Ref Neil Pearson's Pain Science to Assessment and Treatment in Québec

[Frédéric]

It's official now. Neil Pearson, PT and chair of the CPA pain science division is coming in Québec to teach one of his course after I invited him to come at my clinic. So this is one of my attemps to enlighten the PT masses!

For the people interested in making the drive up here, here is the complete info for the course that will be held in Prévost April 30th and May 1st, 2011.

Pain Science to Assessment and Treatment : Modern Treatment for People With Pain and Chronic Pain. With Neal Pearson, PT

The course will essentially cover the current knowledge of pain neurophysiology and will make the link between this knowledge and what's happening in the clinic.

Additionnal info available upon request

[Mary C]

terrific!

Mary

[Diane]

Good job Fred. Neil is one of the most passionate and well-prepared and willing to travel instructors I know. He just got back from teaching in Turkey.

[zimney3pt]

Wish I could make it, I'm sure it will be excellent. I thought Neil's presentation that Diane has linked to on her web page were outstanding. I use lots of the info I got from that lecture daily with patients. The stories and analagies - Pain is like thirst is one of my personal favorites.

[Frédéric]

I'm sure it will be very good. Now I need to book it up

[Frédéric]

BUMP!!!

So far, I have 5 participants so I need a bit of exposure to fill up the class.
It looks like pain science doesn't draw a big crowd.

[cyrille]

Salut Frederic,
Je prends connaissance ici de ton initiative. Je t'en fellicite.
Malheureusement, comment peut-on s'attendre à attirer les foules avec un produit qui exige d'admettre toute l'humilité nécessaire à une prise en charge des douleurs chroniques...?
Vue de France cette initiative peut même paraître utopique tellement nous devons parcourir de chemin encore ici!

Je fais le souhait sincère que ce projet aboutisse!

sorry for this french writing post. English would have took me too much time
but still practicing hard!

cyrille
french physio

[Karen L]

Frederic you might be assisted by making a twitter page. Link out to therapists and start a buzz campaign. I just posted a tweet for you on my page. Email your local hospital to the nurses, PT and OT departments. Email your brochure to local massage therapists. I attended Neil Pearson in Victoria September 2010 and it was great.

Good luck.

[Frédéric]

Merci pour l'encouragement Cyrille !! Ici aussi il y a bcp de chemin à franchir...

You're right Karen but I have never been on Twitter and I am on Facebook but I never really got into all that social media thing so I would not know where to start to get this to the masses.

But perhaps I could link to my website on the courses page though.

Thanks.

[Diane]

Frederic, a twitter account is easy to set up. Go open one, then search for me. Once you are linked to me, I can link to you and retweet anything you post to my "followers." (There are a couple hundred.)

It takes a few days for your feed to get fluffy, but a lot of people read it and a lot of people retweet. Neil and I follow each other - if you join the club we can help spread word of your course. I can also post it as a live link (but it has to be live) to the facebook page which has over 4000 "likers" by now. Some of them are Quebecers.

Let me help you. Open a twitter account.

[Diane]

What thte heck - you can post it straight to the facebook page yourself probably. I usually take down course announcements but I promise I won't take yours down.

[caro]

Bonjour Frédéric,

Je suis Massothérapeute à Laval. Ma candidature serait-elle admise?

caro

[cyrille]

+1

[Frédéric]

Originally Posted by caro

Bonjour Frédéric,

Je suis Massothérapeute à Laval. Ma candidature serait-elle admise?

caro

Mais bien sûr que oui !!!!

[Diane]

Fred, I got your follow request, and changed email setting so I'm easier to find. I'm following you now. You can go to Twitter and "follow" me also. Easier maybe.

[Frédéric]

Thanks Diane, We'll see how my new social media life affect my already sleep depraved life!

[Frédéric]

One month left until the course.

8th participants so far have registered. I am waiting on a few others who have inquired but not registered so far.

So I will bump this thread a bit more regularly in the month of april to maximise enrollement.

Who said pain science was a good seller?

[Diane]

OK, time to plug this again. Plug, plug....

[Karen L]

Frederic did you try an announcement through your Quebec physio association? Also Quebec Pain Research Network

Quebec Pain Society

The Victoria Arthritis Society helped sponsor him last year with the Royal Jubilee Hospital pain clinic.

