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, P...
Jun 14, 2023•38 min•Ep. 313
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 t...
May 03, 2023•18 min•Ep. 312
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 unp...
Apr 19, 2023•33 min•Ep. 311
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 Phy...
Apr 12, 2023•32 min•Ep. 310
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 anoth...
Apr 05, 2023•27 min•Ep. 309
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. Michell...
Mar 29, 2023•39 min•Ep. 308
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 ...
Mar 22, 2023•31 min•Ep. 307
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...
Mar 15, 2023•25 min•Ep. 306
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 reluc...
Mar 08, 2023•41 min•Ep. 305
While the world has made great progress in business and technology, healthcare is still lagging behind other major sectors. There are a lot of factors that cause stigma in this space, and the marginalization of people with pain is still rampant. In this episode, Alicia Emerson , PT, DPT, MS, OCS, FAAOMPT of High Point University joins Dr. Joe Tatta to discuss the attitudes, beliefs, and biases that contribute to the shortcomings of the healthcare industry. She explains the impact of sociopolitic...
Feb 22, 2023•42 min•Ep. 304
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 pa...
Feb 15, 2023•47 min•Ep. 303
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 interd...
Feb 08, 2023•27 min•Ep. 302
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 ...
Feb 01, 2023•23 min•Ep. 301
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...
Jan 25, 2023•40 min•Ep. 300
Racism shows up in every aspect of our lives, and white body supremacy always finds a way to ingrain itself into our entire biology. Racial issues act as a persistent stressor that causes psychosocial distress, chronic pain, and even emotional trauma. Dr. Joe Tatta sits down with Lisa VanHoose, PT, PhD, MPH, FAAPT, FAPTA to discuss how racial embodiment impacts the vast healthcare system. She explains the best way to bring a social justice lens to physical therapy care in pain management and lea...
Jan 11, 2023•39 min•Ep. 299
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 betwee...
Jan 04, 2023•32 min•Ep. 298
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 t...
Dec 21, 2022•39 min•Ep. 297
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 impa...
Dec 14, 2022•55 min•Ep. 296
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 ...
Dec 07, 2022•34 min•Ep. 295
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 Un...
Nov 30, 2022•40 min•Ep. 294
Physiotherapists have a role to play when it comes to saving the environment. You can tell your clients to drive less. You can try to start influencing public policies to be more environment-friendly. There are a lot of ways physios can help save the degradation of the planet. Join Dr. Joe Tatta as he talks to Filip Maric , Ph.D., and Todd Davenport , PT, DPT, MPH, OCS. They discuss the state of the environment today when it comes to carbon emissions and environmental contaminations. Find out ho...
Nov 23, 2022•37 min•Ep. 293
Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of both men and women in the United States. Despite its severity, it is still a preventable and reversible condition. Nolan Peacock, PT, DPT of St. John's Health joins Dr. Joe Tatta to discuss how primary care can better treat heart diseases through physical therapy. She explains why PTs must go beyond being movement experts and start providing lifestyle interventions to heart disease patients. Dr. Nolan discusses how this setup can help promote ph...
Nov 16, 2022•31 min•Ep. 292
Pelvic girdle pain is typically caused by unevenly moving joints, making the bones less stable and mobile. Pregnant women often experience this painful sensation, but it must never be treated the same way as non-pregnant people. Dr. Joe Tatta reframes pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain beliefs with Dr. Sinéad Dufour , Associate Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University in Canada. She discusses why this chronic pain still has a lot of misconceptions and continu...
Nov 09, 2022•36 min
The relationship between autism and pain sensitivity is something that we have not covered in this show, mainly because it’s also a relatively new area in pain literature. How does pain management look like in cases where communication might be a challenge? Bethany Donaghy, MSc, BSc And Michelle Failla, PhD join Dr. Joe Tatta in this episode to explain. Dr. Failla is Research Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University whose research focuses on understanding the ro...
Nov 02, 2022•32 min
In today’s episode of Healing Pain Podcast, Dr. Joe Tatta is joined by Laverene Garner, PT, DPT , to discuss how to treat comorbid chronic pain, orthopedic conditions, and neurologic conditions. Dr. Gardner is a board certified neurologic clinical specialist, and currently works as an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Winston-Salem State University. Prior to her role as professor, Dr. Gardner developed the vestibular therapy, mindfulness and integrated health component...
Oct 26, 2022•35 min
Diabetes is one of the fastest-growing chronic conditions affecting physical health, physical function, mental health and mental well-being. In the United States, most Americans are either prediabetic or diabetic, and most of them go undiagnosed. In this episode, Dr. Joe Tatta is joined by diabetes researcher and diabetes management expert Rupal M Patel, PT, PhD to discuss who a group-based culturally-tailored lifestyle intervention program can help in addressing the diabetes epidemic in the cou...
Oct 19, 2022•44 min
It's one thing to experience tragic events in our lives and another to continue living life with trauma. If you are someone suffering from physical, psychological, and emotional trauma or someone who knows of anyone who is experiencing post-traumatic stress, this is the podcast for you. Richard Tedeschi, Ph.D ., Psychologist and Distinguished Chair of Boulder Crest Institute for Posttraumatic Growth , talks about the concept of post-traumatic growth and how it differs from resilience. He also sh...
Sep 07, 2022•34 min
Dr. Lance Mabry did a very large study with 4,800 subjects on the topic of a physical therapist's ability to refer for musculoskeletal imaging. This research shows that most people that are using imaging skills are not PTs. So the concept of the overutilization of imaging is not really correct. The imaging is instead being used inappropriately. More than 28% of PTs are actually using all nine imaging skills routinely. So there is definitely a say when it comes to opening diagnostic imaging acros...
Aug 31, 2022•35 min
Pain is universal, and there should not be a language barrier to keep us from learning about it and healing. Join your host Dr. Joe Tatta as he talks with Tania Parker, PT , and Jolyane Aubé, BSc OT , about filling the gap in pain education for French-speaking Canadians. Tania graduated in physiotherapy from the University of Ottawa in 2004 with experience in acute care and home care, from pediatrics to geriatrics. Jolyane is a registered Occupational Therapist in New Brunswick, Canada. In this ...
Aug 17, 2022•27 min
Pelvic health may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of women's health, yet it is an important issue that deserves attention. In today's episode, Theresa Feola , PT, WCS, PRPC, of Pelvic Room joins Dr. Joe Tatta. Theresa is a board-certified women's health therapist. She has served in clinical management roles throughout her career, but her clinical focus has been on the education and treatment of women's and men's pelvic health. Today, Theresa discusses the current state o...
Aug 10, 2022•41 min