Cancer survivors' psychological process of relieving emotional or existential pain in group therapy

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25380960
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Clinical psychology
• Research Institution: Kyoto Notre Dame University
• Principal Investigator: KAWASE Masatoshi 京都ノートルダム女子大学, 心理学部, 教授 (70224780)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 臨床心理学 / がん / 心理療法 / 実存的苦痛

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have developed the short-term group therapy program for cancer patients focusing on relieving their existential or spiritual suffering and/or pain. We evaluated statistically the effects of this program in the case of a group of breast cancer patients whose cancer was found within twelve months before undergoing the therapy. The results showed that our program was particularly effective for those patients who felt hopeless of their life. We also investigated cancer survivors' psychological process of alleviating emotional and existential pain in group therapy addressing existential issues. The transcripts of group therapy sessions were analyzed using grounded theory method. We identified 8 core categories in the cancer survivors' psychological process of relieving emotional and existential pain. Our results suggested it was an important process for alleviating existential pain to deal with unresolved feelings about parents, brother and sister, or their childhood.

Free Research Field

臨床心理学