys, and currently (with Victoria) they are orienting to matters of quality in qualitative research. They received the New Zealand Association of Scientists’ Masden Medal (2021), awarded “for a lifetime of outstanding service to the cause or profession of science, in recognition of service rendered to the cause or profession of science in the widest connotation of the phrase”. They were elected Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi in 2023.

Victoria Clarke
Associate Professor in Qualitative and Critical Psychology, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

Victoria Clarke (she/her, they/them) is an Associate Professor in Qualitative and Critical Psychology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, where they teach qualitative research methods, and topics related to gender and sexuality, to psychology students and supervise student research. With Virginia Braun they have developed an approach to thematic analysis - now known as reflexive thematic analysis - and have written extensively around this, including their book Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide (2022, Sage) and website www.thematicanalysis.net. This book won the 2022 British Psychological Society Book Award. They have published several other prize-winning books including - also with Virginia Braun - Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide (2013, Sage). With Virginia Braun and others they have also written more widely around qualitative methods - including the story completion method (see www.storycompletion.net), qualitative surveys, and matters of quality in qualitative research. In acknowledgement of their contribution to the field of qualitative research, they were awarded the 2022 British Psychological Society President's Award, which recognises an outstanding contribution to psychological science.

Simon Gábor
Associate professor at the ELTE Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, Hungary (Institute of Hungarian Linguistics and Finno-Ugric Studies, Department of Modern Hungarian Linguistics)

Gábor Simon is an associate professor at the Department of Modern Hungarian Linguistics at Eötvös Loránd University Budapest. He is a senior member of the ELTE DiAGram Research Centre for Functional Linguistics and the leader of the MetaID Research Group (dedicated to metaphor identification in Hungarian).

He received his Ph.D. in cognitive linguistics in 2013. After being a postdoctoral researcher of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he joined the Eötvös Loránd University as a senior lecturer in 2017. He obtained his habilitation in 2024.

In 2014, he won a scholarship of the National Excellence Programme. He was awarded as “a promising young researcher” at the Eötvös Loránd University in 2019, and in 2023 he received the award of “excellent publication” from the Faculty of Humanities. Between 2021 and 2024, he was supported by the Bolyai János Research Scholarship from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

His research interests include cognitive corpus linguistics, the analysis of figurative language use, cognitive and construction grammatical approaches to Hungarian verb argument constructions, and cognitive poetics. He is the author of two books on cognitive poetics, the editor of four volumes (dealing with cognitive and corpus linguistics), and several research papers in English and Hungarian.

Anssi Peräkylä
Professor Emeritus, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences, Finland

Anssi Peräkylä has investigated social interactions through his research career. His first major work was an ethnographic study of care of dying patients in hospital setting.  Thereafter, using conversation analysis, he has investigated AIDS counselling, primary care medical consultations, psychotherapy and diagnostic interviews in psychiatry.  In his studies on emotion in interaction, he has combined conversation analysis with experimental research designs and physiological measurements. In recent years, he has been engaged in research project on narcissism in social interaction, and he has also explored engagement in social interaction.  

 Making the best and avoiding the worst of thematic analysis

Virginia Braun & Victoria Clarke

This talk will explore problematic practices in reflexive thematic analysis (TA) – based on our reviews of published TA research across 7 health-related journals – and highlight examples of good practice. In this exploration, we emphasise the concepts and practices of methodological congruence, reflexive openness and being a knowing researcher. Methodological congruence – also known as methodological coherence, methodological integrity and paradigmatic congruence – captures the way different parts of a research project fit together to form a coherent and harmonious whole. This means our research questions, philosophical assumptions, understanding of researcher subjectivity, treatment of data and quality practices are all in conceptual alignment. Reflexive openness – more widely known as transparency – highlights the importance of qualitative researchers offering a transparent and comprehensive account of their research practice. For some, this can entail revealing some of the 'mess' and 'behind the scenes' of the research process rather than offering a seamless and polished account of the research. Both methodological congruence and reflexive openness are facilitated by researchers who recognise the importance of, and strive to become, what we call knowing practitioners – which includes having a sound understanding of the conceptual underpinnings of their research, being deliberative and reflexive in their choices, and being able to communicate these to others. We end by briefly highlighting two quality tools – the RTARG and the BQQRG – that we have developed to support researchers in conducting methodologically congruent and reflexively open reflexive TA.

