Integrative Pain Management Program
Fair Oaks Therapeuticum offers an approach to managing pain that gives our patients a new lease on their future. We provide effective tools and professional guidance to reduce pain and strengthen mind and body. Treatments also focus on associated conditions like depression, sleep problems, and difficulties returning to meaningful employment and satisfying relationships. Only an integrative program can address the multifaceted problem of chronic pain. (Download brochure.)
Who benefits from pain management?
Individuals who suffer from unexplained pain, prolonged residual pain from major surgery or accidents, or pain that has not responded to medical treatment. Experts estimate that untreated pain leads to 80 percent of doctor's office visits. Many patients report symptoms not consistent with known medical conditions or suffer from pain that persists past the time anticipated for healing. Our Integrative Pain Management Program also seeks to help those who want to reduce their reliance on hypnotic or opoid drugs and for patients who want to learn to live meaningfully and productively with pain.
Our Program
Our Integrative Pain Management Program empowers patients with chronic pain to reclaim their lives. Patients suffering from chronic pain get the greatest relief from a multidisciplinary therapeutic treatment approach. Our program addresses the biological, psychological, and social aspects of pain as part of an integrated healing process. The following conditions and somatic syndromes generally benefit from our program:
- Arthritis pain
- Fibromyalgia
- Back pain
- Neck pain
- Migraine and tension headache
- Joint pain
- Lupus
- Multiple sclerosis (MS)
- Pain from old injuries
- Functional somatic syndromes
- Unexplained pain syndromes
Patients generally meet for three hours twice a week at our clinic for treatment interventions. This regimen allows for optimum therapeutic benefits while preserving family and work functioning as much as possible.
Integrative Pain Management
Pre-surgical evaluations
Our clinic offers pre-surgical testing to achieve optimal recovery potential. We use the P3 (Pain Patient Profile), BHI2 (Battery for Health Improvement), and the BBHI2 (Brief Battery for Health Improvement) to facilitate decision-making regarding readiness for surgery, integration of psychological and medical findings, communication and co-ordination with our patients' physicians, and treatment planning. These assessments also help track changes in patients during treatment and provide outcome measures to document treatment success. These inventories are also used for pre- and post-surgery evaluations.
Initial pain evaluations
This includes initial consultation, pain and psychosocial assessments, and individual consultations with clinicians. We establish baseline functioning using the BBHI-2, and we assess both the medical and psychological needs of the patient.
Psychological and behavioral pain management and mindfulness training
Patients learn new coping strategies, relaxation techniques, pain control imagery, hypnosis and how to manage negative and self-defeating thoughts. Patients also learning mental and physical techniques to self-manage pain. Patients learn how to pace their pain and how to use findings from psycho-neuroimmunology and brain research to control pain signaling.
Therapeutic physiological pain management (Wellness Program)
Physically fit people experience less pain and are more likely to avoid injury. Injured patients are taught to become physically active while learning to manage pain through activity pacing and through our individualized program of stretching and strengthening, with a focus on pain self-management. Our program offers individual yoga therapy and meditation, strength training, and nutritional guidance to optimize recovery. Massage therapy is used to increase functional capacities.
Our Wellness Program is designed to allow patients to gradually increase their strength and range of motion. Physical work is paired with breathing exercises to support overall pain management strategies, increase a deep relaxation response, prevent reinjury, and build strength.
Biomedical interventions and cranial electrotherapy stimulation
We use natural medicines to support our psycho-physiological interventions; together, these treatments are designed to reduce reliance on pain medication. In addition we train each patient in the use of cranial electrotherapy stimulation to assist in managing pain. The Alpha-Stim devices we use and recommend for home use have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Vocational testing and counseling (BEST Program)
Our Best Employment Skills Training (BEST) Program (download brochure) assists injured patients in their return to work. Vocational interests, aptitudes and return-to-work skills are identified and matched to maximize efforts to restore patients to gainful employment. The program employs informational interviews and helps clients strengthen their resume-building and other job-search skills. The program continues after patients have found employment to offer support and to assist in creating accommodations in the workplace.
Treatment team
Fair Oaks Therapeuticum founder Ursula R. Stehle, Ph.D., directs the Integrative Pain Management Program. Dr. Lisa Barry provides CES and hypnosis, Wanda Alteri, RN, LMFT, and Estelle Kinsella, LMFT, provide medically oriented psychotherapy and education. Nicole Malignaggi, RN, and Maura Gerck offer Yoga and Breath Work. Cindy Zoeller, M.A. Ed., directs the BEST Program.
Contact
If you have questions about any aspect of our program, please contact Dr. Ursula Stehle at (916) 962-0222, ext 1#, or email her at drstehle@therapeuticum.org.
Last modified on 01.13.10
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