Pain Science Education

In this episode, we are discussing how to move effective pain education forward in developing countries. Our expert guest this week is Professor Felipe Reis. He is a Brazilian physiotherapist and professor of physical therapy at the Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro. His research focuses on pain education, emotion and cognitive neuroscience. He is a visiting researcher at McGill University, an Associate Researcher with the Pain in Motion Group and Chair of the Pain, Mind and Movement Special Interest Group at the International Association for the Study of Pain. Felipe will discuss his research and continued work in improving pain education for both adults and children in developing countries. He will compare the chronic pain epidemic in Brazil versus other countries and discuss how pain education is being rolled out in the curriculum of physical therapy schools in Brazil. How to develop pain education tools for people with chronic pain and his own unique and innovative cartoon book for children which is called A Journey to Learn About Pain. If you are a practitioner who treats children or adolescents with pain and you’d like to use this book or perhaps you are a parent of a child with pain, you can download for free. All you have to do is text the word 153Download to the number 44222 or you can open up a new browser on your computer and you can type in the URL, www.IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/153Download. It’s super generous of Felipe to be providing this great resource for all of you. Let’s begin and let’s learn all about pain education in developing countries and how to create effective pain education tools for both children and adults with Professor Felipe Reis. Sign up for the latest episode at www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/podcasts/. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

We are discussing the importance of values in pain care and how values are approached through the lens of acceptance and commitment therapy. In acceptance and commitment therapy, the term values refers to activities that give your life meaning. Values can be looked upon as the people, the causes and the activities that are deeply important to you. When you connect to your values, you’re able to move your life forward in meaningful directions even in the face of very difficult and very painful experiences. This is why values are so important because in clinical trials, values are associated with lots of positive outcomes. Even if pain itself does not change, you can have less anxiety, less depression and improved physical function and enjoy a much richer, full and active life. The best part of values is that you choose your own values. Often people can confuse a value with a goal. Values are not goals and you never accomplish a value. Instead, values act like a compass that helps you make choices and move you in the direction that you want to go. Values keep you on track with a rich, full and active life, even if you have some pain. Joining us is JoAnne Dahl. She is a Professor of Psychology at Uppsala University in Sweden and a clinical psychologist specializing in behavioral medicine. She is the co-author of the book, The Art and Science of Valuing in Psychotherapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain, Living Beyond Your Pain and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Relational Frame Theory in Relationships. We’ll discuss many types of values or what are known as value domains and acceptance and commitment therapy. Values can be a huge topic that many people spend lots and lots of years studying. Values work can be distilled or focus into ten categories. These ten value domains for you to think about are parenting, family and friends, intimate relationships, work, leisure, citizenship, personal growth, health, spirituality and community. As you participate, take a moment to notice what’s essential in your life when you hear one of these value domains mentioned. For example, we’ll discuss the domain of personal care. Personal care can also be looked upon as your personal health which is an important topic for people overcoming chronic pain. Think about how you would like to take care of your body or how you’d like to take care of your health when it comes to exercise or diet under the ideal circumstances. See if you can connect this to a deeper health value that’s personal to you. For example, you may think, “I want to feel healthy and strong when it comes to exercise.” That’s great and it’s important but then I want you to take that one level deeper and I want you to know or I want you to ask yourself, “Why is this important? Why is it important for me to be healthy and strong?” Notice what comes up for you. You may notice, “I want to be healthy and strong so I can coach my son’s baseball games,” or “I want to be healthy and strong so I can be the PTA President at my daughter’s elementary school,” or possibly, “I want to be healthy and strong so I can be a loving and supportive daughter for my mom who is getting older and is not able to take care of herself anymore.” There are lots of reasons why you value being healthy and strong. To accompany this episode, I’ve included the Bull’s Eye Values worksheet for you to download. The Bull’s Eye is a values clarification exercise you can use whether you are somewhat with pain or you’re a practitioner and you’re interested in implementing values work during your therapy sessions. The Bull’s Eye worksheet is a one-page handout and a useful tool that you can use in practice whether you’re a physical medicine professional or a mental health professional. To download the Bull’s Eye worksheet, all you have to do is text the word 152Download to the number 44222 or you can go to IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/152download. There are specific instructions on how you can use it and you’ll also learn a lot in this episode. Let’s meet JoAnne Dahl as we discuss values and pain care. Sign up for the latest episode at www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/podcasts/. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

