Values
I think it is important to share with you the values that guide me in my work with a person in pain.
I recognise that it is my privilege to be trusted by the people that I work with. We all have an incredible feat of biological evolution called a body and you trust me to help you improve upon the current status of your body.
I don’t take that lightly.
As you may have read in the “About” section, I’ve walked my own path of pain, suffering and struggle.
Although I (nor anyone else) can fully understand your experience of a painful body, I am fortunate to draw on many years and many clients worth of experience and problem solving to assist you with your body.
Over the years, the many frustrations and struggles that I encountered on the professional side of the therapeutic experience have shaped how I like to work.
The values that I aim to hold and bring forth in my work are as follows:
- Trust
- Respect
- Honesty
- Communication
- Self sovereignty
- Life Long Learning
Those words may not mean the same thing for both of us so I would like to very briefly break this down for you.
Trust
For me this is of paramount importance. A person working in relationship with another to achieve an outcome is much more likely to succeed if there is trust between both parties.
Most often in clinic or in my online material you will hear me speak about threat and safety. Trust sits right in the intersection of those things.
A lack of trust = a lack of being sure that you will be safe to follow the suggested advice = a lesser chance of taking onboard change
A lot of trust = a much higher chance of your nervous system perceiving safety when accepting guidance and change = higher chance for progress
I work hard to build and maintain trust with everyone that I work with.
Respect
Linking in closely with trust is a sense of respect. I always aim to respect your experiences, to respect your preferences, beliefs and values and I encourage every client to always feel able to communicate with me around this topic.
Respect and trust also have a large impact on adherence. Change is difficult and can be messy. Having the respect and trust for yourself, the person you work with and for the work itself is an often un-spoken part of making longer term progress.
Honesty
Put simply, I always aim to deliver my best for you. If there is something that I am not able to be certain or definitive about, I will tell you this.
I have had the experience of being led down a path of treatment that was based on a lack of honesty and the experience was chaffing for me.
I cannot expect anyone to trust me or hold respect for the process we work together on if that is not rooted in honest feedback & honest communication.
Communication
For me this is a central part of the process of creating change.
Words often fail us when it comes to a pain experience or how that pain experience affects us.
Pain is messy, the language around it can be messy and clarity of communication becomes even more important in this context.
I will always aim to be clear in my communication with you both in person and online and I will always ask you to seek clarity from me if you lack
Self Sovereignty
If your first response to “self sovereignty” is “eh?!” (or something stronger!) then bear with me for a moment. Those words can be taken in many directions. As they relate to the work that I do and to you, here is what I mean:
I will always aim to assist you towards being able to self manage in the future.
My ultimate goal in all of this work is to educate, validate and inspire people towards a better relationship with their body. Towards a more enjoyable experience of their body.
That often involves much more than what you may have experienced before in other treatments or processes.
Whilst symptom relief is obviously one of the main primary aims for our work together, once achieved, the focus should shift to enabling you to minimise future episodes of something similar.
I believe that I am able to assist you towards this quite comprehensively and ultimately that this will save you a lot of pain, worry and expense in the future.
Life Long Learning
Life Long Learning: I am hungry for knowledge. Helping people with pain is my thing.
And there are so many interconnected avenues of learning open to me (and you) that can significantly impact on how we create change.
A non-exhaustive list of sample areas are as follows:
- Sleep
- Psychology
- Circadian Biology
- Immune factors
- Hormones
- Diet
- Behaviour Change
- Scientific research
- Communication
- Exercise
I certainly am not (yet!) an expert in any of the above and I am forever researching, reading and collating information to then “connect the dots” to form an actionable strategy for a person in pain.
As you can imagine, I feel like I will never stop learning and working and I encourage you to learn as much as you feel you need to help you towards self management in the future.
Hopefully these words have given you an insight into the values that I hold around the work that I do.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and if you have any feedback or questions, please pop me an email here and I will get back to you as soon as I can.