For years, practitioners such as physiotherapists have been trained to focus on biomechanics, exercise prescription, and manual therapy as the gold standard for treating people who suffer from chronic pain.
While these methods are important, an interesting 2024 study published in The Scandinavian Journal of Pain has confirmed what many patients and forward-thinking practitioners already knew: traditional pain management is failing to meet the needs of people who suffer from chronic pain.
The research highlights a critical gap: health care practitioners are not being trained to manage the psychological and emotional components of pain.
Chronic pain is not just a mechanical issue; it is deeply influenced by fear, past trauma, stress, and emotions. Yet, most practitioners are completely unprepared to navigate these factors in their treatment sessions. This failure in training is not just an oversight, it is actively preventing people from getting the care they need.
The 2024 study: what it reveals about the gaps in pain management
While the study refers broadly to pain practitioners, physiotherapists are among those most impacted by these findings, as their current training often lacks psychological and emotional components of pain care.
In their paper, The “Future” Pain Clinician: Competencies Needed to Provide Psychologically Informed Care, Linton et al. (2024) analysed physiotherapy education and clinical practice, and their findings were stark:
1. Health care practitioners are missing the psychological component of pain management
Imagine a patient who has been dealing with persistent lower back pain for years. They have seen multiple practitioners, undergone countless treatment plans, and yet the pain persists. The 2024 study reveals why this happens: pain management interventions are often limited to biomechanics, while completely ignoring the psychological and social factors that shape pain perception.
People who suffer from chronic pain often carry emotional distress that is intrinsically linked to their physical symptoms. Anxiety, fear-avoidance behaviours, and previous trauma can amplify their experience of pain. However, most practitioners lack the training to recognise or address these factors. As a result, patients feel unheard, misunderstood, and ultimately disengage from treatment.
2. Outdated healthcare education leaves graduates unprepared
Despite decades of research proving that chronic pain is a biopsychosocial condition, healthcare training courses (especially physiotherapy courses) have not caught up. The study found that most pain management training programs still prioritise biomechanical treatments over communication, behavioural interventions, and emotional intelligence.
Most practitioners in clinical practice are unprepared for the reality of treating complex pain cases. When faced with a patient who expresses frustration, distress, or fear about their pain, many practitioners default to avoidance – redirecting the conversation back to exercises or manual therapy, rather than addressing the emotional barriers preventing progress.
This is not just frustrating for patients, it is actively preventing them from getting better. And for practitioners, it creates a cycle of professional frustration, where they feel unequipped to help the very people, they set out to treat.
3. The lack of interdisciplinary collaboration is holding patients back
One of the most striking findings in the study was the failure of the current healthcare system to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration. Chronic pain management requires a team-based approach yet, physiotherapists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and pain specialists often work in silos, rarely communicating with one another.
Patients, in turn, fall through the cracks, bouncing between different professionals, receiving conflicting advice, and losing trust in the healthcare system altogether.
How The Chronic Pain Method is leading the change
At The Chronic Pain Method (CPM), we don’t just acknowledge these issues – we actively solve them. CPM is at the coalface of interdisciplinary, psychologically informed care, providing physiotherapists with the training, tools, and support they need to close the gaps identified in the 2024 research.
1. CPM equips physiotherapists with emotionally informed communication skills
We train practitioners to confidently engage with the emotional side of pain. Instead of avoiding difficult conversations, we teach them how to listen, how to validate, and how to create meaningful dialogue with their patients.
Through our training programs, physiotherapists learn:
✔️ How to ask the right questions to uncover the emotional and psychological aspects of a patient’s pain.
✔️ How to validate a patient’s experience without feeling the need to “fix” their emotions.
✔️ How to respond to distress without discomfort or avoidance.
This approach does not require practitioners to become counselors or psychotherapists but it does allow them to become better, more effective clinicians.
2. CPM bridges the training gap with real-world application
One of the biggest criticisms of healthcare training courses is that it is too theoretical, failing to prepare graduates for the emotional complexities of real-world practice. CPM closes this gap by offering hands-on, case-based learning, where practitioners work through real patient scenarios and receive feedback in structured, peer-supported environments.
Our model ensures that physiotherapists:
✔️ Access to expert mentorship to guide them through challenging cases.
✔️ Peer supervision, so they are never alone in managing difficult patient interactions.
✔️ Practical skills practice and development, rather than just theoretical knowledge.
3. CPM’s interdisciplinary model creates effective patient care
Unlike traditional multidisciplinary models, where professionals work in isolation, CPM is developing a true interdisciplinary collaboration. Our method is: physiotherapists, psychotherapists, counselors and pain specialists actively work together, to create transparent treatment plans that close the gaps that currently exist in pain management.
Through CPM’s structured case review meetings, practitioners:
- Share insights to improve treatment strategies.
- Develop coordinated care plans, reducing conflicting advice for patients.
- Strengthen professional support networks, preventing burnout and isolation.
The future of pain management is here – are you ready?
The 2024 research is a wake-up call. The old way of treating chronic pain – focusing only on biomechanics – is no longer enough. If health care practitioners fail to evolve, they risk falling behind as new models of care take over.
- Practitioners must expand their skill set – understanding the emotional and psychological side of pain is no longer optional.
- Training programs must adapt, integrating communication, behavioural science, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Clinics must move beyond isolated care – patients need teams working together, not practitioners operating in silos.
CPM is already leading this transformation.
We provide:
✔️ Training in communication for more informed care.
✔️ Real-world education that bridges the training gap.
✔️ An interdisciplinary collaboration model that improves patient outcomes.
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