Have you been walking?: a search for rehabilitation

Abstract

This thesis explores, through critical dialogue and personal experience, various aspects of rehabilitation in the context of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The journey visits broad, in principle, government policy reports. It touches on insurance and political aspects of health care; the separation between medical, convalescent and tertiary divisions of the rehabilitation professions; and, most importantly, it is concerned with the personal struggle to find some ‘meaning’ in the experience of a chronic illness for which there is, at this stage, no cure. From this arises the complexity of the inter-relationships between professionals and clients and the vexed question of ethics. The writing or methodology is first-person narrative, with deep roots in natural philosophy, and the dissertation can be read on several levels. It can also be read as a meta-thesis, that is, as an illustration of the process of researching/writing in an experiential methodology