Pain Relief Innovations And Update With Joe Tatta, PT, DPT, CNS

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Pain Relief Innovations And Update With Joe Tatta, PT, DPT, CNS

As I looked down on my notes, this is episode number 252. If I do the math on that, I’ve been recording and releasing one episode per week for years. I have interviewed some incredible guests from all walks of life, from almost every profession that contributes to chronic pain. Although there are still some areas that I’d like to explore. We’ll have some of those that I’ll share with you on this episode and episodes to come.

I’ve interviewed some incredible guests and their contribution to this show is important. I wouldn’t be able to do this without their contribution. I want to take a moment to thank all of the educators, the researchers and the clinicians, people living with pain who contribute each week to this cause. I’ve always looked at the show as a public service announcement. It’s a public service announcement for people with health conditions and for those of us in clinical practice on how we can start to shift and send a bigger message about safe and effective ways to treat chronic pain. Also, ways that build people’s lives and build their resiliency. That’s what this is all about.

In this episode, I don’t have a special guest to introduce. It’s only going to be you and me. I wanted to take some time to talk to you and let you know what I’ve been working on, and what’s happening at the Integrative Pain Science Institute. Also, what’s going on in my mind and the things that I’m interested in, the things that are missing from the management of chronic pain or the world of physical therapy, how you can be a part of that and contribute to that.

Research

In this episode, there are three areas that I want to talk about. I want to talk about what’s up and coming, some things related to research, things related to training and professional development, as well as upcoming projects that I’m working on. Let’s talk about the research first. Over the past years, I’ve had the opportunity to engage with a few different projects that have led to the development of some manuscripts that hopefully will be published in peer-reviewed journals.

Traditionally, for those of you that know me, I’ve been a clinician, educator and mentor. I’ve straddled those three parts of my practice and my business. I mostly have stayed out of the research and the peer-review process lane. I have published two books, Heal Your Pain Now, which is more of an integrative approach to chronic pain, and the newest one called Radical Relief, which talks about mindfulness and acceptance-based approaches to pain.

Although over the last few years, I’ve noticed that there are a few things that are missing from the physical therapy literature and the chronic pain literature that are important to me. I believe that they’re important to you as well and they can impact our practice. I think they’re critical for our patients who are living with chronic health conditions. I have authored five different manuscripts that are under review with different types of journals.

They’re on various topics and I’ll share what those topics are with you. They’re on pain education, nutrition specifically for the treatment of chronic pain and specifically, within the context of the PT profession. There is another one on mindfulness and acceptance-based approaches as it pertains to the physical therapy profession. In that one, we go beyond pain. We’re talking about applications for orthopedics, sports physical therapy, mental health physical therapy, and general health and wellness promotion, specifically, for the physical therapy profession.

We also talk about using mindfulness for behavioral health changes in that article. Finally, there’s one on ACT both for the treatment of chronic pain, as well as a means to decrease burnout and fatigue in physical therapists that are working on the front lines. Specifically, physical therapists that are working on patients with chronic health and chronic pain conditions. These manuscripts have been submitted for publication already. They are at their 1st, 2nd or some of them are the 3rd and final stage of the peer-review process. I’m extremely hopeful that these will publish and I’ll be able to share them with you on future episodes and social media.

If you want to stay up-to-date and follow me with regards to everything that I’m doing, one of the best places to do that is on Instagram. My handle is easy. It’s @DrJoeTatta. Hop on over to Instagram and follow me there. If you’re not on Instagram, you can follow me on Facebook or any other social channels. I try to post on every social media outlet almost on a daily basis. Don’t forget, make sure you hop on over to the Integrated Pain Science Institute and sign up for our mailing list. I send out emails usually about twice a week on the show and other things that we have going on.

I don’t kill people with emails. I send about two emails per week that are useful for your health, as well as your clinical practice. For someone who has published before, there’s no guarantee that a manuscript will be accepted, but fingers crossed that our peers will see value in these topics. There were lots of room for all these topics, specifically in the PT literature. If you are a PT and you’re interested in these topics, get out there and make a difference and start to engage with some research.

Some of these papers I’ve authored on my own but for the most part, as you know peer review and publishing research is a team sport. Collaboration is important. I’ve collaborated with PTs from the United States, as well as in Europe. It’s been lots of fun. These people have helped me stretch and grow both personally and professionally, as far as being a clinician, writer and researcher. It’s been lots of fun. I look forward to not only sharing those papers but sharing who those specific collaborators are as we move forward in this process.

There’s one important thing that I want to share. If you are a clinician in clinical practice and you’re reading this episode, what I’ve learned through this entire process is that your voice and your input matter in research. One of the most important things I’ve learned from this process is that more clinicians like you should be a part of the research and the peer-review process. Primarily, academics and researchers are part of that process.

