Despite the many barriers ex-prisoners face when attempting to 'go straight' many successfully lead law abiding lives. Yet how this is achieved in light of the widespread stigma attached to this cohort has received little empirical attention. Specifically, an area that neglects consideration is the reformed ex-prisoner's experience of self-change and in particular, how they negotiate their stigmatised ex-offender status. To address these issues, this thesis utilises a hermeneutic phenomenological analytic framework. Three empirical investigations were conducted utilising a small sample of reformed exprisoners. In studies I & 2, a sample of ten male reformed ex-prisoners (five in each study) took part in semi-structured interviews. Data were subjected to an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IP A). In study 3, data was collected by means of a dialogical interview consisting of two male reformed ex-prisoners. Here IPA was used in an innovative way as a means of analysing the data. The initial study illustrated that the ex-offender status (ex-offender self) appears to be a binary phenomenon, which has a contradictory influence on the ex-prisoner's sense of self. The second study develops these findings by illuminating the complex tensions underlying this contradiction. The third study utilises a conceptual lens to refine and distil the previous findings, by identifying the experiential structures underlying the contradictory nature of the ex-offender self. Three key patterns were identified which are equally responsible for generating the conflict, namely morality, masculinity and stigma. A synthesis of all three studies, discussing the most salient patterns with reference to relevant theoretical and empirical literature is provided. This thesis concludes by making suggestions for future research and discusses the implications of this empirical work for policy and practice