Using a Narrative Practice Approach to Understand In-Depth Experiences of Individuals Coping with Chronic Pain

OBJECTIVE: Current psychological interventions to enhance management of chronic pain report small to moderate effects. There is a need to explore the experiences and coping of individuals with chronic pain in depth and expand beyond current knowledge paradigms to enhance psychological interventions. The current literature recommends narrative practice as a qualitative approach in a group to facilitate sharing of knowledge on coping with chronic pain. Therefore, we conducted group sessions incorporating narrative practice to explore the experiences of individuals coping with chronic pain. DESIGN: We explored the experiences of 11 individuals coping with chronic pain from two group sessions that incorporated narrative practice. Themes emerging from participants' sharing were triangulated from interview transcripts, field notes, and participants' response worksheets. Data analysis adopted thematic analysis and narrative practice approaches. RESULTS: Themes on coping found include "refocusing," "distraction," "inspiration and perspective taking," and "acknowledgement of skills, knowledge, and attitude." "Distraction" and "refocusing" complimented one another. This provided a new perspective, in contrast to current research that views both as mutually exclusive. Social environmental factors were found to help participants share existing coping methods of "connection," "deepen perspective," "inspiration and perspective taking," and "acknowledgement of skill, knowledge and attitude." The possible relationships between the themes also provided support to the theoretical foundations of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Results suggest that adopting a narrative practice sequence helped individuals to acknowledge chronic pain experiences and facilitated their identification of ways to cope. CONCLUSIONS: Narrative practice identified themes of coping that can inform clinical practice. Narrative practice is indicated as a feasible and acceptable research and clinical approach for individuals with chronic pain.