This book takes an integrated approach to pain rehabilitation and combines pain science, rehabilitation and yoga with evidence-based approaches from respected contributors. They demonstrate how to integrate the concepts, philosophies and practices of yoga and pain science in working with people in pain. An essential and often overlooked part of pain rehabilitation is listening to, working with, learning from, and validating the person in pain’s lived experience.
The book expounds on the movement to a more patient-valued, partnership-based biopsychosocial-spiritual model of healthcare where the patient is an active and empowered participant, as opposed to a model where the healthcare provider is ‘fixing’ the passive patient. It also explains how practitioners can address the entire human being in pain, and how to include the person as an expert for more effective and self-empowered care.
Yael Calhoun, GreenTREEYoga.org
This kind of learning is highly experiential. Though some of the chapters had practices, I would have loved to see more or have links provided to actual practices. And story telling is so important.....I would have loved to hear some of those stories Neil is so good at telling. I know it's a lot to fit into one book. But I do appreciate that they created a well rounded book that includes all aspects of the pain experience and not just the physical. So thankful for their teachings.
I am a retired physical therapist, a yoga teacher and a person who has lived with persistent pain. A year and a half ago I began to study the current Pain Science and will admit that I was thrown for a loop to learn that so much of what I thought I knew as a physical therapist was not only not accurate but that my languaging, cueing and understanding in fact was a detriment to the well being of the people I worked with. Add on my own lived experience of persistent pain and well, my mind was blown and my heart opened. I began to feel hope. When I began to study through a Pain Science Mentorship program I was exposed to a radical and life affirming shift in my understanding of pain, of persistent pain and most gratefully what we can do to live and move better in the face of pain. Through this program I read a great number of books, books written by the leading scientists and therapists, as well as by those who live with persistent pain. I tell you all of this because this book by far is the most informative, the most interesting, the easiest to apply and the most consolidated resource for those who are living with persistent pain, for those who are working with people with persistent pain and quite frankly for anyone walking this earth in a human body. Please buy this book and spread the life affirming message this book offers.
The only way to change suffering is to treat the whole person and this book is a companion that can help us learn more about doing this.
This is a book I will be rereading chapters of and will often be referring back to. I would recommend this book if you’re a healthcare or yoga professional, a person living with pain who practices yoga, or for anyone who has an interest in yoga and pain. It is a wonderful guide to help ourselves and others live well with pain. This book is one of great depths that will have you ever exploring & learning more.
-Ann Swanson, MS, IAYT-certified yoga therapist, and author of SCIENCE OF YOGA