An in-house workshop with tutor: Dr. Grahame Brown
Workshop outline:
Leading pain consultant Dr Grahame Brown explains how to use psychological methods to control pain and speed up healing. Pain is endemic in our society and whatever the cause (back pain, migraine, arthritic pain, dental pain, irritable bowel (IBS), labour/menstrual pain, cancer pain, psychogenic pain, psychosomatic pain) it can prove incapacitating.
It is estimated that approximately 30% of our population suffer chronic pain. The sociological and economic costs of this are enormous but it is in the human suffering involved that the real costs should be measured. This suffering can be dramatically reduced, as this workshop shows.
| What you will gain from the day: | |
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The confidence to help patients suffering from chronic pain of whatever cause |
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How to identify risk factors and reduce the risk of chronic pain developing – prevention is better than cure |
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An understanding of the value of pain displacement and how to use the brain’s ‘reality simulator’ |
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How to use guided imagery, relaxation and distraction |
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How to produce significant relief by changing the way patients think about their pain – in minutes |
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How healthcare professionals can make their consultations more therapeutic |
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How to avoid labelling patients’ pain as ‘purely psychological’. |
Who should attend?
• Doctors • Surgeons • Nurses • Dentists • Neurologists • Osteopaths
• Chiropractics • Palliative Care Workers • Psychiatrists • Midwives
• Physiotherapists • Occupational Therapists • Psychologists • Health Visitors
• Support/Care Workers • Psychotherapists • Counsellors
Workshop programme:
The Workshop Day:
Registration: 8.30am to 9.30am (Tea or coffee before 9.25am)
9.30am – Pain assessment and current treatments
Health professionals can feel powerless in the face of conditions that can't be explained (at least from the bio-medical model), don't respond, or only partially respond, to medical treatments. The majority of patients suffering from persistant pain often find that medical treatments are ineffective or only partially effective, or that they cannot take the full dose of pain killers due to their severe side effects. We look at: the scale of the problem; current knowledge of pain processing in the mind/body system; the risk factors that increase vulnerability; what exacerbates a pain problem and what influences it to persist and become chronic (for example thinking styles, behaviour of health professionals and the individual); and what is common in those suffering from 'medically unexplainable' symptoms.
11.00am — Refreshment and discussion
11.30am – The ‘human givens’ in relation to pain
The therapeutic approaches that work. How to assess a patient/client with a pain problem - the key questions to ask - and then make a difference quickly using the RIGAAR framework and human givens principles.
1.00pm — Lunch (provided)
2.00pm – Case History
We watch and analyse a video of a patient with a persistent pain problem that reveals many of the common problems such people experience and demonstrates powerful techniques used by the therapist to make a difference. We examine these techniques and how they can be used.
3.15pm — Refreshment and discussion
3.45pm – Putting it all together
How to teach simple techniques to patients to reduce their discomfort. Stories and metaphors that help to understand pain and accelerate healing. Intergrating the human givens organising ideas, and skills learned, with both bio-medical and complementary treatments in any setting. Case histories are used throughout the day and there will be plenty of opportunities for questions and any contributions you may wish to make.
4.45pm — Day ends