(If you have not read the pages titled Psychosocial or Biopsychosocial it would be good to do so prior to reading the rest of this piece as everything will then make a lot more sense)
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT as we term it, is a valuable tool in the management of many chronic pain conditions including spinal. It has evolved from the recognition that chronic pain cannot necessarily be addressed purely by biological means as has historically been the thought and that improving an individuals coping strategies and beliefs can significantly increase the level of outcome.
Perhaps the best way to think of CBT is as a problem solving session for your own psychosocial barriers that are stalling your recovery. Many of you will have developed beliefs about your pain and have built coping strategies and behaviours around these to enable you to get on with life. Unfortunately some of these will, in the long term, be detrimental to your recovery but they are not changeable by a tablet, or by a surgical procedure. Like most rehabilitation, most of the hard work is down to you and once a solution is found you must work very hard to make it work. Although psychological interventions are generally within the remit of the psychologist, many of the specialist therapists you will see, including physiotherapists and occupational therapists, will have extended knowledge regarding this area. Many of our patients have undergone this treatment technique as part of a Functional Restoration plan benefitting from it far more than invasive surgery would have offered. Unfortunately, due to the way as a species we are wired, so to speak, we cannot always find a biological way to remove your symptoms.
We will always do our best to help with your symptoms but if we feel you would benefit from CBT more than invasive treatments then this is simply with your best interets in mind. If you are not a surgical candidate undergoing these techniques can have very negative consequences both physically and psychologically, and does nothing but increase the hold over your life that your symtoms have.
Further information with far more depth than above regarding the theoretics and techniques of CBT can be found within the links below.
