A Biopsychosocial Approach - Is it really for ME?

Neil is a physical therapist, yoga therapist, author, researcher, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, faculty in three IAYT-accredited yoga therapy programs, board member for the International Association of Yoga Therapists and pain care advocate. He conducts research into the effects of yoga on veterans with chronic pain and people with osteoarthritis. Neil is the recipient of awards honouring his work in pain care, patient education and physiotherapy by Queen’s University, the Canadian Pain Society and both provincial and national physiotherapy associations, including the Canadian 2021 Medal of Distinction.

Neil is a consultant to Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services, and to Lifemark’s 300+ clinics in Canada. Neil is a past board member for Pain BC, Canada’s premier non-profit transforming the way pain is understood and treated. He co-authored – Yoga and Science in Pain Care 2019, authored the patient education ebook, Understand Pain Live Well Again in 2008, and is lead contributor to many free patient resources offer by Pain BC.

For more information and course offerings, see www.paincareaware.com

Lynda has been a clinical physiotherapist for over 27 years, with extensive training in musculoskeletal and pelvic health physiotherapy. She opened Elevation Physiotherapy & Wellness in Mississauga in 2017 after working in downtown Toronto for almost 20 years.

She is credentialed in the McKenzie System of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT) and teaches this system to the senior Physical Therapy students at the University of Toronto.

Lynda has completed several advanced training courses in pelvic health to address issues with pelvic pain, incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse and several other conditions.

When she is not actually working, she can be found on her bike, or hanging out with her husband and two kids.

Lara Desrosiers is an Occupational Therapist who has worked in community mental health settings since graduating from McMaster University in 2009. She has a passion for mental health and several years of experience addressing mental illness, trauma, and addiction using occupational therapy frameworks, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and other psychotherapeutic strategies.

While navigating her own journey with pelvic floor dysfunction, Lara realized the value of applying these strategies in the field of pelvic health and discovered the abundant evidence supporting this application.

Currently, Lara is an Occupational Therapist at Homewood Health Centre where she is an advocate for integrating pain education and programming into mental health care. Lara also operates a private practice (Pelvic Resilience) with a mission of supporting individuals experiencing pelvic floor dysfunction and/or persistent pain to address symptoms, manage distress, and navigate each unique experience in a way that promotes whole-person wellness.

Debbie Patterson is an orthopaedic physiotherapist with a special interest in the treatment of persistent pain. Early in her career she recognized that the medical model of physiotherapy treatment often failed people with persistent pain. This led her on a career path of learning about the current science of pain, and searching for clinical relevance in the treatment of pain.

Debbie Patterson is a registered physiotherapist in the provinces of Ontario and Alberta. She is a founding member of the Pain Science Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.

Debbie has a clinical practice treating people whose lives are affected by persistent and complex pain conditions. She has worked within the Biopsychosocial model of pain for over 35 years. She sees herself as a physiotherapy coach to help patients relieve suffering, pain and distress and improve their quality of life.

Debbie has used Telerehab to assess and treat patients for over 10 years. She is a trained and certified Progressive Goal Attainment Programme (PGAP) clinician and is trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Motivational Interviewing. Debbie has a passion for teaching patients and health care providers about the science of pain in the Biopsychosocial model. She has taught courses in pain science and appropriate assessment and treatment approaches. Now she provides live and recorded webinars. She also mentors other physiotherapists in developing their knowledge and skills to better meet the needs of their patients with persistent pain.

Dr. Sinéad Dufour is an academic clinician who shares her time between clinical pursuits as the Director of Pelvic Health at the WOMB and academic pursuits in the Faculty of Health Science at McMaster University. She has been a practicing physiotherapist for 20 years. She completed her MScPT at McMaster University (2003), her PhD in Health and Rehabilitation Science at Western (2011), and returned to McMaster to complete a post-doctoral fellowship (2014). Her current research interests include conservative approaches to optimize pelvic floor function, pregnancy-related pelvic-girdle pain, and interprofessional collaborative practice models of service provision to enhance pelvic health and perinatal fitness for elite athletes.

Sinéad is an active member of several organizations charged with optimizing perinatal care and pelvic health and has led and contributed many national and international clinical practice guidelines to improve care provision. Sinéad also currently serves as a council member for the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario, Canada. Sinéad is a well-recognized speaker at conferences around the world and a sought-after expert to consult with companies whose aim is to improve perinatal care and pelvic health.

Relevant Links:

IG: @dr.sinead

www.thewomb.ca

www.experts.mcmaster.ca/display/sdufour

Carolyn is the co-owner of Reframe Rehab, a teaching company engaged in breaking down the barriers internationally between pelvic health, orthopaedics and pain science. Carolyn has practiced in orthopaedics and pelvic health for the past 37 years. She is a McKenzie Credentialled physiotherapist (1999), certified in acupuncture (2002), and obtained a certificate in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in 2017.

Carolyn received the YWCA Women of Distinction award (2004) and the distinguished Education Award from the OPA (2015). Carolyn was recently awarded the Medal of Distinction from the Canadian Physiotherapy Association in 2021 for her work in pelvic health and pain science.

Carolyn has been heavily involved in post-graduate pelvic health education, research in lumbopelvic pain, speaking at numerous international conferences and writing books and chapters for the past twenty years in pelvic health, orthopaedics and pain science.