Workshops planned to deal with pain
The non-profit People in Pain Network is running a series of workshops in May to give chronic pain sufferers non-pharmaceutical tools to manage it.
Network leader Heather Divine says the training involves relaxation techniques that can help people to dial back the pain.
“If we can allow ourselves to be less reactive to our pain, our nervous system won’t be on red alert all of the time,” Divine says. “Pain is an emotional experience and how we react to it can help turn it down.”
It’s part of a relatively new movement in pain management which relies on retraining the brain to respond less and less to its pain alarms.
The sessions will be led by Neil Pearson, a Penticton-based physical therapist and clinical assistant professor at the University of Brit- ish Columbia’s Okanagan Campus. He specializes in treating pain and runs Life is Now Pain Care which sells DVDs of his courses.
After three events on Vancouver Island in March, People in Pain Network is hosting three more in B.C: North Vancouver (May 2), Vancouver (May 3) and Kelowna (May 19). Afternoon sessions for the public are free but participants are asked to register because space is limited. Evening sessions for health professionals cost $20.
FERTILITY AUTHOR GIVES EAST-MEETS-WEST ADVICE
Jill Blakeway, author of Making Babies: A Proven 3-Month Program for Maximum Fertility, is speaking in Vancouver at the Integrative Fertility Symposium April 28 - May 1. An acupuncturist at her New York Yin Ova Center, Blakeway co-authored the book with fertility specialist Dr. Sami David in which they say a combination of Western and Eastern medicine can help women with fertility problems have healthy babies without invasive in vitro fertilization (IVF).
She advises identifying “fertility types” based on traditional Chinese medicine and finding individual strategies that include food and lifestyle changes.
If we can allow ourselves to be less reactive to our pain, our nervous system won’t be on red alert all of the time.