Living well with pain while seeing an osteopath: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Abstract

Background: In the United Kingdom 8 million people are living with chronic pain and health practitioners are encouraged to move towards a biopsychosocial framework to account for the unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with pain. Those experiencing pain can seek the advice of an osteopath to help manage their pain experience. Methods: This research sought to explore, analyse, and interpret the lived experience of those who self-identify as living well with pain and the role of the osteopath. Three male and two female participants were interviewed in a semi-structured format. These accounts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to understand how participants live well with pain and the role of osteopathy in their experience. Results: There were four main experiential statements derived from the IPA analysis: i) Living with pain is exhausting – The participants described an exhausting battle as they learn to live with pain; ii) Osteopathy reconnects me to life – The osteopaths gave them the freedom to live with pain and the participants felt accepted for who they were; iii) Managing pain is like developing a skill – The participants adopted a problem-solving, trial and error approach to manage their pain; iv) Living well has its ups and downs – The participants had experienced living well through a process of acceptance and used previous suffering as a form of gratitude as they felt they had been given a new life, one in pain.Conclusion: The participants in this study explained living with pain as a process leading to a point of change. They saw osteopathy primarily as a form of support and encouragement enabling them to engage in their own positive health behaviours. Fundamentally, the participants had learnt to live-well despite pain