HPP 252 | Pain Relief Innovations
Research has to be useful for real-life clinical practice settings. As practitioners, educators, and researchers, we should push for clinically helpful and relevant real-life research.

 

I firmly believe that you, the clinician, have a lot of knowledge. You have significant real-world experience and you have a lot to share as part of this process. I sincerely believe that more commissions on the frontline have something important to contribute to the research and the peer-review process. After all, you’re the one who shifts this knowledge to practice. You’re the one who brings us knowledge into the clinical setting. We all know that it’s important that papers are published but oftentimes, it’s the clinicians working on the front lines in pain care, physical therapy, and mental health or wherever you’re working to make these changes happen.

Research has to be useful for real-life clinical practice settings. There’s so much of the research that’s out there that’s published that does not check the box on this. I think as practitioners, educators and researchers that we should push more for clinically useful and relevant real-life research. There is a ton of innovation that happens every day in the clinical setting that never makes it into a journal and never gets shared. Part of my mission on the show was to talk to not only researchers but also clinicians to learn and share with everyone around the globe about what innovation is happening in your practice.

Education And Professional Development

What are you doing in your practice that is helping people with chronic pain and other chronic health conditions? If you are a practitioner and you’re doing something that’s interesting, innovative and not talked about in the research, reach out to me. I would love to hear from you. I would love to highlight your work on the show. Innovation and impact do happen every day in real-life practice settings. There is more on the research front to come.

Let’s shift to continuing education and professional development. The Integrative Pain Science Institute offers seven different types of continuing education courses under the umbrella of Physical Therapy, Psychologically Informed Care, Lifestyle Medicine, and Health Behavior Change. If you are a professional who has taken one of our courses, I want to thank you for taking the time to train and learn with us. We love everyone who has taken our courses and we love hearing from you. We love hearing how you use that information in clinical practice. If you want to train with me, there are three courses that I offer through the Integrated Pain Science Institute. That is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain, Functional Nutrition for Chronic Pain, and Mindfulness-Based Pain Relief.

You’ve probably heard me talk about those courses quite a bit. I’m not going to spend too much time on them because I want to share the other instructors and the other courses with you. The Functional Nutrition for Chronic Pain Certification Program for the practitioner is a 36 CEU hour certification program. ACT for Chronic Pain is twenty hours, and the Mindfulness-Based Pain Relief Practitioner Certification Program is fifteen hours.

Those are all accessible by going to the Integrative Pain Science Institute. All those courses come with additional coaching. We do coaching calls once a month. Those calls last approximately somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes, depending on how the call is going and how many people show up. Those are with me personally. Those happen once a month once you join those courses. I want to shift the focus to the other courses and the other instructors that have joined the Integrative Pain Science Institute.

I want to start off with Professor Annette Willgens. She is a physical therapist and a Mindfulness Research Researcher. She’s done a couple of different studies on mindfulness for the physical therapy profession, which very few people are doing. She’s leading a brand-new course for the Institute. It’s called Mindful Stress Management for the Healthcare Professional. You can find that on the website at the Integrated Pain Science Institute.

The reason why this course is important is because it’s been extremely stressful to be a healthcare professional in the context of COVID. Things like burnout, compassion, fatigue and stress are real concerns for all of us who work in healthcare. Mindfulness has been studied by health professionals like you and me to decrease the autonomic stress, metabolic stress, and emotional stress that many of us face in clinical practice.

Let’s face it being a healthcare professional is not always easy. There is pressure from employers, patients, and health insurance companies with regard to how they dictate at times how we practice. There are ways to mitigate that stress. What’s interesting about mindfulness is the same techniques that we teach our patients, when we learn those techniques, they help us alleviate stress and burnout, which is important.

Make sure to check out that course, it’s coming up in about a week or so. It’s available. You can check it out. You can check out the page at the Integrative Pain Science Institute. It’s called Mindful Stress Management for the Health Care Practitioner.

HPP 252 | Pain Relief Innovations
Being a healthcare professional is not always easy. There is pressure from employers, patients, and health insurance companies. They dictate at times how we practice.

 

There are three other courses. The first is Trauma-Informed Pain Care. The second is Pain Education for the Healthcare Professional. The third is Motivational Interviewing for Chronic Pain. Trauma-Informed Pain Care is led by Dr. Jeremy Fletcher. He is a physical therapist and a former Physical Therapy professor and works for a not-for-profit company called Veterans Recovery Resources. Jeremy is a leader in the profession of physical therapy with regard to trauma-informed care.

