(HS Singer 053560 2018) Understanding Complex Chronic Pain and Treatments

Course overview

Chronic Pain Syndrome is not Chronic Pain... and knowing the difference makes a difference Wellness-based tools to help clients un-attach emotional suffering from physical pain Facilitate effective coping skills to help your clients 8 essential CBT, mindfulness and ACT interventions for chronic pain you can use beginning tomorrow Years ago, I sat down to evaluate a potential client with chronic pain. A minute hadn't passed before she broke down in tears while describing a 5-year-old injury that left her with excruciating neck pain. Despite 3 back surgeries and countless procedures, her back was still "killing" her and she placed her pain at 15/10. She couldn't sleep, she had gained weight and couldn't exercise. She had stopped working, was in a lawsuit over the injury, and was afraid to leave the house. Her doctor had placed her on high doses of an opiate pain killer plus an anti-anxiety medication and she admitted that sometimes she took more than she was prescribed. She admitted to having suicidal thoughts because she had lost hope that she might ever get her life back. Now imagine yourself in my place. How would you conduct an effective assessment? Do you know the difference between chronic pain and a chronic pain syndrome? What might be the best approach to treat pain and a co-occurring disorder? Are you confident you have enough evidence-based skills in your toolbox to help clients help themselves? This is a challenging time to treat complex chronic pain. Over 100 million Americans experience some form of chronic pain and the country is struggling with a tragic opiate epidemic that has cost tens of thousands of lives and is ripping society apart. As a clinician, you are in unique position to provide effective pain management to your chronic pain clients... but only if you fill your invisible toolbox with the evidence-based skills that work. In this interactive and creative seminar, we will focus on the assessment and treatment of complex chronic pain. You will learn how to evaluate it and how to discern and manage co-occurring disorders. You will increase your confidence in your ability to transform your knowledge of CBT, mindfulness, and ACT into the "silver bullet" skills that can facilitate "inside-out" pain management that empowers your clients. You will leave this seminar with 8 practical interventions you can begin to use tomorrow to motivate your clients to commit to the changes they want and to assist their families in finding the resources they need.