Patients with headache often present to osteopathic clinics and may gain benefit from osteopathic treatment. However, there is limited research into the types of patients that gain benefit. Frequently a patientís symptoms are made to “fit”  into common classifications, such as migraine or tension-type headache, and quantitative studies often compare treatment efficacy by reducing the patient experience of their condition down to a few predetermined aspects such as pain severity or quality of life. Patients with chronic conditions frequently talk of disembodiment from the painful body part and describe an altered sense of self. Phenomenology aims to maintain the meaning that the pain or symptom has to the sufferer in order to understand the relationship between pain, distress and disability.
The aim of this phenomenological study was to identify key themes that may arise from an in-depth account by the patient of their lived experience of headache.
The workshop will cover the main aspects of phenomenology and how it can be utilised both in research and in clinic, and give participants practice in using this easily applicable and useful tool.