Why see an Occupational Therapist for pain?
Occupational Therapists use the therapeutic effect of engagement in activity to reduce pain. Occupational Therapists with specialist training in pain management will help you feel more confident and comfortable doing activities that you want and need to do.
Your Occupational Therapist will use a graded or paced approach that reduces the sensitivity of the nervous system.
Engagement with activities that are meaningful to you, alongside powerful body- and mind-based de-sensitising strategies, all specific to you and your lived environment, change how the nervous system works: they work to reduce pain, to keep you in charge, and to help you get back to the activities you love.
The Occupational Therapist’s practice is informed by modern research in a number of areas:
Pain neuroscience,
Sensory, emotional and brain systems, and body bio-mechanics,
Social relationships and positive connection,
And integration of the person with their environment.
What can I expect at appointments?
Your Occupational Therapist will begin by understanding first how you were living before your pain developed, and then look to understand how pain is impacting your current capacities.
Your Occupational Therapist will then engage with a number of therapeutic approaches to assist you to:
Understand the connections between the mind, body, environment and pain.
Rebuild your capacity to engage in daily activities by prioritising goals that are meaningful to you.
Develop daily routines to increase calm and focused alertness during the day, and to restore sleep at night.
Modulate and de-sensitise nervous-system responses.
Apply ergonomic modification to the physical environment, and learn how to move safely and effectively in real-life situations.
Use everyday sensations, mindfulness, and movement to pace daily activities, and focus on tasks at hand. These processes can calm sensitised responses, and safely energise a fatigued system.
Facilitate a return to driving (where applicable).
Re-engage in learning, paid or volunteer work, and social reconnection.
Treatment in Occupational Therapy focuses on the development of skills and practical strategies for home, school, work, university and community environments.
“Treatment in Occupational Therapy focuses on the development of skills and practical strategies for a variety of contexts.”
