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Established in 2019, SocioHealthLab is a research collective of health and social science researchers, practitioners and students from Australia and around the world, striving for healthcare transformation through applied, theory-driven, creative and collaborative socio-cultural research. In short, we come together to challenge each other to do health and healthcare differently.

Through this first of two instalments within our special series with the Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation, we begin doing health research dissemination differently by telling our story/stories[1] through animation, music, sound and discourse. Our story/stories take many forms: poems on becoming sick (Barlott, 2022)and (in)visible (Boodoosingh, 2022), visual and reflexive narration questioning what it means to be a physiotherapist (Mescouto, 2022) and a performance by creature-clinicians adopting a humanistic approach to treating dragon scale (Setchell et al., 2022)!

Such storytelling is part of becoming. The storytelling found in this special series is part of our becoming. Stories have long been central to how communities teach one another their values, produce theories on how the world works and for reworking one’s place in it. Through stories, we learn how and who to be (Frank, 2007). Through the stories in this first instalment of our special series we begin to teach ourselves and others our values: vulnerability, (more-than)human-centred approaches to care and a deep curiosity in theory’s transformative potentiation.

Visual stories like these can help us to express our emotions, share these emotions and contain them (Frank, 2007). Discomfort – shared through storytelling – holds our collective attention, making the discomfort a less isolating experience, and one with the potential for transformation. Humour is also transformative, allowing us to reflect on our own practices in a less confronting space. In this first of two instalments within our special series, we see sorrow, discomfort and/or humour central to the ebb and flow of each unfolding relational journey.

The videos are designed to be a multi-sensory experience, differing from usual academic forms of expression. They are brief, so put aside a little time, find a quiet space, put on some headphones and join us in our stories.

SocioHealthLab is an inclusive research collective where anyone is welcome to participate in our conversations on health and healthcare. After spending some time with our story/stories in this special series, you may wish to join our the collective. You can find more information about us – including our contact details – on our website: https://shrs.uq.edu.au/research/sociohealthlab .

[1] We use the phrasing ‘story/stories’ purposefully here – because no story is completely original. Familiarity and intertextuality are central to the purposes of storytelling – helping us to recognise ourselves, reflect on who we are, and act accordingly.

“Unlearning is about being comfortable with doubt and strangeness (…) creating different ways of being together and considering new vantage points“.

In this video, Karime Mescouto shares how engaging with social and philosophical theories in her PhD prompted her journey of unlearning and critically reflecting on her profession. She uses philosopher Annemarie Mol’s work to shed light on the multiplicity of physiotherapy and question how certain aspects of the profession are continuously prioritised over others. The multiplicity of physiotherapy transforms a fixed and rigid perception of “being a physio” to a fluid and continuous process of “becoming a physio”.

The intent of this video is to humanize the personal experiences of a patient when interacting with health workers. The internal self-speak may assist health workers to develop a deeper awareness of and reflection on how patients are affected by their environment, non- verbal cues, verbal communication and internal self-doubts.

Power weaves its way through everything. In healthcare settings it can derail well-intentioned care and overly impact those experiencing socio-economic or cultural marginalisation. In this video we explore power in the clinic, examining the small and the large ways in which power manifests in a seemingly simple few minutes of clinical time. Power is woven into the fabric of communication between patient and clinician, in the furniture and decorations on the walls, in the institutional policies and procedures. This video is aimed at clinicians who would like to see power more clearly so they can improve care for all patients.

This poem centres around the concept of becoming, which comes from the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Becoming is an asignifying and disruptive process. Processes of becoming involve micropolitical or small-scale movements of power and resistance that generate fissures or cracks, forming lines of escape. These processes can be understood as entering into a closeness or a zone of proximity with something that is ‘other’, in this case entering into proximity with sickness. In this Deleuzio-Guattarian intoxicated poem Tim explores his imperceptible becoming following the surgical removal of a cancerous tumour.

The poem “Becoming-sick” was originally published in the Journal of Autoethnography:

Barlott, T. (2021). Becoming-sick. Journal of Autoethnography, 2(2), 215-216. https://doi.org/10.1525/joae.2021.2.2.215

Barlott, T. (2022). Becoming-sick. Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation, 9(1). https://vimeo.com/661501435

Boodoosingh, R. (2022). Do you see me? Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation, 9(1). https://vimeo.com/670797425

Frank, A. W. (2007). Five dramas of illness. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 50(3), 379-394. https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2007.0027

Mescouto, K. (2022). (Un)learning: A physiotherapist’s PhD journey. Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation, 9(1). https://vimeo.com/658460593

Setchell, J., Olson, R., Mescouto, K., Costa, N., Cook, N., Woods, S., & Bock, S. (2022). Power and the clinic. Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation, 9(1). https://vimeo.com/658760898