Take charge: Patients' experiences during participation in a rehabilitation programme for burnout

The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of patients with burnout during a rehabilitation programme.

Eighteen patients with burnout were interviewed at the end of a one-year rehabilitation programme. The programme consisted of 2 groups, one with a focus on cognitively-oriented behavioural rehabilitation and Qigong and 1 with a focus on Qigong alone. The interviews were analysed using the grounded theory method.

One core category, Take Charge, and 6 categories emerged. The core category represents a beneficial recovery process that helped the patients to take control of their lives. The common starting point for the process is presented in the 3 categories of Good encounters, Affirmation and Group cohesiveness. The categories were basic conditions for continuing development during rehabilitation. In the categories Get to know myself, How can I be the one I want to be? and Choice of track, the more group-specific tools are included, through which the patients adopted a new way of behaving.

Patients in both groups experienced group participation as being beneficial for recovery and regaining control of their lives, although in somewhat different way. An experience of affirmation and support from health professionals and group participants is of importance for beha-vioural change.