Advanced Pain Practitioner (Victoria February 2024)

This course focuses on robust research in neuroscience, pain, physiology and psychology to look at the next step in patient care.  The focus is on maximizing your comprehension, confidence and effectiveness through a greater understanding of the intersection of "concepts of self", perception of our embodied/narrative self, with physiology that impacts pain perception and physical expressions of the pain experience.

This course goes beyond traditional techniques of manual therapy, movement and exercise to give you that deep understanding that helps improve treatment outcomes and obtain more consistent results with complex pain and health conditions.  There is an emphasis on how to harness the power of the biopsychosocial framework to move beyond it into a more comprehensive approach that expands and extends the BPS into the enactive approach.

• Deepen your appreciation for the complexities of perception as it relates to pain and embodiment
• Delve into the actions we can take to utilize this knowledge to help patients/clients move forward in their journey
• Create a framework for expressing these complexities to both patients and fellow practitioners

Learning Objectives

• Expanded grasp of embodied cognition and its role in physiology/pain/treatment
• Articulate how the Enactive approach builds on the BPS framework to extend the richness of the approach
• Become aware of the expanded concepts of self and how pain impacts the person because of a threat to self
• Take a step towards mastery of complex pain ideas so that they can be described to both a 5th grader and a PhD

Delivery

This will be a fun, informative and highly interactive weekend where the learners will expand current comprehension of the psychology of humans experiencing pain and attain skills to utilize this knowledge in their practice.

Discussion, observation, case studies, practical applications, small group and partner work will be used to emphasize key learning objectives.

About the instructor

Dr Richard McIlmoyle is the co-owner of a large, multidisciplinary healthcare clinic with a primary focus on using evidence-based strategies and incorporating a biopsychosocial approach for the treatment of acute and persistent pain problems.  He has been a practicing chiropractor for 20+ years, and has completed many chiropractic post-graduate continuing education courses including multiple levels of ART and DNS.  Most recently he has completed his post graduate certificate in pain management through the University of Alberta.

Dr McIlmoyle is an associate faculty member and collaborated in the development of the PainBC program for chiropractors. He is the Chair of the Research committee with the Canadian Chiropractic Research Foundation and has been a presenter at the San Diego Pain Summit and at BCCA AGM on chronic pain and current trends in research. He has also been an instructor of CNS Neurology courses for the prior 17 years at WCCMT in Victoria, BC. Read his blogs at drrichardmcilmoyle.com