Background Phenomenology is a suitable method for investigating people’s experiences and van Kaam’s psychophenomenological model (PPM) is increasingly being used in nursing research.

Aim To describe the use of PPM to interpret the meaning of resilience in the experiences of people with schizophrenia.

Discussion Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 14 people with schizophrenia. Analysis of data conformed to van Kaam’s PPM. This asserts that while people experience phenomena differently, there will be essential structures of an experience that are the same for individuals sharing it and aims to identify these common elements. The elements must be explicitly expressed by some of the sample, be implicitly or explicitly expressed by most, and be compatible with the whole.

Conclusion An embedded dynamic of support and challenge in 11 important elements was identified.

Implications for practice PPM is a suitable model for interpreting experiences. However, it is hard for researchers wanting to use the method to find examples of using PPM for analysis. This paper contributes to building original research examples of PPM.