2021/12/21 by Valenzuela-Moguillansky, Camila, Díaz, Daniela, Vásquez-Rosati, Alejandra +1
#Medicine and health #body-awareness #change process #embodiment #experience research #fibromyalgia #first-person research #recovery process
paper · doi:10.3205/jat000014
Objective: The aim of the present study was to explore the bodily experience of fibromyalgia patients’ recovery process, focusing on the changes that, from the patients’ perspective, were significant in the progression towards health. Methods: Eight women who had recovered from fibromyalgia participated in the study. Data was gathered and analyzed using qualitative, phenomenological and arts-based methods, combining different levels of description: a narrative level using semi-structured interviews; an embodied level using the micro-phenomenological interview and body mapping, and a non-verbal level also provided by the body mapping method. Results: Four overarching themes were identified from the qualitative data collected from the semi-structured interviews. These themes outlined a process of sense-making that transformed the relationship participants had with their symptoms and with themselves. The micro-phenomenological interview allowed identification of the micro-dynamics of specific moments of new understanding within the recovery process, demonstrating that getting in touch with bodily sensations, whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, by becoming aware of them and pondering or relaxing into them, allows for changes that appear crucial to the recovery process. The body map enabled us to include a pre-reflective, sensorial and non-verbal level of description that complemented the analysis of the micro-phenomenological interview. The maps portrayed two bodies: one representing the state of the participant before the new understanding and the other the state after it. The two bodies contrasted in various aspects, such as shape, color, posture, as well as the associated feelings these images produced. In addition to the contrasting aspects of the two silhouettes present in the body maps, common elements were identified indicating that in the process of change, the patients also recognized a unity or continuity, something that was already present in them and that somehow allowed such change. Conclusions: Our results are consistent with the idea that recovery involves a process of sense-making of what is experienced. More importantly, our results showed that a cornerstone of the sense-making process is gaining familiarity with bodily self-awareness. The integration of the three methods used allowed us to approach different aspects of the participants’ subjective experience, deepening the understanding of the fibromyalgia recovery process and contributing to the discussion of the place of subjective experience in scientific research.