Aotearoa somatic practice, chronic pain, and design network, Health Research Council New Zealand

This network is funded by the Health Research Council New Zealand Research Activation Grant and is led by Dr Rebecca Weber with co-investigators Professor Bernie Carter, Dr Emma Meehan, and Dr Tia Reihana. One in five Kiwis suffer from chronic pain, yet Aotearoa lacks sufficient support for pain management care. Somatic practices offer a range of embodiment techniques based on movement. Although used to help manage acute pain, they are less widely applied to chronic pain. This project will develop a network of Aotearoa experts from dance and somatic practices, kaupapa Māori methods, health and wellness/hauora, and design. Our aim is to understand how we can work across disciplines to support pain management. We want to facilitate conversations between network members and create connection and understanding through a series of kōrero, hui, and practice sharings. We will also review the literature. We will collect data using participatory approaches to grounded theory and kaupapa Māori methods. By developing a diverse team of experts, we hope to identify ways of integrating Māori and somatic practice approaches in supporting chronic pain care for future research.