A Practical Guide for
Persistent Pain Therapy
“This course will fundamentally change how I
communicate with my patients.” Doctor
“I connect with my patients so much better since taking this course.” Physiotherapist
Learning Aims:
This course will help you develop a range of engaging, practical skills so that
you can help people make sense of pain and overcome it. You will learn ways
to apply practical solutions to everyday clinical challenges.
• Help people to feel believed by understanding the relationship
between pain, perception & behaviour change without them thinking
that it’s “all in their head!”
• Learn ways to combine a biopsychosocial approach with your
manual therapy and exercise therapy skills.
• Learn creative ways to help people make sense of pain by using
interactive experiments involving taste, touch and hearing!
• Become a better teacher. Guide people who become stuck, empower
people who feel hopeless, and engage people who feel bored.
• Optimise patient education by expanding your teaching toolkit &
applying educational theories to your practice.
• Develop empathy and build therapeutic connections through an
evidence-based awareness of what people in pain want from
healthcare professionals.
• Help people to express their experience of living with pain through
a range of engaging and empowering communication skills.
• Explore the role of metaphors in healthcare and understand the
hidden impact of language on clinical outcomes.
• Integrate practical psychological treatment skills into your rehabilitation
by exploring motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioural
therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, mindfulness and
cognitive bias modification.
• Consider common barriers towards recovery, and explore methods of
developing self-efficacy & resilience for people in pain.
• Understand the importance of shared-decision making and develop a
collaborative approach to healthcare.
• Explore a variety of patient case studies that give you the opportunity
to use what you have learnt before returning to your clinic.
Course Description:
The challenge of successfully managing persistent pain can be one of the
most daunting for both clinicians and people in pain who are often frustrated
after failed short-term interventions. It is often difficult to understand and
explain high and prolonged levels of pain where a traditional tissue based
cause is lacking. This course explores a cutting edge, patient centered
approach using a variety of practical learning methods to help your patients
make sense and overcome their pain. It provides a range of practical
applications and innovative learning methods to take into your clinic for
immediate results. The course content blends a wide range of contemporary
evidence from both educational and healthcare literature. Know Pain courses
have been taught in over fifteen countries and have provided a wide range of
clinicians around the world with practical skills. Feedback from over 700
people who have attended Know Pain courses has shown that 100% would
recommend a Know Pain course to their colleagues, whilst 95% felt more
confident when helping people to overcome pain. This 2 day practical course
is relevant to anyone who works with people in pain.
Course Outline:
Day 1
Setting the Scene: What is pain? What are we hoping to achieve?
The Neurobiology of Pain: Helping people understand why it hurts in
their own words.
Developing Teaching Skills: Optimise your patient education toolkit &
learn practical ways to guide, empower & engage people.
Day 2
The Language of Pain: Develop your communication skills & help people
to express their experience of living with pain.
Pain & the Affective Mind: Combining psychological treatment skills with
physical rehabilitation and manual therapy.
Getting Going Again: Empowering function by applying pacing & graded
exposure therapy to your practice.
Interactive Workshop: Practice your new treatment skills to find solutions
to everyday clinical problems.
Case Studies: An opportunity to test what you have learnt before you
return to your practice. Use a variety of real life patient case studies to
practice your new skills!
Tutor: Mike Stewart
MCSP SRP MSc PG Cert (Clin Ed)
Mike is a physiotherapist and visiting university lecturer with over twenty years
experience of helping people to overcome pain. Mike is a dedicated practicebased
educator who is passionate about providing evidence-based education
to a wide variety of health professionals. He teaches across elite sports, and
is an advisor on pain management to the International Olympic Committee.
Mike has a Masters degree in Education and is planning a PhD focusing on
pain and communication. His published work has received international praise
from the leading names in neuroscience.
CPD Hours: 14
For more information email: admin@knowpain.co.uk
or visit
www.knowpain.co.uk
