Category: 31 Days Project – Understanding Pain
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31 days project: The Truman Show, Pain & The Transcendent Self
The film The Truman Show is a fascinating journey into the life of Truman Burbank, who, over the course of the movie, realizes that his entire life has been one big reality TV show. A psychological comedy, the concept of The Truman Show is based upon a psychological condition called Truman delusion. People living with…
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31 Days Project: Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day is a 1993 movie starring Bill Murray. Murray portrays Phil Connors, a cynical television weatherman covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, Pennyslyvania, who becomes trapped in a time loop forcing him to relive the same day repeatedly. This short blog is a deep dive into Groundhog Day as an analogy for…
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31 days project: ACT and Transcending Time, Space and Love
There’s a deeper philosophical perspective within Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Clinicians can familiarize themselves with the strategies and techniques within ACT and use them as everyday clinical tools. Defusion, Acceptance, Values and Commitment sit on either side of the ACT Hexaflex within a clear delineation (see figure 1)and so these techniques could be seen…
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31 days project: I’ve turned up to every appointment
“Your doctor has asked me to write a report on why there’s been so little progress” Those words must be dreaded by every person that lives with pain. It must be hugely invalidating for someone who has been through so much in an attempt to try and understand, resolve or “get on top of” their…
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31 days project: Gollum and the empty chair
The lord of the rings has to be one of my all time favourite movies. One of the most interesting characters in the movie is Gollum. People familiar with the movie will know the story of how Gollum came to be. Before the ring of Sauron poisoned his mind he was known as the hobbit…
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31 days project: The Power of Touch
I saw this video and just had to share it to metaphorically emphasise the power of touch. There are some in the physiotherapy profession that bang on about how pointless manual therapy is, and whilst the evidence base confirms that we are unlikely doing anything mechanically (i.e. resetting joints, correcting leg length discrepancies, increasing tissue…
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31 Days Project: Forrest Gump, Physiology and Philosophy of Running
I’m a bit of a runner, always have been. Nothing overly competitive but participated because of the health benefits. So, whilst exercise has physiological effects on the body there is also another side to running that interests me, the philosophy. More specifcally the sense of freedom, the adventure and the opportunity to reflect and consolidate my…
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31 Days Project: Connectivity
I’m always on the hunt for new information on why physiotherapists should broaden their perspectives through 1) how we connect with people and 2) in what ways we connect with them. Connectivity is an emerging concept in physiotherapy. Several papers have been published discussing and arguing the broader view of the connections people make between ‘one’s…
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31 Day Project: Don’t think you are know you are
It’s been a while since I released a 31 days project video. I’ve been reading a lot of papers back from the 80s and seeing that actually not a lot has changed in terms of pain management. One pioneering individual (he is for me) is Bill Fordyce. He identified how learning and experiences influenced the occurrence…
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31 Days Project – The extended Mind
Professor Andy Clark is philosopher of mind and cognitive science. He has taught and written in areas of cognitive science, in particular his publication ‘Natural Born Cyborgs’ is an insightful read about the extended mind. This episode of the 31 days project looks at an example of his work on the extended mind. The theory of…
