Online Case Update: A Transition to Positive Thinking | Modern Manual Therapy Blog - Manual Therapy, Videos, Neurodynamics, Podcasts, Research Reviews

Online Case Update: A Transition to Positive Thinking


Much of what Modern Pain Science Education focuses on is decreasing fear avoidance behavior and changing perceptions of chronic pain away from pathoanatomy.

OMPT Channel subscribers would be familiar with one of my first online cases that has made a few appearances on the Assessments Channel. I also blogged earlier in the year about managing a flareup via text message and reassurance here.

The patient contacted me via email saying he has been doing the best he has in years. He left his sedentary job and is now a NSCA CPT and works at a great health club. He wanted another telehealth consultation to follow up on just a few niggling things and to ask some questions.

While his cervical and thoracic pain were well under control and gave him no issues in ADLs. He struggled a bit over the summer on his recurrent left gluteal pain. The threat level was high and it was affecting his quality of life. I managed this with constant reassurance such as

  • if we could find a solution to your chronic pain of years in duration, a flareup of a few months will be no problem
  • let's take this one day at a time, one set at a time


The most recent consultation just a few months later there was a radical change in his thinking. The threat level went from "bad thing" to "a good thing." Regarding the perception of left gluteal tightness and/or discomfort, he now thought, "When I have an awareness in my left hip, I feel like it's under control, it's on the way to centralizing, and I know exactly where it is."

Think about how profound a paradigm shift that is from being afraid of a pain, to "knowing exactly where it is." That's the power of repeated positive interactions using Modern Pain Science and Repeated Motions for self assessment and treatment.

Keeping it Eclectic...

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