“My aim is to contribute to a meaningful life.” Experiences of physiotherapists treating children and adolescents with cerebral palsy experiencing pain—a qualitative study

Purpose To explore physiotherapists’ experiences treating children with CP living with pain and how these experiences influence their clinical practice.Materials and methods Eight individual interviews with physiotherapists were analyzed using systematic text condensation.Results The analysis resulted in three categories: Facilitating wellbeing through bodily therapeutic practice, embracing experiences of the body being a central starting point for interpretation, understanding and treating pain, along with creating an alliance with the child based on safety, trust and respect. Balancing emotional and ethical engagement in clinical practice, focusing on the experienced responsibility to relieve the pain, acknowledging that this was not always possible. Therefore, treating children with pain was associated with feelings of insecurity, inadequacy and ethical dilemmas. Expanding the professional role to contribute to a meaningful life covers experiences of an interdisciplinary approach as the ideal way to contribute to a meaningful life for the child. The physiotherapist’s expanded role of a “habilitation specialist” embraced professional knowledge, personal engagement and a holistic perspective.Conclusions Pain in pediatric CP was described as a biopsychosocial phenomenon, encountered through a holistic perspective and expanded role. The physiotherapists believed that they could contribute to a meaningful life filled with activity and participation for the children.