For providers
Five suggestions to build stronger relationships and improve outcomes
1. Recognize our humanity.
See us as people first. Not patients. Not pain numbers. Not appointment times. Not body parts. And not a medical diagnosis. We're more than the pain. And the pain isn't driven by any single contributor. Pain is a biopsychosocial experience.
2. Prioritize listening over speaking and listen to our stories.
The person in your office wants to be heard. Take time to have a conversation and peel back the onion—listening to their story without interruption, suspicion, or judgment and going beyond tick-box communication to make your office space a safe place for them to share their story, express their concerns, and ask questions.
3. Choose your words with compassion.
The words you say, how you say them, and your body posture can all affect a person's pain journey and the amount of suffering they may experience. Steer clear of jargon and using language that could unintentionally cause any invalidation, fear, or anxiety. Phrases like "bone on bone, wear and tear, degenerative disease, you look normal, you'll be fine, the pain is in your head, and you're the worst case I've ever seen" can cause a person to feel less believed, become guarded, withdraw from activity, and focus on the worst.
4. Incorporate active self-management strategies in your recommendations.
Active self-management strategies can help create a sense of calm and active control, building confidence to enable the person to make their life bigger than the pain. The bigger their lives, the smaller the space the pain takes in them.
5. Help make sense of pain as it transitions from acute to chronic.
People living with chronic pain want acknowledgment that the pain is real and not just in their heads. And they want a path forward. Refer them to specialists like physical therapists, pain psychologists, and formal interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation programs who have the time and expertise to help the person change the pain narrative, accept it, and adapt to it.
Helpful related articles
Check out the Education section of this website for additional articles and videos.
Explore and refer to formal pain rehabilitation
Find links to programs around the globe in the Resources section of this website.
See us as people first. Not patients. Not pain numbers. Not appointment times. Not body parts. And not a medical diagnosis. We're more than the pain. And the pain isn't driven by any single contributor. Pain is a biopsychosocial experience.
2. Prioritize listening over speaking and listen to our stories.
The person in your office wants to be heard. Take time to have a conversation and peel back the onion—listening to their story without interruption, suspicion, or judgment and going beyond tick-box communication to make your office space a safe place for them to share their story, express their concerns, and ask questions.
3. Choose your words with compassion.
The words you say, how you say them, and your body posture can all affect a person's pain journey and the amount of suffering they may experience. Steer clear of jargon and using language that could unintentionally cause any invalidation, fear, or anxiety. Phrases like "bone on bone, wear and tear, degenerative disease, you look normal, you'll be fine, the pain is in your head, and you're the worst case I've ever seen" can cause a person to feel less believed, become guarded, withdraw from activity, and focus on the worst.
4. Incorporate active self-management strategies in your recommendations.
Active self-management strategies can help create a sense of calm and active control, building confidence to enable the person to make their life bigger than the pain. The bigger their lives, the smaller the space the pain takes in them.
5. Help make sense of pain as it transitions from acute to chronic.
People living with chronic pain want acknowledgment that the pain is real and not just in their heads. And they want a path forward. Refer them to specialists like physical therapists, pain psychologists, and formal interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation programs who have the time and expertise to help the person change the pain narrative, accept it, and adapt to it.
Helpful related articles
Check out the Education section of this website for additional articles and videos.
- Self-Management of Chronic Pain: Psychologically Guided Core Competencies for Providers
- Psychologically Informed Practice: The Importance of Communication in Clinical Implementation
- The “future” pain clinician: Competencies needed to provide psychologically informed care
- Patient-centered consultations for persons with musculoskeletal conditions
- Sticks and Stones: The Impact of Language in Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation
- Common words to avoid and alternatives to use with patients
- Effects of Hip Pain Diagnostic Labels and Their Explanations on Beliefs About Hip Pain and How to Manage It
- GoInvo Determinants of Health
- Think Pain Is Purely Medical? Think Again
- Systematic Literature Review of Imaging Features of Spinal Degeneration in Asymptomatic Populations
- The Discordance Between Pain and Imaging in Knee Osteoarthritis
- Variability in diagnostic error rates of 10 MRI centers performing lumbar spine MRI examinations on the same patient within a 3-week period
- Role of Active Versus Passive Complementary and Integrative Health Approaches in Pain Management
- Is it time to reframe how we care for people with non-traumatic musculoskeletal pain?
- Self-Management of Chronic Pain (VA) - includes suggestions for providers
- Are Invasive Procedures Effective for Chronic Pain? A Systematic Review
- Theoretical explanations for maintenance of behaviour change: a systematic review of behaviour theories
- How to Move Patients from Passive Management to Active Self-Management (my article)
- A Letter to Pain Providers: 10 Do and Don’t Tips from a Chronic Pain Patient (my article)
Explore and refer to formal pain rehabilitation
Find links to programs around the globe in the Resources section of this website.
- Dr. Christopher Sletten explains pain, central sensitization syndrome, and what they do at the Mayo Clinic PRC (22:19)
- Interdisciplinary Chronic Pain Management: Past, Present, and Future
- Focused Review of Interdisciplinary Pain Rehabilitation Programs for Chronic Pain Management
- Interdisciplinary Chronic Pain Management: Overview and Lessons from the Public Sector
- Multidisciplinary biopsychosocial rehabilitation for chronic low back pain
- The Efficacy of Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation for Improving Function in People with Chronic Pain
- Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Programs in Chronic Pain Management
- IASP Pain Management Center – a series of chapters
- The Resurrection of Interdisciplinary Pain Rehabilitation: Outcomes Across a Veterans Affairs Collaborative
- Pain Rehabilitation Works (my blog post)
- My Time at the Mayo Clinic Pain Rehabilitation Center (my article)
THIS WEBSITE DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. PLEASE SEE THE DISCLAIMER PAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
©2024
Chronic Pain Champions, LLC
All rights reserved.
For personal, non-commercial use.
Chronic Pain Champions, LLC
All rights reserved.
For personal, non-commercial use.