Pain Science Education

Pain is one of the most common reasons for people to seek medical help. It's also one of the most difficult things to study. There's no clear way to measure it, and it can vary from person to person. But there are ways we can collect data on pain so that researchers can better understand how patients feel pain and what treatments work best for them. In this episode, Joletta Belton discusses how to integrate the lived experience of pain into treatment and research. Joletta explains how chronic pain affects people's lives, and how it can be used as a tool to help them heal. Joletta also talks about how you can use your own personal experience with pain to make better treatment decisions for other patients. Tune in now and learn what role you can play to help people in pain.

Chronic pain cannot be treated by simply focusing on its symptoms and root cause. Beyond these things are social determinants that directly impact health and disease. Most of the time, these can go back even from a person’s childhood. Dr. Joe Tatta is joined by Laura E. Keyser, PT, DPT, MPH to discuss how to embed such factors into the PT practice and education to vastly improve health treatment and patient experience. Laura explains how clinicians, educators, and research should focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and the impact of different social determinants in an individual’s lived experience. She also shares how PT practitioners can engage with the government and large corporations to provide better services by sharing all about her consulting firm, Mama, LLC.

We always hear the old adage, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.” This is especially true when you look at how we grow students to become practitioners. Before they can take care of and make a good impact on their patients and clients’ lives, they first need to take care of themselves. Tessa Wells, PT, DPT and Betsy Becker, PT, DPT, PhD from the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Division of Physical Therapy Education have been implementing this. In this episode, they join Dr. Joe Tatta to discuss all about how they promote student wellness during their professional formation towards becoming DPTs. They talk about curricular interventions using a lifestyle medicine approach, taking wellness from the self to others to the community. Hear about their great program and how they impact the students of the profession and society at large. Tune in to this conversation to not miss out!

In this episode, we're discussing the concept of the embodied mind with internationally renowned author and psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas R. Verny. Our current understanding of the way the human body works is that it is a series of interdependent physiological relationships. No one component works alone or in isolation. But why is it that the accepted understanding of the physical phenomena of the mind is conventionally attributed only to the brain? The work of Dr. Verny is redefining our concept of both the mind and the human consciousness. He has brilliantly compiled a new list of research that points to the fact that the mind is tied to every single part of the body. This has enormous implications for how we view the mind, consciousness, and even human behavior. More specifically, it changes how we think about the experience of pain and pain management. Tune in and discover what it really means when we say the mind is a function of every system in your body.

Racism shows up in every aspect of our lives, and white body supremacy always finds a way to ingrain itself into our entire biology. Racial issues act as a persistent stressor that causes psychosocial distress, chronic pain, and even emotional trauma. Dr. Joe Tatta sits down with Lisa VanHoose, PT, PhD, MPH, FAAPT, FAPTA to discuss how racial embodiment impacts the vast healthcare system. She explains the best way to bring a social justice lens to physical therapy care in pain management and learn not to invalidate other people’s challenges with health disparities. Lisa also shares their work of decreasing implicit bias and advancing Black health and wellness through their organization, Ujima Institute.

Stress and burnout have been recognized in many health professions. Specifically, researchers have reported that many Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students are actively experiencing moderate to high levels of stress each and every day. Joining Dr. Joe Tatta to discuss the topic in depth is Jason Cherry, PT, DPT, EdD. Dr. Cherry is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Physical Therapy at Binghamton University. In this episode, he shares the results of his study on the relationship between psychological flexibility, perceived stress and academic burnout in DPT students, along with practical applications on how professors in the field can model healthier behaviors as preventive measures. Tune in for more valuable insights as Dr. Cherry defines these concepts.

What really is the “healing process” for a trauma survivor? Many programs, exercises, and advice exist on how to deal with trauma, but do they really address its root cause? Or are they mostly surface-level techniques that only treat the symptoms, not the problem? In this episode, April Gamble, PT, DPT shares how to address trauma by its root cause and how she uses trauma-focused techniques to treat her patients suffering from pain, anxiety, or other effects of trauma. Bringing a bigger vision to the profession, she also shares with us her deeper work on justice and injustice and how they impact our beliefs and engagements with care. Filled with honest realizations and helpful trauma advice, tune in and learn how to start your healing process too!

How does language and logic impact the management and experience of chronic pain? Asaf Weisman, PT, Phd(c), joins Dr. Joe Tatta on the Healing Pain Podcast to discuss this topic. Asaf is a physical therapist, a PhD candidate, and a lab manager of the Spinal Research Laboratory at Tel Aviv University. He has 20 years of clinical experience as a full-time musculoskeletal physical therapist and studies musculoskeletal medicine, spinal health, as well as chronic pain. He discusses how language impacts pain, unpacks the positive and the negative aspects of cognitive approaches to chronic pain, and shares his thoughts around some of the more popular pain neuroscience analogies or metaphors and how they may not be so acceptable to people living with pain. Most crucially, he clearly defines pain as an experience and its relation to nociception. Tune in for more!

For physical therapy to be truly effective in addressing body pain, it must not only concentrate on structure alone. Instead, it must go beyond that and also involve the entire movement system. Dr. Joe Tatta sits down with the pioneer of this very concept, Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD, FAPTA. She explains how the movement system redefines physical therapy by classifying movement impairments into diagnostic categories. Sahrmann discusses how a kinesio-pathology approach can provide a better look into a person's psychosocial factors and produce a better diagnosis. The two also discuss how to dismiss PT stereotyping of being medical cheerleaders and the right way to navigate PTA's reimbursement cuts to their practice.

Contextualizing care is the process of adopting your treatment approach to a patient specific life context. The failure to do so is called a contextual error, which often results in a care plan that is not likely to achieve its intended aim or produce a positive outcome. In this episode, Dr. Joe Tatta discusses how to contextualize care for improved outcomes with Gail Jensen, PT, PhD, FAPTA, Vice Provost for Learning and Assessment, Dean Emerita and Professor of Physical Therapy at Creighton University. She is internationally regarded as a scholarly expert in clinical practice, clinical reasoning, professional ethics, as well as into professional education within and outside of the physical therapy profession. Join in for more powerful information.