We’re taking a deep dive into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with its Founder, Dr. Hayes. He is a Nevada Foundation professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada and author of 44 books and nearly 600 scientific articles. He developed the Relational Frame Theory, an account of human higher cognition and has guided its extension into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy which is a popular evidence-based form of psychotherapy that uses mindfulness, acceptance and values-based methods. Dr. Hayes has been President of Division 25 of the American Psychological Association, the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy and the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. He was listed by the Institute of Scientific Information as the 30th highest impact psychologist in the world.

On this episode, you’ll learn about how ACT can help people with pain and other conditions that will reach for a meaningful life. How you can develop greater resilience even during periods of intense emotional or physical pain. How ACT can complement and potentially optimize any physical medicine or traditional cognitive behavioral therapy approach to pain care. We will also discuss Dr. Hayes’ book called, A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters, where he lays out the psychological flexibility skills and make it one of the most powerful approaches research has yet to offer. I had an opportunity to read an advance copy of A Liberated Mind and it is a great book. I recommend to everyone reading this to hop on over to Amazon or whatever retail you order your books from and pick your copy of the book. It’s available in stores now. You can learn more about Dr. Hayes by going directly to his website at www.StevenCHayes.com. I’m excited to share this episode with you, so let’s dive right in and let’s begin with Dr. Steven Hayes.

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We're talking about an important topic. It's the effect of bullying on chronic pain in children and adolescents. When I did an interview with Dr. Christine Chambers, a psychologist who treats children and adolescents with chronic pain, I said that I was going to be dedicating more episodes to this important topic because if we can prevent pain in children, it won't carry over to having pain in adults. We won't have the mass of chronic pain that we have now. When I saw this topic on a med search I did, I said this is someone I have to invite on the podcast to discuss what her research has shown. Our guest is Dr. Pernilla Garmy.

She is a registered nurse specializing in children's health. She has several years of experience working as a school nurse in Sweden. She's an Associate Professor at Kristianstad University in Sweden. Her research is focused on sleep, mental health and lifestyle in school-aged children and adolescents, as well as the link between pain, bullying and mental health problems, which we'll talk about more. She's published more than twenty scientific articles and published an article called Bullying, pain and analgesic use in school-age children, which was published in the journal, Acta Paediatrica.

Pernilla is Chair of the Sleep and Health Section of the Swedish Society of Nursing and the editor of the Swedish journal, Sleep and Health. I know you're going to enjoy this episode. We talk a lot about pain in children through the context of bullying and analgesic use. This is great information. If you're a physical therapist, a mental health professional, a school nurse and even parents of children with pain will be interested in this topic so make sure to share it out with your friends and family. Let's welcome Pernilla to the show.

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On this episode, we’re talking about the relation of self-compassion to functioning among adults with chronic pain. Our expert guest is Karlyn Edwards. She is a clinical psychology graduate student at the University of New Mexico working with Dr. Kevin Vowles and Katie Witkiewitz. She studies important psychological factors that impact chronic pain as well as psychological interventions that can improve the lives of those living with chronic pain. She also studies how opioid and other substance misuse issues affect chronic pain, specifically how pain impacts medication treatment for those living with co-occurring opioid use and chronic pain. She also just completed one of the few studies that exist out there on how self-compassion can help people with chronic pain as far as a treatment intervention. Karlyn has also provided you with her free gift to accompany this episode. What she did was she summarizes all of the research as well as how self-compassion helps people with chronic pain into one nice concise document. To access that, all you have to do is text the word, 146DOWNLOAD, to the number 44222, or you can open up a browser on your computer and type in the URL, www.IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/146Download and you’ll receive that right to your inbox absolutely free. I’m excited to introduce Karlyn to all of you, as well as share her work and her research. I know you’re going to find it valuable.

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We are talking about the controversial topic of whether Manual Therapy for trigger point should be used for the alleviation or the treatment of chronic pain. How is one physiotherapist doing some interesting work to help people taper off of opioid medications using psychologically-informed physical therapy principles? My guest is Diarmuid Denneny. He is a professional lead physiotherapist at the Pain Management Center at the University of College London Hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust. He has worked in a specialized pain management center for several years and is clinically advanced as a physiotherapist as well as an independent prescriber.

In addition to his clinical and managerial work, Diarmuid is the Chair of the Physiotherapy Pain Association and a member of the Guidelines Development Committee for the NICE Chronic Pain Guidelines. He was awarded an NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowship in 2017 and 2018. He is interested in the development of clinical academic roles for physiotherapists. He also has a particular interest in the psychologically informed practice and the role of physiotherapists in supporting people who have pain and medication-related issues.

Diarmuid has published peer-reviewed articles relating to physical therapy practice in pain management, including a systematic review of trigger point Manual Therapy, which we’ll talk about on this episode, as well as the behaviors of experienced physical therapists working within a psychologically informed model. We cover a lot of ground on this episode where we discuss psychologically informed care, Manual Therapy and Trigger Point Therapy as it relates to the management of chronic pain, as well as a physiotherapist role in helping people taper off of opioids. I know you’re going to enjoy this episode. Help me welcome Diarmuid to the podcast.

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We are talking about how to use mindfulness to treat or alleviate chronic pain. Our expert guest is Dr. Ronald Siegel. He’s an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School where he has taught for over 35 years. He’s a longtime student of mindfulness meditation and serves on the board of directors and faculty of The Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. He teaches internationally about the application of mindfulness practice in psychotherapy and maintains a private clinical practice in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Dr. Siegel is co-editor of the critically acclaimed text, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, author of a comprehensive guide for general audiences called The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems, co-editor of Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy, co-author of the professional guide, Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy and co-author of the sub-treatment guide called Back Sense, which integrates Western and Eastern approaches for the treatment of chronic low back pain.

Dr. Siegel is also co-director of the annual Harvard Medical School Conference on Meditation and Psychotherapy. We will discuss how mindfulness helps chronic pain, Dr. Siegel’s own personal journey of finding mindfulness, as well as overcoming chronic low back pain and how mindfulness fits into clinical practice, whether you are a mental health professional or a physical medicine professional. Dr. Siegel also created a free download to accompany this called How Mindfulness Works, Avoiding Avoidance. This download goes over how mindfulness helps with anxiety, helps with chronic pain, helps with depression as well as how mindfulness is the antidote to avoidance. To access this free gift, all you have to do is text the word, 144Download, to the number 44-222 on your smartphone. If you’re on your computer, you can open up a browser and type in the URL, www.IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/144download. I know you’re going to enjoy this as much as I did. We go through a ton of information on mindfulness and how mindfulness works to alleviate chronic pain and the suffering that’s associated with it. Dr. Siegel’s a master at mindfulness and psychotherapy. I learned so much from him, so I recommend that you follow his work and take notes. Let’s begin and let’s meet Dr. Siegel.

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