Daniel Grossoehme shares with us how his research agenda explores some of the same territory that he did as a chaplain. He has been researching the role of spiritual beliefs in coping with the impact of cystic fibrosis on families, learning from their experience as to how to help their children live well. We ask about collaborative research and the responsibility of the researcher to help people to find the language and vocabulary to describe their circumstances and feelings. People tell their story in different ways to different people: mixing up the team enriches conversations.