Womanspirit: a journey into healing through art in breast cancer.

In the sphere of chronic illness, where cure is no longer an expected outcome, the need to understand women's healing is paramount to the caring role of nurses. A collective of women survivors of breast cancer provided the data for this feminist esthetic cooperative inquiry. Esthetic representations of the experience of living through breast cancer were powerfully illustrated by these women coresearchers over a 6-month period. Using the method of feminist process, authentic collaboration, shared meaning, and the power of collectivity emerged. Womanspirit, the unifying essence underlying personal and collective knowledge, is presented. Allowing the meaning of experience to become visible through art in a collective is advocated.