Work is the context

For many years I’ve worked in pain management and tried to help people return to work as the completion of their rehabilitation. Why? Well, apart from it being a great thing from an insurer or funder’s point of view, it’s actually what people want.
Having been through my own return to work rehabilitation after my [...]

For the visual amongst us - CB Worksheet

I’m a very visual person, I love to see what I’m doing, and I use visual imagery a lot in my language and my processing. Many of our clients are also visual - or they’re kinaesthetic - and they need to see and manipulate rather than listen and talk.
At some point while working with [...]

Working with a kinesiophobic person

One of the biggest challenges when working with someone who is fearful of pain and avoids movement is that although it’s very much like any sort of phobia, it differs on one essential point: people who are spider phobic, socially phobic, fearful of flying or heights or whatever are usually aware at some level that [...]

Self regulation readings

Self regulation is a concept we often use in pain management and in other areas of therapy where setting and achieving goals is a key aspect.
This post by Dale Schunk provides an excellent overview of some of the main areas in the approach, and includes a definition I particularly like Self-regulation, or systematic [...]

Motivational Interviewing in Health Care - book review

For me, motivational interviewing to help people change behaviour has been a great approach. The first book on using motivational interviewing for health conditions ‘Health behaviour change: A guide for practitioners’ by Rollnick, Mason and Butler (1999), is a wonderfully readable book, and inspired me to learn how to apply this non-confrontational approach to [...]

Change

This is just a quick ponder on the words we use in pain management.  Quite often we talk about ‘goals’ and ‘prioritising’ and ‘planning’ and ’skills’ - as if it’s an event that will come to an end.
‘Oh I’ve done my planning, and achieved my goals’.
The team I work with has started to consider whether [...]

How to cope with pain Pain-Blog Carnival

If you haven’t popped across to How to Cope with Pain Blog - now’s the time!
The very best of a range of excellent pain-related blogs is showcased on this month’s Carnival, sure to be something there for everyone!

My post from December 18  is included in this Carnival.  Enjoy!
How to Cope with Pain is now [...]

Positive psychology - Polyanna or Promising?

I was hoping to post on positive psychology and chronic pain, but have failed to find any specific references using these two headings - I then had a brain-wave and without waiting for someone reading this to locate something for me… I remembered the body of research in contextual cognitive behavioural therapy - mainly by [...]

It’s not enough just to feel - it’s about ‘what do you feel?’

 
Pain. 2007 Dec 1

Tactile discrimination, but not tactile stimulation alone, reduces chronic limb pain.
Moseley GL, Zalucki NM, Wiech K

This interesting study by the prolific Lorimer Moseley suggests that it’s not good enough for people with complex regional pain syndrome to just be exposed to tactile stimuli, but they need to do something with that [...]

Motivating people to make changes (iv)

Most of us are ambivalent about making change – we know there are good things about doing things differently, but there are some really comfortable things about sticking with things the way they are.
And if someone tried to ‘make’ us change – we’re more inclined to argue for our old patterns than agree that change [...]