As always, it's an honor to be with you. Many of you know that I'm going to be launching a new act for chronic pain course that will come out in later January. Throughout the month of January, there'll be at least one, if not four different podcast episodes with regard to ACT, which is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and the model of psychological flexibility. If you’re interested in learning more about ACT, make sure you check out the course and sign up for the wait list at the Integrative Pain Science Institute. The way you can do that, go to the IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com and go to the Courses tab where you can sign up for the latest course release. There is a lot involved in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the treatment of chronic pain. The general goal of ACT is to increase something that's called psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility can be defined as the ability to contact the present moment and change your persistent behavior when doing so, serves a valued end. That basically means when your behavior serves the things that you love or the things that you value in life.
Building patterns of behavior that promotes psychological flexibility is important to help people open up and we'll only approach some discomfort as they recover from chronic pain. Psychological flexibility is also important for practitioners to develop, particularly for a practitioner who has been trained in a traditional biomedical model of pain. If you are a practitioner who is starting to implement different types of psychologically informed care into your practice, know that psychological flexibility helps you as a practitioner drop the storyline that you're here to either fix or cure someone with pain. Instead, it places you in a position where you can walk arm and arm with someone as you help and support them through their journey to overcome pain.
It's a very different perspective when you look at the biomedical model versus a biopsychosocial model or using ACT as a method of psychologically informed care. Here to speak to us about psychological flexibility and ACT is physiotherapist, Tom Young. Tom has worked both in the United Kingdom and Canada as a physiotherapist with a specialization in chronic pain. He lives in Canada where he's worked in an adult chronic pain service and now works with complex pediatric pain. Tom is also now leading a research project on how physiotherapists can be trained to utilize psychologically informed practice. On this episode, Tom will discuss ACT, psychological flexibility and how he uses ACT in his practice as a pain specialized physiotherapist.
I wanted to do a quick listen or shout out. Starting 2020, if you leave me a five-star review on iTunes, I'm going to read it at the beginning of the show and mention your name. Today’s listener shout-out is for Emma who lives in Canada. Emma says, “Dr. Joe, I want to let you know how useful your emails and podcasts are for me. My chronic pain from fibromyalgia has completely turned my life upside down. I’m someone who used to exercise regularly. I cannot endure any type of exercise after developing fibromyalgia, not even gentle yoga, not even a massage. The knowledge about pain from your podcast has provided me with such an understanding of the body, the mind and pain that for the first time I feel in control over my situation. Knowledge is power. I no longer feel like I'm damaged goods and I have less anxiety about where I'm going. I am by no way 100% pain free, but I cringe at the thought of how debilitating I would be now if I had never learned about pain from your podcast. I know your focus may be on health professionals, but I'm so thankful to hear about your discussions and learn from you each week.”
Emma, we're thankful that you tune in each week to learn about pain. I'm so happy to hear that you're empowering yourself with information because like you said, “Knowledge is power for chronic pain.” Emma, we wish you well and make sure to keep us up to date on all the steps you're taking to overcome chronic pain each week. If you enjoy what you hear on the show, whether you're a practitioner or someone who lives with pain, hop on over to iTunes and give us a five-star review, along with some comments about what you enjoy about the podcast. You never know, you may be my next listener shout-out. Let's begin and dive into ACT and psychological flexibility with physiotherapist, Tom Young.
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