This focused symposia explores how medical humanities can humanise physiotherapy education and clinical practice, with a focus on narrative approaches and graphic medicine. As physiotherapy adopts biopsychosocial and intersectional person-centred models of care, there is a growing need for educational and clinical strategies that support clinicians and students in understanding patients’ lived experiences, social context and the social determinants shaping health (e.g social capital, gender, education, etc.) (Karran 2025, O’Neill 2014). This is particularly important to develop reflective and empathetic practice where inequities, stigma and context strongly influence both outcome and care experience as in chronic pain and long-term conditions.

Emerging evidence from health professions education suggests that narrative medicine and humanities-based approaches can enhance empathy, reflection, and professional identity (Milota, 2019), In this context, approaches based on art, illustration, and comics—collectively known as graphic medicine—enable the exploration and communication of lived experiences of illness, facilitating the construction and dissemination of complex narratives about suffering, care, and the therapeutic relationship (Leavy, 2015). These strategies offer particularly relevant potential in the training of physical therapy students and professionals, as they foster a deeper understanding of the experiences of people with chronic illnesses and promote more reflective, empathetic, and person-centered clinical practices. Together, these approaches offer innovative, evidence-informed ways to strengthen both education and clinical care (Duong, 2024; Lin, 2022).

Patients benefit from an intersectional approach because health and pain are not simply individual experiences, but are shaped by a range of interacting social determinants—such as gender, socioeconomic conditions, education, and work—that influence how people access care, experience illness, and respond to rehabilitation (Karran 2025). These factors do not act in isolation; they combine in ways that can either compound disadvantage or create opportunities, calling for a shift away from purely reductionist interpretations towards a more contextual understanding of health, as increasingly recognised in pain research (Kapos 2024). For physiotherapists, being attentive to these dimensions helps avoid overlooking important aspects of patients’ lives and supports more equitable, person-centred care. From this perspective, graphic medicine can be a valuable tool for bringing these often-invisible social and structural influences into view, creating space for dialogue, reflection, and shared understanding between patients and clinicians.

The session will begin with a brief introduction to the conceptual background and current evidence. Three international speakers will then present complementary perspectives: a) the use of narrative to support professional identity formation and awareness of care needs; b) the application of graphic medicine to represent patients’ lived experiences; and c) make visible the social and structural dimensions of illness.

Participants will then engage in an interactive workshop, working in small groups to create visual representations applying the graphic medicine approach to the experience of living with chronic pain and its social and contextual dimensions; followed by a facilitated discussion exploring the value of graphic medicine as a strategy and its translation into practice, and reflecting on how these approaches can be applied.

A panel discussion will integrate key insights from the presentations and workshop.

1. Brown, S., McRae, D., Sheils, E., McDonnell, B., Khan, I., & James, D. (2021). The effect of visual interventions on illness beliefs and medication adherence for chronic conditions: A scoping review of the literature and mapping to behaviour change techniques (BCTs). Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2021.11.006

2. Duong, V., Bunzli, S., Callahan, L., De Jong, B., Hunter, D., Kim, J., & Mobasheri, A. (2024). Visual narratives in medicine: Bridging the gap in graphic medicine with an illustrated narrative of osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Open, 6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocarto.2024.100471

3. Kapos, F. P., Craig, K. D., Anderson, S. R., Bernardes, S. F., Hirsh, A. T., Karos, K., Keogh, E., Reynolds Losin, E. A., McParland, J. L., Moore, D. J., & Ashton-James, C. E. (2024). Social determinants and consequences of pain: Toward multilevel, intersectional, and life course perspectives. The Journal of Pain, 25(10), 104608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2024.104608

4. Karran, E. L., Cashin, A. G., Chiarotto, A., et al. (2025). Identifying social factors that stratify health opportunities and outcomes (ISSHOOs) in pain research: Consensus recommendations for the collection and reporting of equity-relevant data. EClinicalMedicine, 90, 103586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2025.103586

   Leavy, P. (2015). Method meets art: Arts-based research practice (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

5. Lin, I., Wang, C., Lin, Y., Chen, H., & Lin, L. (2022). Simulation-based holistic education in physiotherapy interns to increase empathy toward older adults and individuals with disabilities. BMC Geriatrics, 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03500-x

6. Milota, M., van Thiel, G., & van Delden, J. (2019). Narrative medicine as a medical education tool: A systematic review. Medical Teacher, 41(7), 802–810. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159x.2019.1584274

7. Moretti, V. (2023). Understanding comics-based research: A practical guide for social scientists. Emerald Publishing.

   Remein, C., Childs, E., Pasco, J., Trinquart, L., Flynn, D., Wingerter, S., Bhasin, R., Demers, L., & Benjamin, E. (2020). Content and outcomes of narrative medicine programmes: A systematic review of the literature through 2019. BMJ Open, 10. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031568

8. Williams, R. M. C. (2012). Can you picture this? Activism, art, and public scholarship. Visual Arts Research, 28(2), 87–98.

   Xue, M., Sun, H., Xue, J., Zhou, J., Qu, J., Ji, S., Bu, Y., & Liu, Y. (2023). Narrative medicine as a teaching strategy for nursing students to develop professionalism, empathy, and humanistic caring ability: A randomized controlled trial. BMC Medical Education, 23. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04026-5