Pain is a process and not an entity

Shifting your mindset and understanding of pain as a process provides insight into the complexity of the pain experience. Importantly, this experience is unique to the individual person, life experience, and environmental factors, all of which can all play a role in this process. 

I am often faced with interactions with other clinicians that raise the question about “how to treat a certain condition…” However, this question is flawed due to a misconception about pain as an entity rather than a process.

Consider your clinical encounter with a patient, It’s not the treatment or technique (entity) but the advice, rapport, empathy, care, active listening, support (process) that supports and influences the overall treatment process.  

How a person perceives pain is highly complex and individualised. In fact, numerous systems are at play, beyond the tissue or the structure. So, with this in mind, how can we apply a reductionist view of isolating a specific approach for pain? 

Importantly, perception is the key word. Perception is based on a person’s current knowledge of the world and their previous experience. This is an ongoing and active process that builds our internal model that assists in making predictions about the world and shaping our behaviour. It is important for us to consider if these predictions aligned with positive messages or beliefs of safety, or are these predictions aligned with negative beliefs or danger?

Our perception can change with the right message

Being curios, asking more questions, seeking to understand, exploring and challenge bias and beliefs can create a shift in a persons internal model. This process can aid in making better predictions about the world and reducing the internal perception of threat. If our perception can change, then so can pain. Being stuck in rigid structural narrative, views pain as an entity.

Consider pain as a process.