Discovering embodied and embedded experiences in the lived space: the Experience mapping approach

Introduction
Lived experiences are deeply rooted in our bodies and the physical spaces that are significant to us: they are embodied within us and embedded in our environment. Embodied and embedded experiences encapsulate the complexity of a person’s positive and negative emotions, self-regulation, and relationship processes. To discover this complexity, qualitative research emphasizes the embodied and embedded character of lived experiences.
Goals and Methods
Building upon the foundations of systemic thinking and environmental psychology, we have developed the experience mapping procedure and applied it in various settings to qualitatively investigate embodied and embedded subjective experiences. Our presentation outlines the theoretical and practical aspects of the experiMAP procedures, which utilize experience mapping to assess subjective, ecologically embedded experiences.
Results
We present the setting and tentative results from three ongoing research processes where we used qualitative experiMAP procedures. The Experience Map of the Home was used to explore intra-family processes in parental couples (N=24) raising children with atypical development. The Experience Map of the Workplace explored physicians’ workplace self-regulation processes (N=28). By applying the Experience Map of the Life Space, we studied health trajectories of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients and their partners (N=16 couples), place-related patterns of health self-management in the home and outside the home environment, and the role of relational experiences in their mental well-being. Through tentative excerpts and interpretations of the qualitative data from the three studies, we argue for the unique added value of qualitative inquiry toward place-related aspects of subjective experiences.
Conclusions
By employing experiMAP, we gain a deeper understanding of individuals' emotions, emotion-laden behaviors, and relational processes within specific places. Whether it be their home, workplace, or other significant life spaces, through an experiMAP-based assessment, we can evoke emotionally significant embodied and embedded experiences.