Bodies in Pain – Sense-Making with Nature and Creative Materials
Authors List
Fairbairn, M., The MIECAT Institute, Adelaide, Australia
Moy, A., The MIECAT Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Woodford, A. E., The MIECAT Institute, Ōtepoti Dunedin, New Zealand
Introduction
Three arts-based researchers with lived experiences of acute and chronic pain reflect on sustained attention and relationships with nature and creative materials as therapeutic partners.
Aims
To articulate an arts-based therapeutic process for self-management, where agency is recentered, and care incorporates the more-than-human (nature and arts-materials).
Methods
During or reflecting on pain experiences where distress is present, we engaged in relationships with nature, arts-materials and creative modalities as companions to make sense of our bodies in pain. This process included spontaneous and/or intentional co-companioning and resourcing the relational agency of human and more-than-human.
Results
The relationships with nature, arts-materials, arts-making and art expressions revealed connections and metaphors that shifted perspectives, understanding, agency and ways of being with our bodies in pain.
When noticing our bodies reflected in the ecologies of the more-than-human, we became aware of a patterning outside ourselves that speaks to our experience. This enables us to co-develop a capacity to disrupt and adapt to pain.
Conclusions
Our research foregrounds the benefits of relationships with nature, arts-materials, and creative modalities as therapeutic partners. Agency is re-centred within bodies in pain and wider more-than-human ecologies. Our process is highly accessible as an adjunct and support to the work of pain practitioners and those experiencing pain. Additionally, it contributes to research on the helpful use of metaphors in pain management (Stilwell & Stilwell, 2024; Woodford, 2023).
References
Stilwell, P., & Stilwell, C. (2025). Embracing metaphor in pain science. In A. Bleakley & S. Neilson (Eds.), Routledge handbook of medicine and poetry (pp. 133–141). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003341796-15
Woodford, A. E. (2023). An artistic holding of mended bodies in pain. A form of mending through therapeutic arts-based inquiries [Doctoral dissertation, The MIECAT Institute]. MIECAT. https://miecat.edu.au/research/an-artistic-holding-of-mended-bodies-in-pain-a-form-of-mending-through-therapeutic-arts-based-inquiries/
Fairbairn, M., The MIECAT Institute, Adelaide, Australia
Moy, A., The MIECAT Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Woodford, A. E., The MIECAT Institute, Ōtepoti Dunedin, New Zealand
Introduction
Three arts-based researchers with lived experiences of acute and chronic pain reflect on sustained attention and relationships with nature and creative materials as therapeutic partners.
Aims
To articulate an arts-based therapeutic process for self-management, where agency is recentered, and care incorporates the more-than-human (nature and arts-materials).
Methods
During or reflecting on pain experiences where distress is present, we engaged in relationships with nature, arts-materials and creative modalities as companions to make sense of our bodies in pain. This process included spontaneous and/or intentional co-companioning and resourcing the relational agency of human and more-than-human.
Results
The relationships with nature, arts-materials, arts-making and art expressions revealed connections and metaphors that shifted perspectives, understanding, agency and ways of being with our bodies in pain.
When noticing our bodies reflected in the ecologies of the more-than-human, we became aware of a patterning outside ourselves that speaks to our experience. This enables us to co-develop a capacity to disrupt and adapt to pain.
Conclusions
Our research foregrounds the benefits of relationships with nature, arts-materials, and creative modalities as therapeutic partners. Agency is re-centred within bodies in pain and wider more-than-human ecologies. Our process is highly accessible as an adjunct and support to the work of pain practitioners and those experiencing pain. Additionally, it contributes to research on the helpful use of metaphors in pain management (Stilwell & Stilwell, 2024; Woodford, 2023).
References
Stilwell, P., & Stilwell, C. (2025). Embracing metaphor in pain science. In A. Bleakley & S. Neilson (Eds.), Routledge handbook of medicine and poetry (pp. 133–141). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003341796-15
Woodford, A. E. (2023). An artistic holding of mended bodies in pain. A form of mending through therapeutic arts-based inquiries [Doctoral dissertation, The MIECAT Institute]. MIECAT. https://miecat.edu.au/research/an-artistic-holding-of-mended-bodies-in-pain-a-form-of-mending-through-therapeutic-arts-based-inquiries/
