The lived experience of a qualitative health psychologist

This chapter talks about the experience of a qualitative health psychologist of the author. Her work is threefold: to understand people's experiences of health and illness and what those experiences mean to them within the context of their everyday lives; to make sense of the interrelationships between patients, health care professionals and careers or family members to help the individuals involved see things from different perspective and therefore understand each other better; and to describe current practices as experienced by different stakeholders to establish examples of best practice which will help all involved. Alongside there is a secondary objective: to raise the profile of qualitative research methods in health psychology and within the hierarchy of knowledge. The author has focused on those activities which characterize her passions and commitment to qualitative health psychology.