We’re going to take a deep dive into how the vagus nerve can help reduce pain and control inflammation. Joining us is Dr. Navaz Habib. He is a functional medicine practitioner, author and speaker who empowers his clients to dig a little bit deeper and find the answers to what’s holding back their health. His office, Health Upgraded, works with entrepreneurs, executives and professional athletes who want to take their health to a new level, allowing them to contribute and serve more people. Having gone through his own personal experiences with poor health and weight struggles, Dr. Habib is well-equipped to implement personalized recommendations for each of his clients in identifying the root causes of health imbalances and addressing them naturally. His patients experience optimal health the way their bodies were meant to feel and function. On this episode, Dr. Habib is going to take us into the structure, the physiology and the function of the vagus nerve. To help you out with this episode, he’s included a great little cheat sheet called Activating Your Vagus Nerve. Inside this cheat sheet, he takes you on a journey of what you can do daily, weekly and monthly to activate your vagus nerve. This is great if you’re someone who struggles with chronic pain or inflammation. It’s also a great cheat sheet to provide your patients. If you’re a practitioner, this is something you want to get your hands on. To download this cheat sheet, all you have to do is text the word 148Download to the number 44222 or you can type in the URL IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/148download. I’ll send that right to your inbox for free. This episode is filled with take-home strategies that you can start to use either in your practice or for your personal health. If you’re an anatomy geek like me, it’s so much fun to talk about these topics and explore or revisit what the vagus nerve does and how it’s important in helping you with that parasympathetic response. Let’s begin and let’s meet Dr. Navaz Habib. Sign up for the latest episode at www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/podcasts/. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

We’re talking about Integrative Health Programs for mental wellbeing. Joining us is Dr. David Tomasi. He’s a psychotherapist, researcher and philosopher, as well the author of the bestselling book called Medical Philosophy and the co-author of a paper called Positive Patient Response to a Structured Exercise Program Delivered in Inpatient Psychiatry, which was published in 2019 in the Journal of Global Advances in Health and Medicine. It was also the most read research item from the University of Vermont. He’s a member of several National and International Academy of Sciences. Dr. Tomasi works in the Inpatient Psychiatry Unit at UVM Medical Center, teaches at the University of Vermont and the Community College of Vermont. We’ll discuss how the combination of psychotherapy, nutrition and exercise together can help patients in an inpatient psychiatric facility. This is an important topic because approximately 50% of those with chronic pain also struggle with anxiety and depression, about 10% also struggled with PTSD and this episode, as well as podcasts in general, really dives into how we can integrate strategies, integrate different types of therapies and approaches to help people living with chronic pain. Let’s begin and let’s meet Dr. David Tomasi. Sign up for the latest episode at www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/podcasts/. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

We’re going to be talking about the co-occurrence of chronic pain in PTSD. In the general population, chronic pain and PTSD co-occur in about 10% of the cases. When we look at our population of veterans, 50% to 80% of those are PTSD also have chronic pain. This is an important topic with regard to the care of our veterans as well as for the practitioners who treat them. Joining us to discuss ACT chronic pain and PTSD is Dr. Matt Herbert. Matt is a research psychologist at the San Diego VA and an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego. His research interests include the study of the biopsychosocial factors related to pain perception and pain disability, as well as my infamous base approaches to pain management. Matt will discuss Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, chronic pain and PTSD, as well as his landmark paper, which can be found in Pain Medicine in 2019 called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain: Does Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Influence Treatment Outcomes?. Let’s begin and meet Dr. Matt Herbert. Sign up for the latest episode at www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/podcasts/. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

We’re taking a deep dive into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with its Founder, Dr. Hayes. He is a Nevada Foundation professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada and author of 44 books and nearly 600 scientific articles. He developed the Relational Frame Theory, an account of human higher cognition and has guided its extension into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy which is a popular evidence-based form of psychotherapy that uses mindfulness, acceptance and values-based methods. Dr. Hayes has been President of Division 25 of the American Psychological Association, the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy and the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. He was listed by the Institute of Scientific Information as the 30th highest impact psychologist in the world. On this episode, you’ll learn about how ACT can help people with pain and other conditions that will reach for a meaningful life. How you can develop greater resilience even during periods of intense emotional or physical pain. How ACT can complement and potentially optimize any physical medicine or traditional cognitive behavioral therapy approach to pain care. We will also discuss Dr. Hayes’ book called, A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters, where he lays out the psychological flexibility skills and make it one of the most powerful approaches research has yet to offer. I had an opportunity to read an advance copy of A Liberated Mind and it is a great book. I recommend to everyone reading this to hop on over to Amazon or whatever retail you order your books from and pick your copy of the book. It’s available in stores now. You can learn more about Dr. Hayes by going directly to his website at www.StevenCHayes.com. I’m excited to share this episode with you, so let’s dive right in and let’s begin with Dr. Steven Hayes. Sign up for the latest episode at www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/podcasts/. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

We're talking about an important topic. It's the effect of bullying on chronic pain in children and adolescents. When I did an interview with Dr. Christine Chambers, a psychologist who treats children and adolescents with chronic pain, I said that I was going to be dedicating more episodes to this important topic because if we can prevent pain in children, it won't carry over to having pain in adults. We won't have the mass of chronic pain that we have now. When I saw this topic on a med search I did, I said this is someone I have to invite on the podcast to discuss what her research has shown. Our guest is Dr. Pernilla Garmy. She is a registered nurse specializing in children's health. She has several years of experience working as a school nurse in Sweden. She's an Associate Professor at Kristianstad University in Sweden. Her research is focused on sleep, mental health and lifestyle in school-aged children and adolescents, as well as the link between pain, bullying and mental health problems, which we'll talk about more. She's published more than twenty scientific articles and published an article called Bullying, pain and analgesic use in school-age children, which was published in the journal, Acta Paediatrica. Pernilla is Chair of the Sleep and Health Section of the Swedish Society of Nursing and the editor of the Swedish journal, Sleep and Health. I know you're going to enjoy this episode. We talk a lot about pain in children through the context of bullying and analgesic use. This is great information. If you're a physical therapist, a mental health professional, a school nurse and even parents of children with pain will be interested in this topic so make sure to share it out with your friends and family. Let's welcome Pernilla to the show. Sign up for the latest episode at www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/podcasts/. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

