ABSTRACT
Starting to use critical reflection can be like finding yourself in the middle of a dark forest, surrounded by well-trodden paths. You see lots of paths and you have many options about which path to take, but that, in itself, can feel overwhelming. When you are learning the process of critical reflection you might feel lost, and you don’t know where the paths will go – they are the paths that others have trodden. You might see a map of these paths, but it is important to find your own way and make your own map. At the start, it is scary to walk along a path not knowing where you might end up and what you might encounter along the way. As you develop a couple of well-trodden paths of your own, you begin to feel comfortable and you think that you can find your way out. But somehow, you always seem to find yourself back in the same place, in the middle of the dark forest. As you feel more confident, you are more willing to take a risk and explore what is beyond the path. You know the paths well enough to know that soon you will recognise a landmark or come across another well-trodden path, and you will know where you are, where you have come from and where you are going.
