Why pain management for work is different

There are many people who have completed a pain management programme, know how to do things like breathing, working to quota (pacing), relaxation strategies, distraction and exercise - but when they are asked about returning to work say ‘I can do these things at home, but not at work’.
I have many books on pain management [...]

Finally - truth and opinion

This is the last post in this mini-series on why I use science when deciding what interventions to use as a therapist.  As I did yesterday and the day before, I refer to William Palya’s book on research methods - it’s easy to read, available on the internet for free, and although it gives only [...]

Science and therapy

Yesterday I blogged about why I am so keen to use science to help me work ethically with clients. I talked about the basic onuses that we accept when we decide to become therapists, and showed how these are no more than what I would hope to receive if I saw a therapist or plumber [...]

Why I care about science and evidence

I caught myself wondering in the last few days about why I am so keen to pursue science and evidence-based approaches to health care.  I’m definitely consistent about wanting to know why something works, and equally consistent about knowing that it works - at the same time I meet people every day who don’t believe [...]

If you find it hard to slow down…

Self regulation is something we learn to do to achieve goals - it’s all about establishing what the goal is, find out how close we are to the goal, the gap between where we are and where we want to be, and what we need to do to get there. This is a reasonably [...]

A ramble through some blogs

It’s Friday here in New Zealand - last day of my working week - so in the tradition of many places, I’m having a ‘casual Friday’. ‘Cos you can’t see what I’m wearing, you’ll have to take my word for it, but I’m dressing down, and chilling out in preparation for a relaxing weekend. [...]

New blog to watch!

If this post is anything to go by, and from the ones I’ve read, it is, then dipping in and out of Science-based medicine is a very good thing.
The authors are respected scientists and doctors who write eloquently and thoughtfully about issues to do with those gray areas between science and [...]

Smoking and pain

Something I’ve noticed many times is the number of people experiencing chronic pain who also smoke. It used to be thought that people who smoke perhaps had poorer health behaviours which lead them to be less fit, less careful about eating well, and perhaps to having poorer responses to stressors generally. And I’ve [...]

Pain Behaviour Activity

Having looked all over the place for some suitable activities for people to become aware of their own pain behaviour and then learn to change it, I decided to put together one of my own. Now, unlike the posts I’ve made recently, I have no research to determine its effectiveness, but I hope you’ll [...]

Am I right or just dogmatic?

Even in health care, the loudest voice with the largest opinion can be the most persuasive - even with limited (or selective) use of scientific evidence. Sadly, fads exist in pain management too.
To counter our human biases we need to be critical of all research, and ask some serious questions about accepted practice as [...]