Some useful questions…

When we’re working with people who have pain, and especially when we’re asking them to do things differently, we’re going to notice ’shifts’ or changes in their presentation that suggest they’re responding to the situation - usually it’s an ‘automatic thought’ that’s jumping in, or perhaps it’s the emotional response to an AT that they’re [...]

Cognitive behaviour for pain worksheet - client information

It’s not always easy to find freely available client worksheets that reflect ‘real life’ situations, and are written for the age and reading level of the people we often see. For example, most of the people I work with are practical ‘hands-on’ people who don’t like reading or writing, and are either very visual [...]

CBT Workshop!

If you’re wanting a short, practical and interactive workshop on using cognitive and behavioural approaches for managing chronic pain, book yourself in for the CBT Workshop on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th May 2008.
This workshop is an introduction to using cognitive and behavioural approaches with people experiencing chronic pain, and is designed for occupational therapists, physiotherapists, [...]

Checking thoughts during activity

Why would we want to work with thoughts?
It’s not always essential to directly address thoughts but many times thoughts become quite unhelpful and prevent the person from engaging in your therapy. It can prevent them from adopting new skills (eg using pacing or even maintaining activity despite pain), or mean that they ‘resist’ therapy [...]

Responding to real but unhelpful beliefs

One of my beefs about cognitive therapy has to be the concept of ‘maladaptive’ or ‘erroneous’ beliefs. For many people experiencing pain, their beliefs are based on experience since developing persistent pain - so we could readily be called out if we suggest that their belief that ‘I always get a flare-up when I [...]

Cognitive behaviour management resources

One website I keep returning to is this Cognitive behavior management reference holds a wealth of resources that are mainly in the public domain (provided they are attributed appropriately).
There are three main areas covered on the site:
* Cognitive Rehabilitation: This has two components, cognitive restructuring and cognitive error correction. [...]

Relaxation training

For a very brief introduction to relaxation, click through to my Coping Skills section.
Relaxation training is a very popular component of pain management. By itself, relaxation can be an enjoyable experience, but when used as a way to extend activity and help a person maintain control, it becomes a very potent tool. It’s [...]

My blog’s readability stats!

Hah! I’ve finally managed to dumb down my language to suit undergrads!! Yay!!
I’ve tried to keep my writing relatively simple and understandable - jargon drives me nuts but I know I can be verbose. Thanks to Dr Deb for her pointer to this wee tool - try it out on a website near [...]

A personal bias

Now some readers have been wondering what my background is…Sometimes I feel like being rather provocative and asking why - while other times, like now, I feel like ‘fessing up.
Here is a clue: in pain management, to me the most important thing is to see people doing things differently.
That’s right, although I’m a strong believer [...]

Changing the inner critic - positive statements

How often do we mutter to ourselves ‘ahh! you stupid xxx, that’s going to hurt’, or ‘I don’t want to do that, it’s never going to work’!
In pain management, challenging negative statements is a tool that is often used. This requires a good deal of work on the part of the person with pain [...]