The aim of an in-depth qualitative study was to examine UK childhood bereavement service provision and to explore the reasons why bereaved children and their families had used a service and the benefits they felt they drew from the experience. The research adopted an organisational case study design and used semi-structured interviews with service providers, participant observation of service interventions for bereaved children and their families, and unstructured interviews and ‘Storyboards’ with bereaved children and their parents. During the study, the principal researcher and a member of the Project Advisory Group engaged in a series of taped interviews through which to ‘bracket’, or put to one side, the assumptions and past experiences of the principal researcher, and to understand the ways in which these may impact on the data collection and analysis process. Qualitative methodologies in palliative care and bereavement research can engender personal and professional problems for researchers that need special handling within the context of the research, to ensure that the researchers own constructions and understandings are not imposed on the data. The use of ‘bracketing interviews’ provided a particularly valuable space for reflection. Through the dynamic process of the ‘bracketing’ relationship and the development of a reflexive narrative, the principal researcher was able to make full ‘use’ of her past and present experiences, and the emotions and experiences generated within the research process, to make sense of the data in which she was immersed. ‘Bracketing interviews’ contributed to the reflexive process and ensured that the researcher’s assumptions, experiences, and feelings were accessed, examined, ‘bracketed’ and appropriately used.