Our patients want treatment for their pain, and as clinicians, we want to help improve their pain. Patients with acute, mechanical pain following an injury, like a hamstring muscle tear or lateral ankle ligament injury often respond quickly to treatment, but a number of these go on to have ongoing pain and issues, and other patients without any clear injury have high levels of persistent pain.

Understanding pain, pain science and how to tailor your treatment to different pain presentations seems to be really important.

The trouble is, pain science can be painful. Neurotransmitters and pictures of guys putting their hand in a fire seem to crop up as soon as pain is mentioned, but you can walk away from a pain lecture or course wondering what the practical implications are, and how any of this helps you get better results with your patients. Where are the practical elements you can use with your patients?

How can you explain acute or persistent pain to your patients, without giving them the message “It’s all in your head”?

It’s time for a new, practical approach to pain and pain science - focused on giving you tools, techniques and strategies you can use immediately with your patients to treat pain.

Dry, boring and irrelevant parts are cut away, instead you have case studies and the practical information you need to get great results with your patients.

“Making sense of pain” is module 2 in our comprehensive, practical member training, and gives you exactly what you need to treat acute and persistent pain successfully and confidently. You’ll finally master pain & pain science, exploring:

• Why does it hurt? Pain science for clinical practice.
• Painful patterns - How to identify, differentiate and treat common pain presentations, including somatic referred pain, neuropathic pain, facet joint, discogenic, SIJ and lumbar spine pain, tendon and bone pain.
• Musculoskeletal masqueraders - identifying pain from non-musculoskeletal sources.
• Tailored treatment - How to tailor your treatment to your patients pain presentation
• Pain - is it a sensitive conversation? Build your pain communication skills to positively and effectively influence your patients pain, and build trust.
• “So you’re saying it’s all in my head?” Practical strategies to effectively educate your patients on pain, without them falling asleep or thinking it’s all in their head.
• Fearful of flareups? How to avoid and manage flareups in your patients.
• Less stress, more success with the biopsychosocial model. How to recognise and gently challenge patient beliefs.
• Exercise & effective treatment, bullshit and quackery - understanding how treatments work to get better results.
• Painful or painless? How to ditch cookie-cutter exercises and programs, and choose the most effective exercises for your patients in pain.
• Are athletes superhuman? Understanding & treating common pain presentations in athletes.
• To cut or not to cut, that is the question. When to use and avoid medical treatments for pain, including pharmacology, injection and surgery.
• Painful conditions and how to manage them. Case studies to improve your confidence, and make working with persistent pain patients rewarding and fun again.

Dive into Module 2 - Making sense of pain to explore practical strategies that'll improve your assessment, diagnosis and treatment results.