A phenomenological approach to understanding the meaning of adjustment to chronic pain

This study investigated the meaning of adjustment to chronic pain. Three co-researchers were interviewed in intensive sessions. They were asked to describe the story of their adjustment to chronic pain. The interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed as "protocols", and formed the data base for the study. The meaning of adjustment to chronic pain was discovered through a phenomenological methodology. The protocol analysis yielded the themes, the comprehensive phenomenological description of adjustment to chronic pain, and the essential structure. Implications for further thinking and for practice were presented.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat