Adjustment to cancer: exploring patients' experiences of participating in a psychodramatic group intervention.
The main purpose of the present study was to understand the subjective experience of patients adjusting to cancer by focusing on how that experience might be affected by participating in a psychodramatic group intervention. In-depth interviews using an interpretative-phenomenological approach were conducted with eight cancer patients involved in a psychodrama group. Four key themes were identified: (1) outside and inside relationships; (2) identities: nurturing other selves; (3) a feelings' gym: performing the internal world; and (4) many ends: mourning death and dying. Participation in cancer group using a psychodramatic approach provided positive results. In detail, the group setting: (1) favoured relationships in which it was possible to freely express oneself and (2) empowered patients in their feelings of being able to give and receive help; the psychodramatic approach: (1) supported the physical mobilisation of sense of agency and (2) permitted to deal with the grieving process. Cancer healthcare pathways would benefit from psychotherapeutic programmes using a similar approach, since psychodrama by actively involving body seems to works on areas that are often underwhelmed by other approaches, such as (i.e., physical mobilisation, body engagement, grieving adjustment). Psychodrama supports patients to achieve insights into their own possibilities to actively participate in their own life situations despite having cancer and undergoing treatment for it.
['Menichetti|J|J|', 'Giusti|L|L|', 'Fossati|I|I|', 'Vegni|E|E|']
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological D000368:Aged D001294:Attitude to Health D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007398:Interpersonal Relations D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009369:Neoplasms D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care D011577:Psychodrama D011615:Psychotherapy, Group D012649:Self Concept
cancer psychodrama IPA group therapy oncology qualitative study