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*BRAND NEW!* Advanced Evaluation and Treatment of Complex Pain

How do you help someone who can’t tolerate touch or exercise due to pain? Diagnoses such as complex regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, long-Covid pain, and any other chronic pain are difficult to treat until you understand the pathophysiology that led to the condition. This understanding gives you a framework for how to evaluate these patients in ways they have never been tested before and develop a treatment plan. There are many treatment options available to us to help reduce pain that won’t cause a flare-up of symptoms. In this course, participants will learn how to evaluate central sensitivity, yellow flags, premotor pain, cortical smudging, motor drive, and carbon dioxide tolerance. Treatment includes graded motor imagery, cortical remapping, breathing protocols, motor drive retraining, and lifestyle changes.

 

There are no prerequisites for this course. However, if you are new to pain science, our Understanding Pain course may be a great place to start!

2025 Dates Coming Soon!

At the completion of this course, participants will be able to…

  • Correctly and independently explain the difference between actual pain and perceived pain.
  • Correctly and independently explain how a pain experience is generated.
  • Correctly and independently explain why we cannot depend on imaging alone to guide our clinical judgement.
  • State 5 metaphors used to explain pain to patients.
  • Correctly identify the stages of behavior change as well as how to guide a person through them.
  • Correctly and independently explain both osteoarthritis and disc pathologies and how they relate to each other.

At the completion of this course, participants will be able to…

  • Understand the mechanisms of complex pain, including central sensitivity, yellow flags, premotor pain, cortical smudging, impaired motor drive, and carbon dioxide tolerance.
  • Evaluate and treat nociplastic pain, including complex regional pain syndrome and fibromyalgia.
  • Use graded motor imagery to treat premotor pain and yellow flags.
  • Evaluate and treat cortical mapping dysfunctions.
  • Understand the mechanisms of breathing and how CO2 intolerance can increase pain, anxiety, and breathing disorders.
  • Understand how living sympathetically can impair many body systems, including our pain response.
  • Understand how to fix motor drive dysfunctions that do not correct with normal exercise treatment.

Saturday


7:30am
Doors Open
8:00am
Lecture: Pain Neuroscience Overview
9:00am
Lecture: Lifestyle Modifications
10:00am
Lecture: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
11:00am
Lecture: Fibromyalgia
12:00pm
Lunch (on your own)
1:00pm
Lecture: Why We Breathe
2:00pm
Lab: CO2 Tolerance Test and Breathing Protocols
2:30pm
Lecture: Motor Drive
3:30pm
Lab: Motor Drive Retraining
4:00pm
Lab: 2-pt Discrimination and Remapping
4:30pm
Skills Review
5:00pm
Adjourn

2025 state approvals coming soon!

Course Instructors

Karl Buche

PT, DPT, CIMT, CIDN, TPS, OCS

Karl completed his undergraduate degree in Exercise Science from Michigan Technological University in 2012, then went on to graduate with his doctorate in physical therapy from Central Michigan University in 2016. He works at Probility Physical Therapy, which is based in southeast Michigan, and is the director of the Pinckney Clinic. After obtaining his CIMT credentials in 2019, he began teaching and assisting courses for GLS, with his main area of expertise being pain neuroscience. He believes in an eclectic treatment approach, including many styles of manual therapy, pain education, and individualized exercise. Karl cares deeply about the manner in which we communicate with our patients, and loves teaching others how to minimize nocebo effects during patient interactions. He lives in Chelsea, MI with his wife, Catherine, and puppy, Olive. He enjoys treating all orthopedic dysfunctions, and loves to incorporate breathwork into his practice.

Understanding Pain CEU Course Instructor Headshot

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