Body and identity in physiotherapy after stroke.

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Psychology
• Sociology

Background:

• Stroke significantly impacts a patient's identity and life post-event.
• Current rehabilitation practices lack consistent approaches to address identity changes after stroke.
• Limited scientific understanding exists regarding the long-term consequences of stroke on patient identity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore patient-physiotherapist interactions in stroke rehabilitation.
• To investigate how a phenomenological approach can support and develop patient identity.
• To understand the role of embodied knowledge in post-stroke identity.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study utilizing 146 videos of patient-physiotherapist interactions.
• Observations and interviews with 12 patients and their physiotherapists.
• Data collected throughout the rehabilitation process (average 2.5 years) and analyzed using multimodal interaction analysis.

Main Results:

• Four emergent themes: feedback as bodily knowledge, control of the process, adjustment, and the bodily approach.
• Highlighted the importance of viewing the patient's body as both object and subject.
• Demonstrated the significance of interacting with the patient's embodied knowledge.

Conclusions:

• A phenomenological approach can positively influence patient-physiotherapist interactions.
• This approach supports and develops patients' embodied knowledge.
• Embodied knowledge is crucial for supporting and developing patient identity after stroke.