Dr. Joe Tatta | The Healing Pain Podcast

The role of the physical therapist in addiction recovery is multifaceted and it encompasses various aspects of the evaluation, the treatment of and support in recovery and addiction. At first glance, it may not seem that physical therapy fits within the addiction realm, but in fact, physical therapy and physical therapy in mental health and addiction is a perfect fit. This is a new topic for most people in our space, so we’re bringing someone who can spearhead this conversation. Holly Johnson, PT, DPT, is a specialist in the intersection between physical therapy, chronic musculoskeletal pain and addiction and mental health. In this conversation, she highlights the need for PTs to educate and train themselves on psychologically informed care so they can make a difference in the lives of people who are recovering from addiction. Tune in and get to know the nuances of care along the intersection of seemingly disparate fields of practice.

In this special episode, Dr. Joe Tatta shares updates on what he is up to and delves into new chronic pain approaches that revolutionize the medical field today. He talks about PRISM, or Pain Recovery and Integrative Model, a cognitive behavioral approach to physical therapy for the management of chronic pain that he has been working on for over two years. He also talks about how the biopsychosocial model is helpful in approaching pain’s multidimensional nature. Furthermore, Dr. Joe elaborates the six critical domains involved in pain recovery and the two types of pain mindsets in literature.

Pelvic organ prolapse is something that is not often talked about, but it causes much of the pelvic pain that women experience, especially after childbirth. Although symptoms can vary from patient to patient, pelvic organ prolapse typically involves a lot of discomfort and sometimes even unbearable pain. The fact that not many people talk about it prevents many women from getting access to all the therapies available to mitigate this condition. Maureen Mason, PT, DPT, WCS, joins us today to unpack this topic a little bit more and point us to the direction of care options that are backed by the current scientific consensus. She is the author of a book called Pelvic Rehabilitation: The Manual Therapy and Exercise Guide Across the Lifespan, where she talks about this stuff and more. Join in and learn more from her.   Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How »   Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Pod

Despite the continued advancements in healthcare, pressing issues still make access to care difficult, especially for those with disabilities. There are still barriers that we need to remove to make our systems more inclusive. Tackling the important topic of disability, inclusion, and justice, Dr. Joe Tatta interviews Winston Kennedy, PT, DPT, PhD. Dr. Kennedy is a physical therapist who holds a Master's degree in Public Health as well as a PhD in Kinesiology with a concentration on Adapted Physical Activity. He has been a strong advocate for the health and well-being of people with disabilities and their intersecting identities. In this episode, he dives deep into the value of bringing these conversations to light so we can have a better understanding of disability and translate that into how healthcare providers can better support these clients. Dr. Kennedy also dives deep into the intersectionality of disability, justice, and inclusion, letting us see disability from a cultural lens and the way our care im

Among all other conditions, back pain is probably one of the most unnecessarily and excessively medicalized. Typically someone who exhibits symptoms of back pain would seek the help of primary healthcare providers first. This would kickstart a vicious cycle of imaging, surgery, injections, and opioid medications, most of which is likely superfluous. As a result, these patients often achieve low-quality outcomes from their care, and many even develop opioid dependence. But what if there was another way to deal with most types of back pain we are experiencing? In this episode. Dr. Joe Tatta speaks with Julie Fritz, PT, PhD, a University of Utah professor and researcher focused on examining non-pharmacologic treatments for persons with spinal pain. They discuss why we should be concerned about how we approach low back pain in our medical system, what a typical care pathway looks like for most people seeking lower back care, the impact or use of imaging studies for treating and evaluating lower back pain, the imp

