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Meaning and Purpose (MaP) therapy I: Therapeutic processes and themes in advanced cancer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Carrie Lethborg ,
David W. Kissane  and
Penelope Schofield
Carrie Lethborg*
Affiliation:
Social Work Department, St Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
David W. Kissane
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia Szalmuk Family Psycho-Oncology Research Unit, Cabrini Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Penelope Schofield
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Swinburne University, Victoria, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Carrie Lethborg, B.S.W., M.S.W., PH.D., Social Work Department, St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria Parade, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia3065. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Objective

Understanding the way therapy works is a complex undertaking. Historically, such enquiry has been dominated by “outcomes” leading to a lack of discourse about clinical processes. In the cancer setting, identifying clinical process can be even more complex because of the added challenges of an ongoing illness. This study investigated the therapeutic processes used in a meaning-based intervention developed for the advanced cancer setting: Meaning and Purpose therapy.

Method

Four sessions of therapy were delivered to 24 participants. Transcribed sessions (n = 96) of the intervention were analyzed by two independent researchers to describe participant themes, therapeutic processes, and patterns of change related to common points in the intervention.

Result

Although both suffering and meaning were present in all sessions, when we tracked the focus of the content across sessions, there was a clear progressive shift toward meaning-centered content for all participants. This finding is in spite of the fact that all participants had progressive disease and were living with ongoing challenges.

Significance of results

Processes such as focusing on meaning, reflecting a sense of significance, joining with participants to explore their unique meaning, and directing them away from a preoccupation with suffering were identified as clear influences of a shift toward a meaning-based focus. These processes offer a fresh focus on meaning and a buffer to the distress of advanced cancer.

Keywords

Advanced cancerDistressMeaning-based interventionSense of significanceSufferingTherapeutic processesUnique meaning
Type
Original Article
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 13 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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