Embodiment and embodied engagement: central concerns for the nursing care of contemporary peacekeepers suffering from psychological trauma.
OBJECTIVE
Little has been written about the importance of clinicians attending to embodiment and embodied engagement in traumatic clinical situations. By listening and responding to embodied sensations, perceptions, and feelings, embodiment and embodied engagement offer a way to understanding the experience of trauma.


OBJECTIVE
To discuss the concepts of embodiment and embodied engagement as central concerns for the care of contemporary peacekeepers suffering from trauma.


METHODS
Review of the literature on embodiment and embodied engagement, and an exemplar case.


CONCLUSIONS
Meanings associated with traumatic events can be understood through embodied approaches, such as interpretive and hermeneutic phenomenology, both for research as well as for reflective practice. The art and science of nursing needs to reinstate the embodied experiences of both the patient and the nurse providing care in order for healing to take place.
Ray
Susan L
SL
University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. slray@uwo.ca