Living ME Some Reflections on the Experience of Being Diagnosed with a Chronic ‘Psycho-somatic’ Illness

Abstract

This paper proposes that existential-phenomenological therapists are ideally positioned to generate forms of research grounded in first-person experience and naïve inquiry. It outlines the preliminary stages of such a research to illustrate how this subjective experience and the specific research trajectory it entails provide a source of thick description and hypothesis which may be explored further with co-researchers. The early stages of such an inquiry are not dissimilar to the process of reflection and analysis to be found in the practice of existential therapy. The particular study outlined in this paper suggests that diagnosis of a chronic illness may precipitate a profound shift in identity which can be exacerbated or engaged with creatively according to the differing relational styles adopted by health care professionals.