The Use of the Tree of Life in a Women's Group With Fibromyalgia

Abstract

This study is justified by a belief in the potential use of the collective narrative methodology ‘Tree of Life’ with people with fibromyalgia as a means to expand narratives of self beyond the diagnostic discourse, enable the construction of resources, recognise and strengthen skills, values and knowledge, and ultimately shift individual intersections to collective narratives. Faced with the absence of studies on this topic, this article addresses the use of this methodology in a group of women with fibromyalgia. This study was conducted in a multidisciplinary care institution for people with rheumatic diseases, with the participation of nine women aged between 31 and 64 years. Eleven weekly group meetings were conducted using the ‘Tree of Life’ methodology. In this text, we present the meetings held, emphasising the strategies for group adherence, the principles and resources that guided the coordinators' actions, and how the ‘Tree’ was used and adapted. The methodology proved to be flexible to adaptations, challenging the diagnostic logic by honouring the power of these women's life stories. However, it was not possible to capture the consolidation of these alternative narratives in the long term, with a limitation of this study being the lack of longitudinal data.