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Author: Debra Gorman-Badar, PT, MA

Debra Gorman-Badar, PT, MA is a Doctoral Candidate at St. Louis University’s Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics. Her experience as a clinical physical therapist grounds her research in health care ethics with a focus on the relevance and practical contributions of the humanities and cultural studies to improving patient outcomes and transforming health care public policy. Debra’s scholarly interests include the philosophy - epistemology and ethics - of physical therapy/rehabilitation, biopolitics and disability studies, feminist bioethics, and ethics education at all levels of professional formation.

Dynamic Autonomy in Chronic Pain Management: Frida Kahlo Illustrates

As today’s healthcare professionals struggle to address the challenges of chronic-pain management, Debra Gorman-Badar argues that current multidisciplinary programs are missing a crucial component: an updated conception of patient autonomy. She details how expressive therapies help patients integrate their chronic-pain experiences into their lives and promote healing self-knowledge—as Frida Kahlo did through her remarkable paintings.