Before we visit a new healthcare professional, including a chronic pain coach, there are several questions we need to ask to find out if they are the right person for us to work with. This is especially important if we suffer daily from ongoing pain or other chronic disease that needs support and guidance.
This especially applies to a chronic pain coach as it's a different service you may not be familiar with. We know what to expect when we visit our GP or our local physiotherapist. Therefore, I hope to give you an outline of what a pain coach is who can give guidance and support you to make changes to reduce your pain and the impact pain has on your lifestyle.
This may help your search for the type of chronic pain support coach to suit you and the way you think. An important consideration to help build up a positive relationship and a person who will fill the role in the past of our local family doctor who knew us and our family, always there when we needed support and answer our questions.
Coaches have been around for many years, mostly in relation to sports teams and individual sports athletes. Consequently, you have an awareness of what a coach does.
A Pain Coach Provides Support and Listens
Pain coaches need to stay up to date in their training and education. One way to do this is to be part of an association actively engaged in professional development, such as those below of which I'm a member.
Freedom from Chronic Pain.
A better way to treat chronic pain. Effective neuroplasticity treatment for most chronic pain conditions.
Australian Society of Lifestyle Medicine
Improving the health and Wellbeing of all Australians and New Zealanders through lifestyle as medicine.
Both of these associations have practitioners from a wide diversity of professions who want to improve their ability to improve the lives of all the patients or clients with a wide range of health conditions that you can connect with online or in person.
Qualifications of a Pain Coach.
Pain coaches come from many different modalities of therapies. They all have or should have in common training in chronic pain and experience in treating various types of chronic pain such as fibromyalgia or irritable bowel syndrome or chronic diseases such as arthritis or diabetes to name a few.
I have been a qualified practicing naturopath since 2004. Firstly, in a pain clinic in Perth and recently in Christchurch and online for Australia and New Zealand – happy to work with you in UK if we can sort out the time zones.
Recent study has been: -
This study made me familiar with an understanding of the medical model of chronic pain. It also gave me information about the journey of most chronic pain patients. They go through the medical system searching for answers and to gain some pain relief to regain normal life.
Learning the latest new ideas of mind body medicine concerning neuropathy of the brain that controls chronic pain signals. Research is showing that this can be a way to cure some of the people who have been living in chronic pain.
Different Therapies of Pain Coaches
For example, a pain coach may have massage as their basic therapy and then specific training in the physical therapy that is applicable to treating chronic pain patients.
Whereas a more holistic therapist like me may focus more on relaxation breathing and be trained in neuroplasticity to rewire your brain. This is a new philosophy of treatment, a more recent training in neural networks of the brain to treat chronic pain that are becoming more available.
At the same time, I’m able to use my naturopathic medicine training and experience to improve aspects of your health and lifestyle.
Unfortunately, my days of doing massage are over but it can be very beneficial, relaxing when we can find a massage therapist that suits us.
Each day more pain coaches are being trained in mind body medicine and neuroplasticity of the brain. Hopefully you'll have a pain support coach in your country if not locally.
An Early Introduction into Coaching
On a more lighter note, I thought I might share a personal experience of coaching, it was many years ago, but every experience is a learning experience.
Many years ago, I was a golf coach for beginners at our local club to encourage children to play golf. That was OK.
However, about the same time I took the opportunity to train as a squash coach for beginners. The training course turned out to be somewhat of a disaster.
At the time I had played competitive squash when I was in England. As I was a high school teacher at the time, I thought being a squash coach couldn’t be that hard certainly at the beginner level.
Most of the training course went well and I passed the theory exam again easily. Then it was time for individual coaching.
For choice of shot I certainly drew the short straw - the lob.
Now if any squash players are reading this, you'll know that the lob is an advanced shot certainly not the easiest for a complete beginner who throughout the day had not made the bat and ball connection once.
I failed dismally in teaching this small 8-year-old, nothing worked. Remember once the squash ball gets cold it's like a piece of lead. Imagine lobbing a piece of lead with a squash racket!
This was the longest 20 minutes ever that was topped off by an angry trainer who obviously expected much more of me. Unfortunately, I was aware that she stood watching my failure – as it was a training course you think somebody would have supported me, maybe made a suggestion. But no.
As this was over 30 years ago. I’ve long given up squash although I love to play a few holes of golf in the morning.
What I do take from that memory is the importance of a coach being very familiar with the area of work, not just suitable training but extensive experience in their area to which they offer their coaching.
Upskilling and Updating Pain Management Developments
This brings me to my next point. A coach must continually be learning not only awareness of the latest advances in their area but to be a lifelong learner themselves. I believe this is a personal trait for all teachers, trainers, and coaches it's just naturally who we are.
The challenge with being a chronic pain coach is the uniqueness of each person that comes to you for support. Therefore, your coach needs to be a problem solver with a creative attitude flexibility of thought and constantly curious.
If this sounds a challenge to find a person with all these attributes it probably is, but coaches will do their very best to fulfil your goals and support you over a period of time so you can make changes in your life and begin to feel in control.
Lastly, I need to give a word of warning. There is an expanding amount of information on the Internet especially in the healthcare industry understandably the most accessible websites are those on the first page who also have enough money to rank on Google or have a great marketing team behind them. This cannot in any way guarantee the service they provide.
Overwhelmed by information - pain specialists’ advice on the internet.
Today there is so much information online it can be a constant draw to search for the latest ideas and unfortunately miracle cures: -
For example, a client with an autistic son who lost his appetite as he was feed shakes based on potatoes. On the webiste the marketing had video of a mother with a familiar accent, therefore the father thought she was very reliable as she said it worked for her son. Unfortunately, because the boy was eating a potato shake, he rarely ate anything else because he was never hungry.
Like many others if it sounds too good to be true it probably should be avoided. There are many claims to fix this or cure that.
Here's another example from one of my clients. She arrived one day at my pain clinic in Perth, very excited as online she'd found a cure for her migraines. The product was labelled “Stop migraines”. She was ready to order but decided to check with me first as she thought I might not know about this emerging product.
Sadly, I had to burst her bubble it was basically a supplement like many others. Because of the clever name “stop migraines” it was a popular phrase that people searched, such as how can I stop my migraines? Therefore, the product ended up easy to find, probably on page one.
Beware of those that promise an easy journey to be pain free or any other quick disease cure. With much of the new research it can be possible, but it may take time and commitment.
Both associations mentioned earlier, ASLM and FFCP have range of clinicians that can help with different health conditions, listed on their websites. You can also find a local pain coach by a specific search online.
Jean Jordan – Pain Coach
Want to find simple effective ways to reduce your chronic pain without increasing your stress and overwhelm? As a chronic pain coach this is where I can help!
After over 20 years of owning pain clinics pain clinics, I started Natural Pain Solutions to reach more people, rather than one person at a time.Heaps of ideas can be found in the articles on my website.
You can sign-up to regular updates or spend time using some of the collection of self-help techniques. Or sign for my coaching up for 6 months support.
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