Does Laval Hospital have a pain department with OT and PT's?

Email these guys

Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience Research Axis Dr Yves De Koninck Uni of Laval

Bonne Chance
Karen

[Frédéric]

Thanks Karen,

You are really a keeper!

I already posted on the association of the province and have emailed to about 1 thousand PT in Qc and the NB.

I emailed many Uni also but I will try your links for sure.

[Frédéric]

The course will take place, it is now almost sure. Neil got a deal for the plane tickets so i save 300$. So now that the plane tickets are bought, I guess nothing will get in my way.

[Frédéric]

9th subcription confirmed!

Possibly several more on the way, we'll see.

[Diane]

You'll probably get more bites in the next week - 10days.

I imagine Neil's talks have updated themselves and reorganized themselves from a few years back, when he made three videos. They are attached to this page, at the bottom. About Pain.

Hopefully they will whet a few more appetites!

[Frédéric]

I'm wondering which kind of PT I will attract.

Hopefully not just pain savvy PT because I fear they would find the course a bit too basic. But, since we seem to be of a special breed, I guess the content should be challenging enough for most.

[vancouverRMT]

A week ago Diane Jacobs tweeted a list of Neil's upcoming lectures and one happened to be last night. I lucked on it being a skytrain stop from the college where I instruct at on Mondays.
Although it was geared to the patient, It was refreshing hearing about pain education from a different voice. Neil was entertaining, compelling and engaged. My biggest take home message was how he used examples of optical illusions to help the crowd understand that what they are feeling may not be what is actually happening. As a result I have a sharper understanding of Barrett's slight of hand message.
Now, I am much more comfortable communicating to patients about pain.

Funniest part of the night:

Question from crowd: What about when people talk about good pain?
Neil: Good question, Anyone have an answer?
Old Duffer: kinky sex!
Niel: ...

[Frédéric]

10th and 11th participant registered!

Supposedly several more on the way



More or less 9 spot left

[Fletch]

Just finished a day course with Neil Pearson in Vancouver today which was truly excellent. I highly recommend attending his talks for those thinking about it.

Disappointed though at how many empty seats were left in the lecture theatre. Guess it just goes to show the little importance people give to learning about pain.

[Diane]

Maybe there wasn't enough publicity. Neil needs an agent. I don't think he can do it all, all by himself.

[Jon Newman]

Would there be any room for an unconference toward the end? The possibility of getting oneself up on stage in front of an audience might be a draw to some. Neil would be the main event and then could facilitate the unconference.

I figure doing something different and, possibly, appealing is easier than changing the culture in next few weeks.

[Frédéric]

Whoo oooh!

13th participant registered just now!

A momentum has been created by the April 9th deadline I guess.

[Frédéric]

Jon,

I wouldn't mind presenting something at the end of the WE but the whole course is already planned, and, I'd scare everyone with my article.

[Diane]

I think it would be a useful idea to plan something (maybe not this time in Fred's case, because it would take some strategizing and careful handling of context probably) that gave participants a chance to share their reflections as participants made to feel safe in a group context.

Having been a PT for 40 years I'm sure sick of all the pablum-pushing that goes on and lack of much structured opportunity to provide reflective, considered, feedback. There is always only about 5 minutes allowed for questions/feedback.

I saw Neil offer some to Jay Shah in Nfld last summer, after his mesodermal fantasy presentation on muscle trigger points, dry needling the beHebus out of them, or into them; Shah had tried to ectodermalize the presentation a bit, but never made it past the dorsal horn, really. Neil commented on that, and other things, and Shah sidestepped the call by saying it was all just a hypothesis in the first place.

I was steamed: I wondered why I spent good $ to go to a professional Congress, MY profession's Congress, in MY country, to be fed a hypothetical mesodermal pablum soup by someone from another country (the US) who pushes this hypothesis all the time and endlessly gets away with it. It all infuriated me to the point where, for me to counter or question it, I couldn't in the moment rule out physical attack; so instead, I sat there and used all the self-control I still possessed just to self-regulate. Neil was steamed too, but ever the politically savvy diplomat-type guy, handled himself in his nice calm yoga-guy kinda way - I was so angry then, and thereafter, I couldn't even write an eval. I could not even write something I could look at objectively which conveyed the message I wanted, to my own satisfaction, without it being way too dripped and marinated in sarcasm and venom. Come to think of it, there probably wouldn't be enough time left in the universe for me to access enough of it to BOTH self-regulate AND then actually be able to articulate something that sounded intelligent and convincing AND not emotionally charged to the point of sounding like complete blitherblatherbabblefluff/bafflegab insanity, in the moment.

