TY - JOUR TI - Damaged goods DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3NP26R0 PY - 2016 AB - This auto-ethnography looks at one person’s reintegration experience, examining the stigma and marginalization that result from a criminal record and how the moral philosophy of neoliberalism influences (shapes/hinders) one’s autonomy and ability to rebuild a meaningful life. I sought to narrate pivotal moments in my personal history where the psychological scars from managing a stigmatized identity negated any real sense of agency. Topics of stigma and shame, discrimination, and internalized oppression are explored throughout this paper as they intersect my reintegration process. Finally, I propose that through borrowing from the tenets of Reality Therapy, therapists can assist clients in constructing new meaning from negative events (reshaping their understanding of themselves), finding a renewed sense of self in spite of a structural system that has sought to limit access to rights and resources, as I was able to do. KW - Social Work KW - Stigma (Social psychology) KW - Criminals--Rehabilitiation KW - Ex-convicts KW - Identity (Psychology) LA - eng ER -