Beginning in February 2010
HealthPointe Medical Centre
and Dr. Horst Mueller
will be offering
Group Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy
for Persons with Chronic Pain
Next Group Begins May 6th
Another Group is Being Planned for September 2010, call HealthPointe Medical Centre for details.
Group Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy
for Chronic Pain
Medical treatment is often not enough to relieve the very real physical and emotional suffering associated with chronic pain. Psychological and social factors also play an important role in pain management and must be addressed as part of any comprehensive pain treatment program.
HealthPoint is now addressing this key need by offering a group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) option for chronic pain patients. This complementary treatment option consists of time-limited groups of about 8-12 patients focused on teaching specific cognitive strategies and behavioural skills to help patients better manage pain and increase coping ability. This program will ultimately help patients improve their day-to-day functioning and well-being despite pain.
Each CBT group will meet at the HealthPointe Medical Centre for 90 minutes once a week for a total of 8 weeks. The group leader is Dr. Horst Mueller, a registered psychologist with expertise in pain management.
What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a psychological treatment that addresses the interaction between how we think, feel and behave. It is an active, structured, problem-focused and highly practical therapy approach based on the idea that thought and behaviour patterns can affect feelings, physical and psychological symptoms, and disability and may be obstacles to recovery and well-being.
CBT can be very effective in changing the way your mind influences your body. When you shift your thinking away from the pain and change your focus to more positive aspects of your life, you change the way your body responds to the anticipated pain and stress.
Unhelpful negative thoughts common to many chronic pain sufferers that are…
· I can’t do that because of this pain I feel. I am useless.
· Nothing will make my pain better.
· Things will only get worse with time.
· I am a failure because I can no longer work or take care of my family like I did before.
· If I increase my activity, I will re-injure myself.
· I am a disappointment to my family because of my pain.
· Things are really bad. I am going to have to see the doctor about this.
· I can’t stop thinking about this pain. I feel like a hypochondriac.
The HealthPointe CBT for Chronic Pain Group will help you change problematic thoughts and behaviours that block you from better managing your chronic pain, reducing your suffering, and enhancing your daily functioning.
As part of the group, you will learn to better understand your current thought patterns and how they relate to your pain experience. In particular, these sessions will help you identify any unhelpful, “false” or even harmful ideas or thoughts that you have; thoughts that can aggravate your pain condition, trigger emotional distress and increase suffering.
The CBT group sessions will also teach you various behavioural techniques to reduce the “flight or fight” stress response and mind-body tension that are common consequences of pain and chronically diminish our health and well-being. CBT techniques contribute to the overall well-being of patients with chronic pain and include relaxation techniques, biofeedback, and modification of activities associated with pain aggravation
Cognitive and behavioural strategies are frequently combined because how we behave often reflects how we think about certain things or situations.
There is now considerable research evidence that patients with chronic pain who participate in CBT programs can significantly improve their psychological and physical functioning. A recent systematic review of several CBT pain management programs showed that CBT produced significantly greater changes for patient’s pain experience, their cognitive coping, their use of positive coping strategies, and reduced behavioural expression of pain (illness behaviour).
How does CBT compare to medication in terms of treatment effectiveness?
A number of studies have shown CBT to be as effective as medication in treating clinical disorders, such as depression. Recent brain imaging studies revealed that medication and CBT actually impact different parts of the brain when treating depression and can work synergistically to improve treatment outcome and reduce relapse rates. While research is still pending in terms of the comparative efficacy of CBT and medication in the treatment of chronic pain, the research to date suggests that we can achieve the same clinical ends through different means and through different brain centres. The possibilities are exciting. Already, CBT has been empirically proven to be a powerful technique in helping patients work successfully with their thought processes and clinical syndromes such as depression, anxiety and chronic pain.
More intensive cognitive-behavioural treatment can be obtained on an individual basis with HealthPointe’s psychologists. Where appropriate, individualized CBT treatment can be recommended following your group treatment at HealthPointe.
Dr. Horst Mueller is an Alberta-registered psychologist with a private practice in clinical and health psychology located in SouthEast Edmonton. He has special interests in applied psychophysiology and biofeedback, cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, and chronic pain. He is listed with the Canadian Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology (CRHSPP) and is board-certified in both biofeedback and psychopharmacology
For more information or to register for the next CBT group, contact:
HealthPointe Medical Centre
Suite 710, Hys Centre
Edmonton, Alberta T5H 4B9
Next Group: begins in September 2010
Pain Society of Alberta
4th Annual General Meeting
and Scientific Conference
Rim Rock Hotel
Banff, Alberta
Friday, November 5 & Saturday, November 6, 2010.
To register, contact Glyn Smith, PSA Administrator @ 780.475.7924 info@painsocietyofalberta.ca