Bear in mind this is a life-time of pent-up fury that found a lightening rod for itself as personified by Shah and his slick presentation (that sounded like pure mental snake-oil); I didn't burst into flames over it, although I certainly felt stressed enough to do so. Maybe the profession has adapted itself over time, and younger therapists have more opportunity to learn skills for providing constructive feedback in the moment, or maybe not, or maybe it's just me being introverted, I don't know. Or maybe the profession is still just as bad as it ever has been about turning out obedient mesodermal-minded robots.

Yeah, probably the latter. It was probably just me, feeling like the problem-child square-peg-in-round-hole misfit for the eighty-thousandth kabillionth time in my life, defaulted way back to being scared I'd get smacked if I opened my mouth.

Anyway, at least some of the stress was all mine (endogenous rather than exogenous, although that's probably debatable) because I had to hold it together long enough to do my own presentation just a bit later (from a completely different perspective which included a lot about skin and brain), and couldn't afford to spring any kind of psychosocial leak.

I like the idea of an unconference, actually. I don't much understand the idea yet, but it sounds like it could more relaxing.

[Diane]

Fred, is that course full yet?

[Karen L]

I emailed Fred's brochure to the Quebec Massage Association, a few other pain type organizations and some PT's in Boston. I hope you get some more action Fred. Neil's presentation is very accessible and he is a good sport when everyone wants to talk to him one on one at break time. Do another tweet shout out in French and English and I'll have SomaSimple retweet you Fred. For that matter Neil shout be self-tweeting too.

Karen

[Frédéric]

I had a boom of registration last week

I currently sit a 18 participants, of those, 15 officially registered, 12 paid and 3 are likely to pay and register by the end of the month.

I could hypotheticaly go up to 24 but that would be a crowded course so 20 sounds better.

[Diane]

Good for you Fred! I guess we can relax.

[Frédéric]

Yes Diane, you can relax indeed. I will more than break even.

I'm still awaiting some payments, but I can't see why most of them would not come.
I want to keep some room for last minute participants I would know like Eric (pht3k) or other somasimplers. I will probably need to rent some chairs!! I would not have expected that 2 weeks ago.

Everything is now reserved, flight, hotels. I am working on borrowing a projector cause these things are pretty expansive to buy!

Thanks to everyone for your efforts it sure helped a lot.

[Frédéric]

The final count is 19 participants. I'm VERY happy with that. I even had to order some new visitor chairs that I will receive only friday night (a bit anxious about that).

I really look forward to this week end. Thanks everyone for your participation in making this a success.

[Diane]

Good job Fred!

[Barrett Dorko]

Can't wait to hear about how it went.

[byronselorme]

Hi Fred,

I hope you had a successful weekend with Neil.

He was in Hamilton a few years ago and I wish I knew then what I know now. I would have attended.

I am hoping to build up some things in Hamilton over the next few years so share anything you learned if you can I would be all ears...or eyes

[caro]

Well it was a great presentation. Best money I have spent for Cont. Ed in years.

One of the highlights of my w-e was meeting this wonderful lady. Originally from Russia and a neurologist, she's been practicing physiotherapy here in Québec since 2001. Her education and credentials aren't recognized by the Collège des médecins du Québec. Hence the career change.

At lunch on the first day, I asked her, not really knowing what to expect, (I mean, doesn't Shirley Sarhmann have a degree in neurobiology?) " So, how do you bridge the Chasm between Ectoderm and Mesoderm when you treat your patients. ( If this reeks of " Massage Therapist trying to impress and suck up to the smart doctor, that's exactly what it was.)

"You don't" , she replied sternly, in heavily accented English, "You treat the whole person, there is no difference between the mind and the body." And then she tore into this passionate lecture. I was being chastised. And why the hell not? I just shut my trap and let her rage on.

