The meaning of relaxation with guided imagery to women with breast cancer

Abstract

Cancer is a disease that significantly affects the patients' quality of life, since it is usually associated to the side effects of the treatment, while patients, currently, tend to search for complementary therapies which may help them in the facing process of cancer. Relaxation with guided imagery is being more and more accredited by its efficiency in relieving the symptoms of the disease and by the provided benefits for the oncologic treatment. This study aims at investigating and describing the meaning of the relaxation with guided imagery to women with breast cancer. The sample will consist of women with breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy at Ambulatório de Radioterapia from Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (HCFMRP - USP). This is a qualitative research, with a phenomenological approach and a theoretical and methodological frame of reference based in Heidegger. The Sensitive Creative Method (SCM) was used, with creativity and sensitivity dynamics. The data collection will run after the relaxation with guided imagery session, in which the participants will be asked about their perceptions in regard with this therapy. The data analysis will be executed by means of Bardin's content analysis method, which will be carried out and organized in three steps: 1) pre-analysis, 2) exploration of the material and 3) treatment of the results, inference and interpretation. The transcribed interviews will be submitted to a previous reading, in order to organize the ideas, resume the initial aims of the research and elaborate indicators which will guide the interpretation of the data.