Friday Funnies
SuperTherapist has been on the job, and passes on these tips to make your days go well! Can you tell I’m procrastinating? You know, I have seen worse clangers – like the neurosurgeon who said ‘I have no knowledge of psychology, but I’m sure if you ask them to assess [Joe Bloggs] they will write … Read more
What’s missing from pain assessment?
I am stumped. Here is a common clinical quandary – one of the most important outcomes from pain management is to increase participation in daily activity (occupation), yet the measures we use just don’t quite cut it for me. Here’s a couple of examples: in the IMMPACT recommendations from 2008 (in the paper I’ve cited … Read more
‘Psychological therapy’ works for fibromyalgia!
An ‘enigmatic’ disorder – this is what Perry Nicassio calls fibromyalgia. I hadn’t thought of it that way, because so many chronic pain problems seem to be equally ‘enigmatic’! It’s a common disorder, affects many more women than men, has a multiplicity of effects on people ranging from fatigue, poor sleep, widespread aching, other pain … Read more
What matters to people with persistent pain?
I’ve read many written expectations of people coming for pain management – and without a doubt, the majority of people want to get on with life, go back to doing what they enjoy, and feel better in themselves. The only problem with that? Most of them preface their goals with ‘reduce my pain so I … Read more
Essential skills for pain clinicians
Strangely enough I don’t have a specific reading or paper for my post today – only my experience over a long time working in pain management. Now I know anecdotes are not strong evidence, yet at the same time there are some things that have yet to be well researched, so this is an attempt … Read more
How to transfer research into practice
Well, maybe that’s a misnomer for today’s post, but it does strike to the very heart of some of the more heated debates that I see when I browse the interweb. With all the conflicting research reports into all the various interventions for chronic pain (well, for anything really), how does a clinician decide when … Read more
How did that happen? Stories of returning to work
Yesterday I started to talk about returning to work with chronic pain. I mentioned that it’s often not the degree of importance an individual places on returning to work that engenders resistance – it’s more likely the lack of confidence the person has towards the process, the fear that this won’t work out and they … Read more
Working and chronic pain
If there is one aspect of chronic pain management that has received more attention than returning to work, I don’t know it! In 1995 when I started working at my current workplace, work was almost a dirty word. I was accused at one time of being a ‘Siberian workcamp’ Commandante because some people thought it … Read more
Workability
There can sometimes be a delicate balance in therapy, between challenging people to try something new and step away from ways of coping that are easy because they’re habits, and at the same time respecting that people have different ways of doing things, different values and beliefs, and in the end have to choose what works … Read more
Friday beauty spot
For a bit of a change I’ve decided to show some of my favourite photographs, and some words to go with them – I hope you enjoy! Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. … Read more
