Reflexive Thematic Analysis: A practical step-by-step guide for qualitative PhD researchers
If you are sitting with pages of interview transcripts wondering how they are ever going to become a coherent findings chapter, you are in exactly the place most qualitative PhD researchers find themselves at some point.
The data feels rich. Messy. Emotional. Layered.
And you might be thinking, “I can see interesting things here, but how do I turn this into something structured and defensible?”.
This is where Reflexive Thematic Analysis, as developed by Braun and Clarke, becomes incredibly powerful.
It gives you a clear analytic process without pretending that qualitative research is mechanical. It allows depth without chaos. Structure without rigidity.
What makes thematic analysis “reflexive”?
Reflexive Thematic Analysis is not just about identifying patterns in your data. It is about recognising that you are actively involved in producing those patterns.
Your theoretical positioning, your assumptions, your experiences, and your research questions all shape what you notice and how you interpret it.
In interpretivist qualitative research, you are not trying to eliminate yourself from the analysis. You are trying to be thoughtful and transparent about your role within it.
Reflexivity means asking questions like:
Why did this excerpt stand out to me?
What assumptions am I bringing to this interpretation?
How does my theoretical stance shape the themes I am developing?
Instead of striving for artificial neutrality, reflexive analysis embraces the researcher’s analytic agency.
For many qualitative PhD students, this is both liberating and unsettling. You are not following a formula. You are developing judgement.
The six phases of Reflexive Thematic Analysis
Braun and Clarke outline six phases. They are often presented as steps, but it is more accurate to think of them as movements. You will move back and forth between them as your understanding deepens.
1. Familiarise yourself with the data
Before coding, you immerse yourself.
Read and reread your transcripts. Make margin notes. Write brief summaries. Notice tone, contradictions, emotional shifts.
At this stage, resist the urge to organise everything. Your task is to understand the texture of the data.
Many qualitative researchers feel impatient here. They want to “start analysing properly”. But familiarisation is analysis. You are beginning to see patterns before you formally name them.
2. Generate initial codes
Coding is simply labelling segments of data that feel meaningful in relation to your research question.
Some codes will be descriptive. They capture what is explicitly said. Others will be more interpretive. They capture implied meaning, tension, or underlying processes.
For example, a participant might say, “I did not want to ask for help because everyone else seemed confident.” A descriptive code might be reluctance to ask for help. An interpretive code might be fear of exposure.
At this stage, breadth matters more than perfection. You are opening the data up.
3. Construct initial themes
Themes are not topics. They are patterns of shared meaning underpinned by a central organising concept.
When you move from codes to themes, you begin asking: what is the bigger story here?
Codes such as hidden expectations, unclear rules, and confusion about processes might cluster into a theme such as navigating invisible systems.
This is the point where many qualitative PhD students feel unsure. They worry they are “making it up.”
You are not making it up. You are interpreting systematically.
The key question is whether your theme captures something important about the dataset in relation to your research question.
“You are not ‘making it up’. You are interpreting systematically.”
4. Review and refine themes
Now you test your themes.
Do the coded extracts within each theme cohere meaningfully?
Is each theme distinct from the others?
Does the overall set of themes tell a convincing analytic story?
This phase often involves merging themes, splitting them, or discarding ones that felt promising but do not hold up.
5. Define and name your themes
Strong themes have clear definitions.
You should be able to articulate what the theme captures, what it includes, and what it excludes. A good theme name is concise but evocative.
For example, Feeling like an outsider might be defined as - participants’ sense of not fully belonging within an institutional environment, shaping their behaviour, confidence, and help-seeking patterns.
At this stage, your analysis begins to feel more confident and less provisional.
6. Write up your analysis
Writing is not a final add-on. It is part of the analytic process.
In your findings chapter, you introduce each theme, explain its central organising concept, and illustrate it with carefully chosen extracts. You interpret those extracts. You connect them back to your research question and, later, to relevant literature.
This is where reflexivity remains important. Be transparent about how you moved from data to theme. Show your reasoning.
A qualitative examiner is not looking for objectivity. They are looking for coherence, depth, and thoughtful interpretation.
Common fears about Reflexive Thematic Analysis
Qualitative PhD researchers often experience the same anxieties:
Am I coding correctly?
Are my themes “good enough”?
Is this too descriptive?
Am I being rigorous enough?
These fears usually surface when you move from mechanical activity to analytic judgement.
Reflexive Thematic Analysis does not promise algorithmic certainty. It demands intellectual engagement. That is why it is powerful.
Rigour here comes from transparency, reflexivity, coherence, and alignment with your epistemological stance. Not from pretending that themes simply “emerged.”
Start where you are
If you are at the beginning and still trying to understand how coding works, my focused starter guide can give you grounding and clarity.
If you are already deep into coding or wrestling with theme development and writing up, my Braun and Clarke Reflexive Thematic Analysis Guide can help you move from uncertainty to confidence.
Reflexive Thematic Analysis is not about doing it perfectly. It is about doing it thoughtfully.
And thoughtful qualitative research is exactly what a PhD is designed to develop.
