Narrative Approach for Identifying Movements of Change and the Value of Therapeutic Writing Related to Chronic pain Management

Abstract

In this study, we examined extensive narratives prepared by participants who attended a chronic pain management programme where therapeutic writing was included. The aim was to explore how narrators experience the contexts in which their lives unfold following a cognitive behavioural programme. The analysis was based on a three-sphere model for context analysis, which referred to the contexts in which the narrators located their life stories: their immediate inter-subjective relationships, the collective social field, and broad cultural meaning. We identified important change processes related to adaptation. Our examination of the experience of therapeutic writing clearly indicated that therapeutic writing is helpful. We suggest that obtaining a better understanding of living with chronic pain through storytelling as part of therapeutic writing and using a three-sphere model for context analysis could improve understanding and approaches to nursing. Health carers should organize care around the experience of illness and its inter-subjective, social, and cultural consequences, which may provide a deeper understanding of identity and the core themes embedded in life stories.