Back to Life: How to unlock your pathway to recovery (when back pain persists)

Back pain is very hard (often impossible) to diagnose and to specify, hence heavy painkillers are thrown at people. But the only way to beat the pain is to understand it. Based on cutting-edge research into back pain and the psychology of pain itself, David Rogers and Grahame Brown have set up the Functional Restoration Service at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham – the UK’s leading centre for back pain. Here they have developed the pioneering BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL approach:

BIO – How your body processes pain; what physical triggers you have and why; where your body holds pain
PSYCHO – where your pain is coming from; what exactly your pain is; the power of your mind to deal with and stop pain
SOCIAL – all the environmental factors that will contribute to your back pain, and how, why and when to change them

Based on this revolutionary and already hugely successful approach, Back to Life offers a whole new way of dealing with back pain:

- Understand the psychology of pain
- Debunk the myths
- Find the source of your pain
- Manage your pain – including all the emotions and anxiety that go with it
- Master exercises and stretches
- Identify and solve the social factors
- Get lasting relief

David Rogers is a chartered physiotherapist with over 20 years’ experience of helping people with musculoskeletal pain, including back pain, to recover function and get their lives back on track. He has worked in many different healthcare environments including the National Health Service, the Occupational Health Industry, and in Sports Medicine. He is currently based at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham, where he established a functional restoration service for patients with back pain, combining both physical and psychological treatments within an interdisciplinary team. He works closely with spinal surgeons and physicians in an extended role, assessing and treating a broad variety of patients with persisting spinal pain. His work is focused on applying a biopsychosocial approach to recovery, using cognitive behavioural principles aimed at optimising recovery for his patients. As well as his clinical work David also lectures regularly to healthcare professionals and students and he is playing an active role currently in several research trials relating to back pain.