On this episode, we’re talking about the relation of self-compassion to functioning among adults with chronic pain. Our expert guest is Karlyn Edwards. She is a clinical psychology graduate student at the University of New Mexico working with Dr. Kevin Vowles and Katie Witkiewitz. She studies important psychological factors that impact chronic pain as well as psychological interventions that can improve the lives of those living with chronic pain. She also studies how opioid and other substance misuse issues affect chronic pain, specifically how pain impacts medication treatment for those living with co-occurring opioid use and chronic pain. She also just completed one of the few studies that exist out there on how self-compassion can help people with chronic pain as far as a treatment intervention. Karlyn has also provided you with her free gift to accompany this episode. What she did was she summarizes all of the research as well as how self-compassion helps people with chronic pain into one nice concise document. To access that, all you have to do is text the word, 146DOWNLOAD, to the number 44222, or you can open up a browser on your computer and type in the URL, www.IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/146Download and you’ll receive that right to your inbox absolutely free. I’m excited to introduce Karlyn to all of you, as well as share her work and her research. I know you’re going to find it valuable. Sign up for the latest episode at www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/podcasts/. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

We are talking about the controversial topic of whether Manual Therapy for trigger point should be used for the alleviation or the treatment of chronic pain. How is one physiotherapist doing some interesting work to help people taper off of opioid medications using psychologically-informed physical therapy principles? My guest is Diarmuid Denneny. He is a professional lead physiotherapist at the Pain Management Center at the University of College London Hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust. He has worked in a specialized pain management center for several years and is clinically advanced as a physiotherapist as well as an independent prescriber. In addition to his clinical and managerial work, Diarmuid is the Chair of the Physiotherapy Pain Association and a member of the Guidelines Development Committee for the NICE Chronic Pain Guidelines. He was awarded an NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowship in 2017 and 2018. He is interested in the development of clinical academic roles for physiotherapists. He also has a particular interest in the psychologically informed practice and the role of physiotherapists in supporting people who have pain and medication-related issues. Diarmuid has published peer-reviewed articles relating to physical therapy practice in pain management, including a systematic review of trigger point Manual Therapy, which we’ll talk about on this episode, as well as the behaviors of experienced physical therapists working within a psychologically informed model. We cover a lot of ground on this episode where we discuss psychologically informed care, Manual Therapy and Trigger Point Therapy as it relates to the management of chronic pain, as well as a physiotherapist role in helping people taper off of opioids. I know you’re going to enjoy this episode. Help me welcome Diarmuid to the podcast. Sign up for the latest episode at www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/podcasts/. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

We are talking about how to use mindfulness to treat or alleviate chronic pain. Our expert guest is Dr. Ronald Siegel. He’s an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School where he has taught for over 35 years. He’s a longtime student of mindfulness meditation and serves on the board of directors and faculty of The Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. He teaches internationally about the application of mindfulness practice in psychotherapy and maintains a private clinical practice in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Dr. Siegel is co-editor of the critically acclaimed text, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, author of a comprehensive guide for general audiences called The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems, co-editor of Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy, co-author of the professional guide, Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy and co-author of the sub-treatment guide called Back Sense, which integrates Western and Eastern approaches for the treatment of chronic low back pain. Dr. Siegel is also co-director of the annual Harvard Medical School Conference on Meditation and Psychotherapy. We will discuss how mindfulness helps chronic pain, Dr. Siegel’s own personal journey of finding mindfulness, as well as overcoming chronic low back pain and how mindfulness fits into clinical practice, whether you are a mental health professional or a physical medicine professional. Dr. Siegel also created a free download to accompany this called How Mindfulness Works, Avoiding Avoidance. This download goes over how mindfulness helps with anxiety, helps with chronic pain, helps with depression as well as how mindfulness is the antidote to avoidance. To access this free gift, all you have to do is text the word, 144Download, to the number 44-222 on your smartphone. If you’re on your computer, you can open up a browser and type in the URL, www.IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/144download. I know you’re going to enjoy this as much as I did. We go through a ton of information on mindfulness and how mindfulness works to alleviate chronic pain and the suffering that’s associated with it. Dr. Siegel’s a master at mindfulness and psychotherapy. I learned so much from him, so I recommend that you follow his work and take notes. Let’s begin and let’s meet Dr. Siegel. Sign up for the latest episode at www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/podcasts/. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram