As you have followed along with each episode of this show, you probably got the feeling that I'm a little bit passionate about how nutrition can be used to treat chronic pain and other chronic diseases. I have had physicians on the show discussing nutrition, health coaches, chiropractors, nurses and physical therapists all talking about how nutrition can impact chronic pain. As I reflect back on these 140 episodes, the one thing we have not discussed is how to treat acute pain using nutrition and physical therapy. We're going to cover that very topic when we talk with my friend, Dr. Carolyn Dolan. Carolyn is a physical therapist who combines traditional physical therapy with nutrition to treat both acute and chronic pain in her physical therapy practice.

In 2012, Carolyn was experiencing chronic fatigue, chronic pain, chronic sinus infections and was overweight. Her journey to better health letter led her to the world of nutrition and to designing a simple lifestyle program with the profound potential to transform people's lives. She now shares that in her physical therapy practice. On this episode, you'll learn how to treat acute pain and inflammation with nutrition and natural alternatives to pain medication using nutrition and supplements. You’ll learn how Carolyn created an innovative and novel supplement for pain that was missing from the marketplace and her key pillars to her lifestyle program for pain and better health. You can learn all about Carolyn by visiting her website, VitaKinetics.com.

If you're a physical therapist and you're interested in the how-to of functional nutrition for chronic pain, if you're curious about which diet is best for pain, whether you're a ketogenic fan or paleo fan or Mediterranean diet fan. If you just want to know how nutrition can be used to modulate the inflammatory response from the gut-brain connection or the gut joint connection, make sure you hop on over to the Integrative Pain Science Institute and check out the functional nutrition for chronic pain certification. This is a fully approved 36-credit CEU course that I designed specifically for physical therapists and other pain professionals so you can learn the evidence behind nutrition for chronic pain as well as the nuts and bolts of how to use functional nutrition in your practice. The course is open. All you have to do is go to the institute website and click on the Courses tab and check it out. Let's begin with Dr. Carolyn Dolan.

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We have clinical psychologist, Dr. Jill Stoddard. She's going to be talking about the topic of Experiential Practice in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain. Jill is the Founder and Director of the Center for Stress and Anxiety Management, an outpatient psychotherapy clinic specializing in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as well as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for anxiety. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Boston University and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. She's an award-winning teacher as well as an ACT trainer who has co-authored articles on ACT, CBT, anxiety, trauma and pain. She's also co-authored two books, the first being The Big Book of ACT Metaphors as well as her second book which is called Be Mighty: A Woman's Guide to Liberation from Anxiety, Worry, and Stress Using Mindfulness and Acceptance, which will be published in January of 2020.

The reason why I want to have Jill come onto the show and especially talk about metaphor is that ACT is one technique that you can use to unhook from unpleasant thoughts. Oftentimes, it's this unhooking from the unpleasant thoughts or other unpleasant sensation in your body that leads to the alleviation of the human suffering that many of us experience with chronic pain. You will learn about the foundational principles of ACT, why patients may prefer ACT over traditional CBT, how language causes suffering, the importance of Experiential Practice in ACT using metaphor, and the importance of values as part of the recovery process.

If you're new to how ACT uses metaphors, I've included three metaphors that you can use with your clients or with yourself to help ease and live your life beyond pain. To download them, all you have to do is text the word 139DOWNLOAD to the number 44222 or if you're on your computer, all you have to do is type in the URL www.IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/139download. Take a moment to download those three ACT metaphors. They're going to help you as you read this blog post. Let's begin with Dr. Jill Stoddard.

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I’m super honored that you're spending this time with me. As many of you know, the month of June is Gay Pride or what is known as LGBT Pride Month across the globe. This is a time of celebration as well as one of increased awareness where the LGBT community promotes their equality, builds community and celebrate sexual diversity and gender variance. If you've been following along with the blog, I interviewed clinical psychologist, Lore Dickey, about transgender healthcare. Now, you'll meet Dr. Chris Condran who is a Doctor of Physical Therapy to discuss LGBT inclusion in the physical therapy curricula and profession. Chris is an Orthopedic Physical Therapist and an instructor in the Transitional Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program at Arcadia University where he teaches health and wellness promotion as well as case analysis.

His educational background includes a Master’s in Exercise Physiology and MBA in business administration, a DPT in physical therapy and he's enrolled in the EdD program at the University of North Carolina. He has personally advocated for curriculum change within physical therapy education and has created training material on the subject of LGBT inclusion in physical therapy practice. His research advocacy interests are centered on providing inclusive clinical environments, transgender health issues, eliminating health disparities in the LGBT population and establishing a curriculum for LGBT cultural competency in the classroom and beyond. He is also a board member of PT Proud, which is the LGBT catalysts committee under the Health and Policy Administration section of the American Physical Therapy Association.

On this episode, he will share some of his unique life experiences related to diversity, equity and inclusion of LGBT individuals in the physical therapy profession. If you're a practitioner or potentially an educator and you're interested in the topic of LGBT inclusion in physical therapy or any other medical practice, Chris and his colleagues had created an LGBTQ Competency Handbook for Physical Therapists. This is a free manual and you can download it which includes information about LGBT inclusion in both the clinic and the classroom. To download this handbook, all you have to do is text 138Download to the number 44-222. If you're on your computer, you can open a new browser and you can type in the URL, www.IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/138download. Chris and the other members of PT Proud, would love if you can get your hands on that and put it to good use in both the clinic as well as in education. I want to personally thank Chris as well as my other colleagues at PT Proud for being a catalyst and making some bold moves and taking the step forward with this important topic. Without further ado, let's begin with the amazing Chris Condran.

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It's a pleasure to be spending this time with you. One of the activities that I do each week is I set aside some time to sit down and brainstorm about all the various topics that are related to chronic pain. The reason why I do that is it helps me find interesting and inspiring people to share with you on this show. If you follow this show for probably for a couple of years I've been doing it, you know that I've spoken about popular topics such as pain education, pain psychology, exercise, physical therapy and nutrition. One topic that interests me and quite frankly is the topic that doesn't receive enough attention in the media or receive grant money for research is the topic of health disparities. A health disparity is a difference in the health status of different groups of people.

For example, patients such as racial minorities and women have been identified as not receiving adequate pain care. Another group that faces significant barriers, adequate healthcare are transgender people. Transgender is an umbrella term for a diverse group of people whose gender identity or expression differs from societal expectations of how they should look, act or identify based on the sex they were assigned at birth. There are approximately 1.5 million transgender people living in the United States of America. Although this data is incomplete because many transgender people feel uncomfortable or feel that it's not safe to share their personal information.

From a healthcare perspective, transgender people experience higher rates of suffering and disabling conditions including a wide range of mental health problems and chronic pain conditions including chronic pelvic pain. Unfortunately, when transgender people seek treatment, they often encounter providers who do not understand their unique needs, face challenges with health insurance and are often neglected or perhaps even mistreated within the healthcare system. Here to speak with us about improving transgender healthcare is Dr. lore m. dickey. lore was raised as a female but never truly felt at home with the female identity. Several years after his transition, he returned to school to become a licensed clinical psychologist. He learned early in life that the best way to make a change is to be part of the solution. lore is the author of two books, 22 journal articles and seventeen book chapters.

He's an advocate for the trans community and a prolific and engaging speaker. lore is also providing you with two free resources that you can download on the show. The first is the American Psychological Association Task Force on Guidelines for Psychology Practice with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People. lore developed these guidelines along with the APA. The second is a complete list of all the books and book chapters which lore has contributed to. lore did receive the 2014 Presidential Citation by the American Psychological Association for his dedication to the LGBT community. He's got great resources. Take a moment now to download them. To download them, all you have to do is text the word, 137DOWNLOAD, to the number 44-222. You can do that right on your smartphone or if you're on a computer, you can open up a new browser and type in the URL www.IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/137download. lore is a leader in transgender healthcare. I want to thank him for joining us on this show and all the work that he's doing for the transgender community. Let's begin and let's meet Dr. lore dickey.

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