Mindfulness & Pain Education: Empower Patients with Skills to Prevent & Manage Chronic Pain

• • Describe 3 mindful awareness training practices
• • Discuss the research examining the role of mindful awareness training in pain treatment
• • Explain how stress and trauma influence pain physiology
• • Analyze evidence for the cognitive and emotional modulation of pain
• • Incorporate mindful awareness into teaching diaphragmatic breathing, body awareness, movement, and pain self-management

Teach Patients to Access Inner Resources for Pain Relief
Patients with chronic pain are often among the most difficult patients for providers to successfully treat. In addition, chronic pain is a major national health challenge with costs of medical care and lost productivity in the U.S. as high as $635 billion a year. Because cognitive and emotional factors modulate pain perception, effective treatment requires not only biomedical expertise, but also an evidence-based understanding of the mind-body relationship and specific skills to offer patients to help them avoid the physical, cognitive and emotional reactions that amplify pain. Patients need practical strategies and training to make the conscious choices that promote healing and reduce pain.

Mindfulness-based therapies can reduce pain intensity, depression, anxiety, and improve quality of life in individuals with chronic pain. This course provides you with the science of mindfulness and pain. You will learn how cognitions, emotions, and stress impact pain perception. Practice mindful meditation, body scan and movement, and learn to apply mindful awareness to teach patients breathing, body awareness, exercise, and self-regulating their reactions to pain. Return to your patients with the ability to explain pain and the benefits of mindful awareness, and teach them mindfulness-based skills for pain relief.