Breaking free and diving in - becoming biopsychosocial with Dr Jerry Draper-Rodi

Welcome to episode 6 of The words Matter Podcast. On this episode I spoke with Dr Jerry Draper-Rodi.

Jerry is a Senior Research Fellow at the University College of Osteopathy and is an academic clinician. His current roles include working as the Head of Continual Professional Development and as a Research Lecturer at the UCO, running an osteopathic practice in Oxford, and delivering CPD in BPS skills to clinicians mostly in France.

He is the treasurer of the Society for Back Pain Research, and a fellow of the International Osteopathy Research Leadership group at the University of Technology Sydney (Australia). Jerry was awarded a Professional Doctorate in Osteopathy in 2016.

His doctoral research was on the acceptability, feasibility and likely impact of a biopsychosocially-informed e-learning programme for non-specific LBP on experienced osteopathic practitioners' attitudes to back pain. See some of his published research here and here. 

Jerry is on the PhD supervisory team for David Hohenshurz-Schmidt who was my guest on episode 2 of this podcast where we talked about MSK going remote in light of COVID..

Jerry is a colleague and friend of mine at the UCO; our desks sit opposite each other in the same office. In between (or sometimes instead of) doing work we have endless chats often centring around our passion and occasional frustrations of enhancing students and clinicians’ practice towards a BPS approach to back pain.

Jerry, like many of us, came from a strong biomedical approach manual therapy background. So I was really keen to speak with him about his experience of breaking free from his traditional training and how he perceives his transition and the transition of others towards a BPS approach. Including how he manages the resistance, obstacles and opportunities to incorporating the BPS framework into clinical practice.

I really this enjoyed talking with Jerry, it was really helpful to have insight from someone who has successfully made the tradition and is now immersed in BPS practice, teaching and research.

This should be interesting to all MSK clinicians but especially those who are struggling to break free from the biomedical chains or perhaps are unsure or anxious about what a BPS future might hold. I bring you Dr Jerry Draper-Rodi.

Find Jerry on Twitter and Instagram

Subscribe to www.wordsmatter-education.com , and if you liked the podcast, you'll love the Words Matter online course in effective language and communication when managing back pain - ideal for all MSK therapists or students.

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