Therapeutic landscapes and living with breast cancer: The lived experiences of Thai women

Breast cancer is an "emotionally debilitating disease" that affects the lives of women of all ages. In this paper, we discuss the lived experience of breast cancer among women in southern Thailand and situate our discussions within the concept of therapeutic landscapes. We adopted a feminist framework as our research methodology and employed qualitative and innovative methods. The therapeutic landscapes of healing involved multiple levels of landscape changes including body, home, neighbourhood, health care and cultural contexts. Our findings offer a particular insight into the role of emotions, cultural beliefs, and practices in forming therapeutic landscapes among women living with breast cancer in Thailand. It is crucial that health care providers understand the emotional experiences of women with breast cancer and their particular cultural needs for emotional healing landscapes. Our findings could be used as evidence for developing culturally appropriate therapeutic strategies and interventions for women with breast cancer in Thailand and elsewhere. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.