Using autoethnography to reclaim the 'place of healing' in mental health care

► Autoethnography is proposed for an investigation of the healing capacity of psychiatric acute care environments. ► Autoethnography places the service-user within the research process as key collaborator if not sole investigator. ► The authors critically draw on their multiple roles including service-user, health professional, geographer, and psychologist. ► Voice, experience and theory become mutually entwined concerns potentially stretching the therapeutic landscape concept.