Enactivism is an emerging theory for sense-making (cognition) with increasing applications to research and medicine. Enactivists reject the idea that sense-making is simply in the head or can be reduced to neural processes. Instead, enactivists argue that cognisers (people) are embodied and action-oriented, and that sense-making emerges from relational processes distributed across the brain-body-environment. We start this paper with an overview of a recently proposed enactive approach to pain. With rich theoretical and empirical roots in phenomenology and cognitive science, conceptualising pain as an enactive process is appealing as it overcomes the problematic dualist and reductionist nature of current pain theories and healthcare practices. Second, we discuss metaphor in the context of pain and enactivism, including a pain-related metaphor classification system. Third, we present and discuss five paintings created alongside an enactive study of clinical communication and the co-construction of pain-related meanings. Each painting represents pain-related metaphors delivered by clinicians during audio-recorded clinical appointments or discussed by clinicians and patients during interviews. We classify these metaphors, connecting them to enactive theory and relevant literature. The art, metaphors and associated narratives draw attention to the intertwined nature of language, meaning and pain. Of clinical relevance to primary and allied healthcare, we explore how clinicians’ taken-for-granted pain-related metaphors can act as scaffolding for patients’ pain and agency, for better or worse. We visually depict and give examples of clinical situations where metaphors became enactive, in that they were clinically reinforced and embodied through assessment and treatment. We conclude with research and clinical considerations, suggesting that enactive metaphor is a widely overlooked learning mechanism that clinicians could consider employing and intentionally shape.

To contribute to our knowledge about initiatives to support older women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV), we conducted an internet search, online surveys, and telephone interviews with administrators of programs for women who have experienced IPV. We compiled information on initiatives providing individual in-person and telephone support, educational and/or therapeutic groups, and short- and long-term shelters and housing. The interviews provided insights about the history and rationale for these initiatives, strengths, positive outcomes, challenges, and future program development. Our study results can inform the creation of appropriate services to meet the needs of older women who experience IPV.

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