Vitality training-A mindfulness- and acceptance-based intervention for chronic pain.

Chronic non-malign pain has a substantial impact on all parts of an individual's life. Mindfulness- and acceptance- based interventions are increasingly offered to help people manage their pain and strengthening their health promoting resources. In this paper, we present a mindfulness- and acceptance-based intervention, the Vitality Training Programme (VTP), to mitigating pain and accompanying symptoms and increasing pain coping abilities.

Processes of enhanced self-understanding during a counselling programme for parents of children with disabilities.

Background: The stress and burden on parents of children with disabilities are well documented, and the parents' way of handling the situation is crucial to the health and well-being of all family members, including the child with special needs. We conducted a group-based counselling programme for parents, based mainly on Gestalt education and personal construct theories, aiming at increasing the parents' ability to handle the situation.

Aims: To explore the parents' experiences from processes of change after the counselling programme.

Increased self-awareness in the process of returning to work.

Background: A group of employees on sick leave, living in the Oslo area, Norway, was offered participation in a counselling programme, based on Gestalt theory, mindfulness and phenomenological understanding of the body.

Aims: To explore the participants' processes of change related to their increased ability to work. METHOD DESIGN: This qualitative study is based on modified grounded theory.

What facilitates return to work? Patients' experiences 3 years after occupational rehabilitation.

Objective: We have limited knowledge about the specific elements in an occupational rehabilitation programme that facilitate the process leading to return to work (RTW) as perceived by the patients. The aim of the study was to explore individual experiences regarding contributing factors to a successful RTW, 3 years after a resident occupational rehabilitation programme.

Methods: The study is based on interviews of 20 individuals who attended an occupational rehabilitation programme 3 years earlier.

[Could persons on sick leave learn to think differently about themselves and increase their participation in the workplace?].

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate an empowerment programme for improved quality of life and ability to work. At two places of work, a total of 112 employees with frequent sick-leaves over the last six months were invited to participate; 19 women attended. After the intervention the participants reported better coping and quality of life, and they worked more hours per week than previously.

How do patients with rheumatic disease experience their relationship with their doctors? A qualitative study of experiences of stress and support in the doctor-patient relationship.

This study is evaluated what patients with rheumatic disease perceive as important in their medical encounters. We interviewed two groups of patients: one with a well-defined inflammatory condition (rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or ankylosing spondylitis) (n = 12) and one with non-inflammatory widespread chronic pain such as fibromyalgia (n = 14). Both groups focused on their relationship to their doctor.

[Physician-patient relations in functional disorders].

The doctor-patient relationship is often problematic in relation to "functional disorders". A strictly biomedical understanding fails in two ways: first, because it does not incorporate psychosocial factors; second, because it does not take into account the body as a subject and carrier of meaning. A more integrated model would include a general understanding of the aetiology and presentation of symptoms (bio-psychosocial) as well as of symptoms and body as carrier of meaning (phenomenology).