MindBodyPT
Beloved Grand Eagle
Hi all!
As some of you know, I've been on the forums for several months now and recovered from my own TMS back pain successfully. Of course this has been an eye-opening experience to say the least, as it has been for many of you as well. As a PT myself, i've been very moved by my discovery of TMS and have been trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to incorporate it into my current practice. My work is at an outpatient clinic at a hospital, its a traditional setting that isn't too conducive to anything outside of the "validated" and traditional mindset for patient care.
That being said, although I can't yet fully practice as a TMS practitioner (life goals!), I have been trying to incorporate the ideas into my patient education and plan of care if the person seems open. Mostly people are completely stuck on the structural model of their pain, but i've had a few who are open. Even just telling people they are ok, there is nothing "wrong" with their hurting body part, and that they are safe to start doing exercise tends to help a lot of folks.
Today I had a third follow up visit with a woman who I saw initially a few weeks ago with terrible low back pain and sciatica...I immediately identified it as TMS, as all of her imaging was unremarkable and any other pathology was ruled out. She seemed open minded and was begging me to take her pain away. At the end of our first appointment I shared a short version of my story from back pain healing and she was amazed and felt immediate relief at the idea that she might not have to live with her back pain forever. She actually hugged me at the end of the session! On our second session, while doing exercises, we spoke at length about the connection between emotions, stress and pain. I encouraged her to keep moving through her pain and distracted her with conversation...and she forgot all about it.
On her recent visit to me today, she was nearly pain free and feeling great! The coolest thing about it was- without even a formal TMS program, she had learned to "think psychologically"- she shared with me that her back and leg had begun hurting again a few nights ago, but she realized the cause of it was that a friend of hers had passed away. It was a good moment for me to have passed this knowledge on and for this patient to have had such a dramatic decrease in pain.
I'm hoping to use this approach with more people as time goes on.
As some of you know, I've been on the forums for several months now and recovered from my own TMS back pain successfully. Of course this has been an eye-opening experience to say the least, as it has been for many of you as well. As a PT myself, i've been very moved by my discovery of TMS and have been trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to incorporate it into my current practice. My work is at an outpatient clinic at a hospital, its a traditional setting that isn't too conducive to anything outside of the "validated" and traditional mindset for patient care.
That being said, although I can't yet fully practice as a TMS practitioner (life goals!), I have been trying to incorporate the ideas into my patient education and plan of care if the person seems open. Mostly people are completely stuck on the structural model of their pain, but i've had a few who are open. Even just telling people they are ok, there is nothing "wrong" with their hurting body part, and that they are safe to start doing exercise tends to help a lot of folks.
Today I had a third follow up visit with a woman who I saw initially a few weeks ago with terrible low back pain and sciatica...I immediately identified it as TMS, as all of her imaging was unremarkable and any other pathology was ruled out. She seemed open minded and was begging me to take her pain away. At the end of our first appointment I shared a short version of my story from back pain healing and she was amazed and felt immediate relief at the idea that she might not have to live with her back pain forever. She actually hugged me at the end of the session! On our second session, while doing exercises, we spoke at length about the connection between emotions, stress and pain. I encouraged her to keep moving through her pain and distracted her with conversation...and she forgot all about it.
On her recent visit to me today, she was nearly pain free and feeling great! The coolest thing about it was- without even a formal TMS program, she had learned to "think psychologically"- she shared with me that her back and leg had begun hurting again a few nights ago, but she realized the cause of it was that a friend of hers had passed away. It was a good moment for me to have passed this knowledge on and for this patient to have had such a dramatic decrease in pain.
I'm hoping to use this approach with more people as time goes on.