Metaphorical navigation across troubles: cultural conceptualizations and the way we rely on them

Simon Gábor

The talk explores how metaphors influence our understanding of problematic situations and help individuals negotiate solutions within shared socio-cultural contexts. Even though the category of metaphor gained some prominence in investigating mental health issues and in therapeutic discourse, cognitive and corpus linguistic approaches to metaphor still have the potential to make a valuable contribution to qualitative research in psychology. The primary goal of the talk is to explain the concept of metaphor as a crucial element of distributed and emergent cultural cognition, as introduced by Sharifian. In this framework, the representation of the world is continually (re)negotiated among members of cultural groups.

Metaphor, as a conceptual mapping process, systematically highlights aspects of our experiences. Beyond its mere representational function, it also conveys an evaluative attitude and grounds subjective experience in intersubjectively shareable frames of reference. Therefore, metaphors play an important role in creating and sustaining a shared understanding of what is going on with us. This intricate function of metaphors in addressing and resolving troubles is illustrated in the analysis of metaphorical expressions found in online posts about suicidal thoughts and intentions.

Narcissism in Social Interaction

Anssi Peräkylä

Narcissism—whether considered a psychiatric illness or a personality trait—involves self-related cognitions and emotions, as well as interactions between persons. Therefore, to understand narcissism, a conceptualization of both intra- and interpersonal processes, and their systemic relations is needed. In the presentation, I will offer such conceptualization, extending the psychological model of narcissism of Morf and Rhodewalt by Erving Goffman’s micro-sociology. In the light of this model, I will discuss a string of empirical studies, employing conversation analytical and experimental methods which elucidate the ways in which self-related cognitions and affects are played out and reproduced in interpersonal interactions.

Debbie Atanasio
Family Therapy Graduate, The University of Malta

Debbie is a recent graduate in Family Therapy from the University of Malta. 

At the QRMH 2025, Debbie will present her autoethnography, a compelling exploration of her lived experience with Postpartum Psychosis. Her research provides an authentic and intimate perspective on maternal mental health. Her work combines personal narrative with academic inquiry, aiming to foster greater awareness and empathy for maternal mental health challenges within therapeutic and wider social contexts.

In addition to her academic endeavours, Debbie has been invited on numerous occasions to share her story at seminars and conferences organised by PIMHA (Parent-Infant Mental Health Alliance). Notably, in 2019, she was invited by the Department of Child and Family Studies to share her lived experience at the Parliament of Malta, highlighting her role as a trusted advocate for maternal mental health.

Moreover, Debbie has demonstrated a commitment to community engagement, facilitating a support group for mothers within the charity PIMHA. Her community engagement earned her the Faculty for Social Wellbeing’s prestigious Social Commitment Award in 2024.

With 17 years of experience as an educator, Debbie currently serves as an Assistant Head in a primary school.

Untold Motherhood Encounters: An Autoethnographic Account of Postpartum Psychosis. A conversation with a researcher

This autoethnography explores my lived experience with postpartum psychosis in Malta, focusing on the intersection of personal, familial, and professional narratives. Through a qualitative lens, this research incorporates the voices of key collaborators: my mother, husband, sister, former Head of School, my perinatal psychiatrist, and midwife present during my hospital admission. The results reveal that my experience with postpartum psychosis,while profoundly personal, is also shaped by broader social dynamics, including cultural, systemic, and relational influences. For example, despite the pervasive stigma surrounding mental health in Malta, which led me to conceal my pre-psychotic depression, I received significant material support from my close network. However, no one detected the warning signs of depression until the condition escalated into a full-blown psychotic episode. This may have been partly due to my efforts to mask my depression, influenced by the idealised narrative surrounding motherhood. Emotionally, I did not feel entirely ‘safe’ with those around me, reflecting how my attachment style contributed to the situation. My avoidant tendencies may have played a role in the progression of my condition. The findings also highlight that severe stressors served as unavoidable triggers. Additionally, the midwives lacked experience with postpartum psychosis. My treatment improved after diagnosis. My twin sister, a midwife, also helped to ensure that I received treatment at the main state hospital in a gynae ward together with my baby while other mothers with postpartum psychosis are to this day separated from their babies and referred to a psychiatric hospital. I  critique this preferential treatment as I am aware that keeping the baby with the mother in a  mother and baby unit is a treatment of choice in these circumstances. All Maltese mothers  should benefit from such a service, and not only persons like me who have family members  who advocated for the best service I could get. This study's strengths include the use of  autoethnography to capture my lived experience with postpartum psychosis, the incorporation  of the father's perspective, and the contributions of my co-storytellers. Policy  recommendations include improving family-work policies, evidence-based training for  healthcare professionals on maternal mental health, integrating family therapists and peer  experts into care services, and ensuring equitable treatment for all patients.