Regaining a sense of agency and shared self-reliance: The experience of advanced disease cancer patients participating in a multidimensional exercise intervention while undergoing chemotherapy - analysis of patient diaries

Evidence is emerging that exercise can reduce psychological distress in cancer patients undergoing treatment. The present study aimed to (qualitatively) explore the experiences of advanced disease cancer patients participating in a 6‐week, 9‐hours weekly, structured, group‐based multidimensional exercise intervention while undergoing chemotherapy. Unstructured diaries from a purposive sample of three females and two males (28–52 years old) who participated in the program served as the database. Data were analyzed using a phenomenological, narrative method. The analysis yielded three themes: shifting position, self‐surveillance, and negotiated strength. The intervention highlighted situations making it possible for the participants to negate psychological and physical constraints. The concept of structured exercise contains viable psychotherapeutic potentials by allowing the development of alternative bodily and mental realities complying with cancer patients’ demands and abilities to regain autonomy and commitment to discover and adopt a sense of agency and shared self‐reliance.