Forming the narrative of chronic pain: Visual expressions of psychosocial experience

Abstract

This article focuses upon the impact of using participant-created visual imagery and poetry to encourage a more comprehensive dialogue of the psychosocial and mental health elements of the experience of chronic pain. It explores six participants’ semi-structured interview dialogues, following two workshops and two weeks of journaling at home using the arts-based methods. Findings of this study suggest that these methods can enhance the awareness of pain-related factors and strengthen the understanding of the connection between influencing and affecting pain factors in daily life. Therapeutically, this process has encouraged positive pain behaviours, such as hope, purpose and appreciation of self, and created a more personal narrative of the reality of daily pain experience. It strengthens the argument for using combinations of arts-based outcomes to create more informative, personal and accessible methods of pain communication.