Disability does not equal inability, but ableism can create barriers that limit opportunities and perpetuate prejudice. It's time for society to recognize and address the harm of ableism and work towards a more inclusive, equitable future for all. In this episode, Dr. Michelle Nario-Redmond, Professor of Psychology and Biomedical Humanities, joins us to discuss the painful realities of ableism and disability prejudice. As an expert in stereotyping, prejudice, and disability studies, Dr. Michelle sheds light on the damaging effects it has on individuals and society as a whole, and the many ways in which ableism intersects with chronic pain and disability. She highlights her work and research on ableism, including her publication, "Ableism: The Causes and Consequences of Disability Prejudice". Through her advocacy work and research, Dr. Michelle has dedicated her life to raising awareness and fighting against ableism and disability prejudice. In this episode, we explore the many ways in which ableism and dis

Breathing is such a natural and unconscious thing that we pay almost no mind to it. But by learning the right breathwork techniques, we can unlock a unique mind-body connection. Dr. Joe Tatta talks with Campbell Will, who delves into the role of breathwork in nervous system dysregulation. He discusses how breathing is tied in a person’s autonomic nervous system, how to use it to shift into a more sympathetic state, and the differences between breathing through the mouth and nose. Campbell also explains how he evaluates a person by examining how they breathe and the importance of the relationship between the pelvic floor and the diaphragm. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How »   Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

Biological structures are indeed a huge thing to consider when managing and treating pain. But since we are living alongside other people, there are also many social factors impacting our pain sensation and exposure. Kenneth D. Craig, OC, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, is here to discuss how family connections, culture, and society largely influences an individual’s expression and lived experiences of pain. Dr. Kenneth also explains how these psychosocial factors affect marginalized populations who are typically underserved in terms of pain care and what he is doing to remedy this long-term problem.   Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

Male pelvic health is something that not a lot of people talk about, even in medical circles. A lot of people experiencing male pelvic pain don’t even consult a specialist until it gets unbearable enough that they have no choice. Pelvic health isn’t a female thing. In fact, the male and female pelvic floors are essentially the same structurally, and both are prone to dysfunction. But because of toxic masculinity culture, many men suffering from any disorder related to the pelvic floor feel reluctant to talk about it or seek professional help. In this episode of Healing Pain Podcast, Dr. Joe Tatta talks to a pelvic health specialist to clear things up around this sensitive topic. Lance Frank, PT, DPT, helps us understand the different aspects of pelvic floor dysfunction, how it is related to conditions like male pelvic pain, prostatitis, and erectile dysfunction, and how it can be alleviated with stress management techniques and physical therapy.

Pain is one of the most common reasons for people to seek medical help. It's also one of the most difficult things to study. There's no clear way to measure it, and it can vary from person to person. But there are ways we can collect data on pain so that researchers can better understand how patients feel pain and what treatments work best for them. In this episode, Joletta Belton discusses how to integrate the lived experience of pain into treatment and research. Joletta explains how chronic pain affects people's lives, and how it can be used as a tool to help them heal. Joletta also talks about how you can use your own personal experience with pain to make better treatment decisions for other patients. Tune in now and learn what role you can play to help people in pain.

Chronic pain cannot be treated by simply focusing on its symptoms and root cause. Beyond these things are social determinants that directly impact health and disease. Most of the time, these can go back even from a person’s childhood. Dr. Joe Tatta is joined by Laura E. Keyser, PT, DPT, MPH to discuss how to embed such factors into the PT practice and education to vastly improve health treatment and patient experience. Laura explains how clinicians, educators, and research should focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and the impact of different social determinants in an individual’s lived experience. She also shares how PT practitioners can engage with the government and large corporations to provide better services by sharing all about her consulting firm, Mama, LLC.

We always hear the old adage, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.” This is especially true when you look at how we grow students to become practitioners. Before they can take care of and make a good impact on their patients and clients’ lives, they first need to take care of themselves. Tessa Wells, PT, DPT and Betsy Becker, PT, DPT, PhD from the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Division of Physical Therapy Education have been implementing this. In this episode, they join Dr. Joe Tatta to discuss all about how they promote student wellness during their professional formation towards becoming DPTs. They talk about curricular interventions using a lifestyle medicine approach, taking wellness from the self to others to the community. Hear about their great program and how they impact the students of the profession and society at large. Tune in to this conversation to not miss out!