She warmed up to me when she realized I have read all the books Neil recommended. And recommended a few he hasn't. Ha. (Joke)


I hope she joins SomaSimple.

Fred's clinic is a beautiful, sun-filled, welcoming space. Something to be proud of indeed. I can't thank him enough for all his hard work in making this happen.

I hope this proves to be the start of something really interesting for the PT profession in Québec...

Thanks again Frédéric,

[Diane]

Sounds like it was wonderful!

Sounds like the neurologist didn't consider (before answering you) that ectoderm is distributed in a bifurcating manner throughout the whole body, (not just mind) and that the nerves and skin are both "ectoderm".

[caro]

It was wonderful. Neil is a passionate, funny, impeccably-prepared and generous speaker.

That is quite possible. But in her defense, I mean, what kind of a question was that? Jeeesh.

She really brought a lot to the discussion and kept a low-profile about her credentials. Most didn't know she is physician.

[Diane]

Well, good for you Carol, for representing ectoderm (knowing there was such a thing! knowing what is implied!) and for reading the books ahead of time!

I know what a great speaker/teacher Neil is. My favorite Canadian PT-yoga hybrid/PSD chair.

[caro]

Hi Diane,

Yes, Neil is quite a hybrid indeed. I could listen to him talk all day. I would love to know how the PT's really felt about what they were just taught. And if anything is likely to change in the way they'll handle their patients from now on.

For me, (even more so now) it's still all about this. ( from Bas, recently,) :


Think skin and its plethora of connections straight to the brain;
think about the fact that skin is kinaesthetically a HUGE player:
think about the grooming instinct and response of primates (brain);
think about the thoughtfulness and attention of the one touching the other (brain);
think about the personal and complete attention given to a pain complaint (so rare in medicine and thus outstanding in its attention getting)- (brain);
think about the oxygenation of small nerves in the cutis and subcutis, and what gentle manual contact can do to their blood and oxygen supply and thus their level of threat input to the brain;
think of the effect of relaxing under the gentle hands of another and what it does to breathing (very important little issue too!) and general tension (brain) ;

To that I'd add : helping to refresh the patient's body schema and educating the patient in pain science.

Perfectly defensible and dare I say : relevant.

So it's with a renewed sense of joy that I go back to work this morning. What a relief. I thought I was done.

[Bas Asselbergs]

Merveilleux!

So good to see that renewed fire for one's work. That is exactly what so many here have given me.

[Diane]

What a great synopsis in post 46, Bas. Go Caro!

[Frédéric]

It was excellent. Sorry not to chime in earlier, I was way too busy!

Neil was really good in getting the message that pain is a nervous system issue and that many of the things we do in treatment affect the whole indiviual through different doors (the left part of the neuromatrix). He was agile and clever to teach in a non confrontationnal way yet he made some good points about the risk of seing things through mechanical lenses only. He really masters his subject and has a ton of stories to illustrate it. He is also really interactive with participants.

I think most if not all the participants liked the course a lot. I also think they will envision the need to see their job as more than a mechanical one. Yet I think for most of them it will take more than this 2 day course to digest all this and truly let go of some biomechanical dogmas. Most of them had already heard about this stuff but never really realised the profound implication it has.

One thing that Neil is really good at, is leaving you with an optimistic spirit when it comes to chronic pain. A spirit I tend to lack sometimes, probably after reading too much literature that isn't too optimistic about the neuroplastic changes happening in persistant pain.

Caro, I have to say you are the most knowledgeable MT I've come to hear speak in person. You also seem passionnate about learning all this stuff and this is all to your honor.

I personnally will leave the course more convinced than ever that the mind can not only influence the sensibility to noxious stimuli and generate subjective experiences, but also infleunce in really tangible ways the physical body. I sort of knew this already but it has yet to take a concrete form in most of what I do with patients. This is just to show that knowing is not enough to go from contemplating to truly acting and persevering when in a change process.

I took some pictures (not much) which I'll post later this week.

[Diane]

Wow, thanks for the synopsis Fred! (You clinic sounds delicious!)

Caro and Karen, maybe some day you'll team up officially to boost manual therapy of the massage persusion further along sensible (in more ways than one) tracks. You'll probably build the actual tracks.