The Pain Education for the Healthcare Professional Course is led by Dr. Carey Rothschild. She’s also a physical therapist and a university professor as well. Finally, Motivational Interviewing is led by Rose Pignataro, who was a physical therapist who completed her PhD in Behavioral Health with a specialty in Motivational Interviewing. The Mindfulness Stress Management for the Healthcare Professional Course, as well as Trauma-Informed Pain Care, Pain Education, and Motivational Interviewing are smaller courses. They are about seven CEUs. They’ll take you about seven hours to complete. They’re not very long but they are very content-rich. You’re going to have lots of good clinical takeaways in each of these courses.

I personally review all of these courses before they go up online. I make sure they’re clinically relevant, they’re up-to-date, and they’re not a drag to go through it. There are a lot of PT consumer education courses out there, but many of them are not clinically relevant. Many of them are talking about information that is old. These are updated concepts related to behavioral health, lifestyle medicine, psychological informed care, which are missing from PT education. They’re also missing from our clinical practice as well.

Upcoming Project

My courses are not just for physical therapists. I have other professionals who would take them as well, occupational therapists, mental health providers, health coaches, physicians and nurses. Everyone is welcome to take a course at the Integrated Pain Science Institute. Lastly, I’ll share an up-and-coming project that everyone is going to be excited about. I finished editing a textbook with another one of my colleagues, Dr. Ginger Garner who’s been on the show. She’s also a physical therapist. We finished editing a textbook called Lifestyle Medicine for the Physical Therapist, which will be available in early 2022. We hope that it’s available sometime before February.

This is the textbook written for the physical therapist on Lifestyle Medicine. Ginger and I are the chief editors, but there are approximately 40 to 45 other physical therapists who have contributed to this textbook. All of us have been working on this textbook for over a year. I want to give an early thank you and a huge ton of gratitude to all of the contributors to this textbook. It’s not out yet but wait until you see this. It’s going to be a textbook that every professional is going to want to have on their bookshelf.

This is going to be a textbook that is going to be used not only in Physical Therapy programs. It will be used in the Health and Wellness Promotion Courses that are in every single Physical Therapy program. I believe it’s going to be used in other disciplines such as OT and chiropractic. Even physicians will find a lot of use in this textbook. We went deep on almost every single topic that is related to lifestyle medicine in this book.

Everything from nutrition, sleep, relaxation, psychologically informed care, mental wellness, spiritual health, environmental influences, stress management, counseling, and social determinants of health. Everything is in this textbook. We also apply it to all the specialties of Physical Therapy. Looking at Orthopedics, Neurology, Women’s Health, Sports Medicine, Oncology, etc.

I can’t wait to get it out there. That’s why I’m talking about it. I hope it doesn’t cause too much anticipation. The book won’t come out until early 2022, but I want to let people know that this resource is out there. It’s coming. Stay connected to my mailing list. Head on over to the Integrated Pain Science Institute and hop on the mailing list. It’s going to be published with OPTP. If you are on their mailing list, as a professional, you should receive updates about that as well.

If you have any questions, about the book or its usefulness, you can send me an email. My email is easy. It’s [email protected]. I have some programs and offerings associated with this textbook. As we move forward into 2022, I expect that this is going to shift the needle on Lifestyle Medicine and Health and Wellness in Integrative Medicine in the world of Physical Therapy, pain care and other professions as well.

Those are all the updates I have for you on the research front, on the consumer education and professional development front, on the show front and up and coming projects. Most of all, I want to hear from you. If you have a question for me, send me an email. If you want to appear on the show, or there’s a topic that you want to hear about, this show is yours. Reach out to me and let me know. Send me an email.

If there’s a course that you want to take or something that you want to learn about that you feel is missing from Physical Therapy, pain care, mental health, or someone you want to learn from, reach out to me and let me know. I want to hear from you. I want you to know that this show is yours and this is your home as much as it is mine. You have a voice in raising this message about safe and effective pain care throughout the United States and the world.

I want to thank you for downloading this episode and for joining me and learning about some of the updates and innovations that we have happening at the Integrated Pain Science Institute. We have much more coming as we move into 2022 with some exciting projects. Just know that I’m always here for you. Whether you’re someone with pain or you’re a practitioner looking to grow and scale your practice or looking to learn more, I’m here. Reach out to me each week. I think about you as I sit down at my desk and I produce these episodes.

Stay in contact with me on Instagram. My handle is @DrJoeTatta. You can also find me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and make sure you hop on over to the Integrated Pain Science Institute and sign up for the mailing list. You can find places to sign up at the bottom of the homepage as well as over on the podcast tab. I want to thank all of you again for reading. I wish all of you lots of health and happiness and success. I’ll see you next time.

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