In this episode, we're discussing the concept of the embodied mind with internationally renowned author and psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas R. Verny. Our current understanding of the way the human body works is that it is a series of interdependent physiological relationships. No one component works alone or in isolation. But why is it that the accepted understanding of the physical phenomena of the mind is conventionally attributed only to the brain? The work of Dr. Verny is redefining our concept of both the mind and the human consciousness. He has brilliantly compiled a new list of research that points to the fact that the mind is tied to every single part of the body. This has enormous implications for how we view the mind, consciousness, and even human behavior. More specifically, it changes how we think about the experience of pain and pain management. Tune in and discover what it really means when we say the mind is a function of every system in your body.

Stress and burnout have been recognized in many health professions. Specifically, researchers have reported that many Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students are actively experiencing moderate to high levels of stress each and every day. Joining Dr. Joe Tatta to discuss the topic in depth is Jason Cherry, PT, DPT, EdD. Dr. Cherry is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Physical Therapy at Binghamton University. In this episode, he shares the results of his study on the relationship between psychological flexibility, perceived stress and academic burnout in DPT students, along with practical applications on how professors in the field can model healthier behaviors as preventive measures. Tune in for more valuable insights as Dr. Cherry defines these concepts.

What really is the “healing process” for a trauma survivor? Many programs, exercises, and advice exist on how to deal with trauma, but do they really address its root cause? Or are they mostly surface-level techniques that only treat the symptoms, not the problem? In this episode, April Gamble, PT, DPT shares how to address trauma by its root cause and how she uses trauma-focused techniques to treat her patients suffering from pain, anxiety, or other effects of trauma. Bringing a bigger vision to the profession, she also shares with us her deeper work on justice and injustice and how they impact our beliefs and engagements with care. Filled with honest realizations and helpful trauma advice, tune in and learn how to start your healing process too!

How does language and logic impact the management and experience of chronic pain? Asaf Weisman, PT, Phd(c), joins Dr. Joe Tatta on the Healing Pain Podcast to discuss this topic. Asaf is a physical therapist, a PhD candidate, and a lab manager of the Spinal Research Laboratory at Tel Aviv University. He has 20 years of clinical experience as a full-time musculoskeletal physical therapist and studies musculoskeletal medicine, spinal health, as well as chronic pain. He discusses how language impacts pain, unpacks the positive and the negative aspects of cognitive approaches to chronic pain, and shares his thoughts around some of the more popular pain neuroscience analogies or metaphors and how they may not be so acceptable to people living with pain. Most crucially, he clearly defines pain as an experience and its relation to nociception. Tune in for more!

For physical therapy to be truly effective in addressing body pain, it must not only concentrate on structure alone. Instead, it must go beyond that and also involve the entire movement system. Dr. Joe Tatta sits down with the pioneer of this very concept, Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD, FAPTA. She explains how the movement system redefines physical therapy by classifying movement impairments into diagnostic categories. Sahrmann discusses how a kinesio-pathology approach can provide a better look into a person's psychosocial factors and produce a better diagnosis. The two also discuss how to dismiss PT stereotyping of being medical cheerleaders and the right way to navigate PTA's reimbursement cuts to their practice.

Contextualizing care is the process of adopting your treatment approach to a patient specific life context. The failure to do so is called a contextual error, which often results in a care plan that is not likely to achieve its intended aim or produce a positive outcome. In this episode, Dr. Joe Tatta discusses how to contextualize care for improved outcomes with Gail Jensen, PT, PhD, FAPTA, Vice Provost for Learning and Assessment, Dean Emerita and Professor of Physical Therapy at Creighton University. She is internationally regarded as a scholarly expert in clinical practice, clinical reasoning, professional ethics, as well as into professional education within and outside of the physical therapy profession. Join in for more powerful information.