Pain Management Skills Course

Scott Pickering, AHT, WA.

I recently completed the Pain Management Skills Course as an elective unit for the AHT credential. I was looking for a course that would teach me new skills but still complement those that we use in our busy hospital-based outpatient setting. In the past I wondered if implementation of a lengthy CBT program would be valuable - especially given the wealth of pain management modalities that are already available to hand therapists. Thankfully, I’m pleased to say that this course was well worth the outlay, and I’ve been able to apply the CBT techniques with immediate effect in both new and existing patient treatment plans.

The course was led by the multidisciplinary lecturing team at Sydney University and provided insights from experienced professionals from physiotherapy and psychology backgrounds. The open dialogue seminar series was very well delivered. The presenters were professional, knowledgeable, and personable; they did a great job of combining theoretical examples and practical techniques to address real life patient queries from participant's active caseloads.

The pre-reading content was comprehensive without being laborious; including a mix of well-established articles and a useful pain management textbook – all mailed to you prior to course commencement. The preparation for each week allowed me to make the most of the content and helped to keep the concepts connected between sessions.

A group of Australia-wide participants and I would meet via Zoom with the facilitators for weekly meetings over the two-month duration. It was also great to have the chance to hear from therapists with a range of hand therapy backgrounds, often the cases they presented helped answer questions that I had for my own caseload. As a full-time therapist with a busy family life, I found these shorter frequent sessions fit conveniently with work and family arrangements.

The course content provided a solid framework that could be efficiently built into patient sessions without compromising other rehabilitation goals. Topics such as pacing, problem-solving, management of unhelpful thoughts, relaxation, flare-up management and exercise provision seemed to match well with sessions that we as therapists may already tend to provide.

Something I really liked about the course was that it allowed you to take the skills learned for the week and practice them immediately with patients or colleagues. The process encourages you to reflect on what you discovered personally as well as gathering any feedback from your patients before returning to the facilitators the following session to debrief. This felt like a great way to solidify the skills before moving on to the next technique.

The additional resources made available to participants have proven to be invaluable. Some examples of these include outcome measures, videos and scripts, audio files and worksheets – all of which have become tools available in my clinical practice.

If you’re interested in other options for your chronic pain patients, feel like you’d like more structure in their management plan, or want to provide a treatment that fits with other CBT trained professionals in your multidisciplinary team, then please do consider the Pain Management Skills Course for your continuing professional development.

Rosie Gospel, OT, AHT & Embodiment Coach, Compassionate Hands for CRPS & Peregian Springs Sports Injury and Physiotherapy Centre.

I got more than I bargained for in this AHTA course. The presenters are highly experienced in the persistent pain field, and the lectures were easy to fit in one evening a week over seven weeks. Homework could be done at your own pace and involved case studies you find in your own work or personal life. These case study tasks provided opportunities to put into practice new knowledge and skills, and helpful feedback was provided for further growth. Learning these new skills has greatly improved my interactions with clients who have persistent pain in the following ways:

I now feel more confident to know what questions to ask to explore ideas about pain with, rather than explaining to, my clients. 

I thought I knew enough about pacing, but now have a clear step-by-step process to coach clients to success. One of my case studies achieved amazing results by becoming far more independent and getting off her opioids - largely by using this pacing method alone. 

Some of the methods taught such as problem-solving, although simple, change the dynamic completely - from being the advice giver, to collaboration with the client, a process that works to achieve healthier, lifelong habits.  

Relaxation – This course has expanded my understanding of relaxation because it specifically applies relaxation to pain. This approach may sound counter-intuitive at first, but used skilfully can be a significant turning point. 

Some skills taught were entirely new to me, including how to go through a case formulation with a client. This enlightening activity has the means to shift the client's focus away from their counter-productive striving for immediate analgesic relief. 

Thought management was also novel to me. It is used in flare-up planning and management of thoughts about pain, or any aspect of how the pain is disrupting the person’s life. This skill can be honed over your entire working life, with inherent potential to provide a crucial tool of support and meaningful change for our clients.

In summary, I would say this course has been integrated into both my hand therapy and telehealth CRPS practice more than any other short course so far. Yes, it can be challenging to dedicate time to this kind of work in public and private hand therapy settings, but it is definitely possible. I highly recommend investing your time in this informative and practical course. You won’t regret it.