Specialized Treatment Methods
Graded motor imagery
Graded Motor Imagery (GMI) offers a novel three stage approach for treating pain. As a biopsychosocial treatment approach, GMI takes into account what has gone wrong in the body and brain (the 'bio') and also incorporates the influence of psychological and social variables.
GMI has been developed based on the current neuroscience of brain pathways, brain plasticity, mirror neurons, and knowledge from psychology and physical rehabilitation. Through a deep learning process of the physiology of pain, the contextual influences on pain (time, place, emotion, knowledge), and individualized motor imagery treatments, GMI aims to alter pain sensitive networks in the brain for the achievement of significant pain reduction.
Graded Motor Imagery, in addition to treating other types of pain, has been shown to be an effective treatment for the difficult-to-treat pain conditions of CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome) and phantom limb pain. It is an approved treatment by the Colorado Division of Workman's Compensation for the treatment of CRPS.
Graded Motor Imagery includes 3 stages: Left/Right Discrimination (Implicit Motor Imagery), Explicit Motor Imagery, and Mirror Therapy.
rising strong™ for health
“Rising Strong is about what it takes to get back up and how owning our stories of struggle gives us the power to write a daring new ending. Struggle can be our greatest call to courage and the clearest path to a wholehearted life.” -Brené Brown
It takes courage to work on restoring our bodies, rebuilding our lives and renewing our joy. We have to shift from looking for quick physical fixes to embracing a slow, persistent process of self-discovery and self-compassion. It takes a courageous belief in our ability to change our own stories.
As a certified facilitator of Brené Brown’s work, Linda shares the principles and practices of ‘rising strong” with all her clients. She is also able to share an exclusive video-based Rising Strong™ curriculum that helps us learn the skills we need to rewrite our health stories.
Linda credits the life-changing work of Brené Brown for helping her recover from her own persistent pain and health conditions. The complete Rising Strong™ program can be completed individually, in small groups, or as a 2-3 day retreat. Shortened programs or presentations are also available for groups, in-services, or community or business events.
occupational experience profile
The Occupational Experience Profile (OEP) is a specialized occupational therapy assessment that is designed to help us:
Become aware of what we do and experience in everyday life
Reflect upon our experiences
Discover what impacts how we feel about what we’re doing
Think about how what we do and experience impacts our health and well-being
This unique self-discovery tool helps us explore these 4 measures of how we experience what we do in daily life:
Amount of pleasure
Degree of social connection
Sense of restoration (sense of energy restoration)
Sense of productivity
In addition, we can look at the environments, people, and emotions we experience while engaging in our daily activities. We gain deeper insight into the meanings, values, goals, and vision we have for our lives.
Graded Exposure and Pacing
How much is too much? How much is too little?
These are the two most common questions people with pain and health conditions ask when trying to become more active in their lives.
Doing too much often results in a flare-up of symptoms. Doing too little makes us overly sensitive and reactive—which can easily result in doing too much when we try to do more!
The solution? Graded exposure and learning how to self-pace our activities.
Afraid to move? Our bodies are designed to, and desire to move!
Sleep Hygiene
Your body needs a good night’s rest.
Study evidence for the role of sleep in influencing pain and health conditions is compelling. For this reason, sleep should be the number one “restore your body” priority.
Sleep hygiene is about learning good sleep habits and environmental modifications to help you achieve your optimal sleep. In addition to helping you learn these skills, occupational therapy practitioners provide in-home environmental assessments, as well as personalized sensory processing, cognitive behavioral, emotional and nervous system self-regulation, and meditation strategies.
It is important to be screened for breathing, sleep apnea, and other medical conditions that affect sleep and to find additional professional help if you need it.
Sensory Processing
Sensations are a part of experiencing life. Every moment of every day your body is experiencing a multitude of sensations—noise, light, touch, temperature, movement, taste, and smell. This also includes other internal body sensations of body position, hunger, thirst, heart rate and bodily functions (interoception).
The sensations we feel, and how the body responds to them, has a direct influence on our pain, our emotions, our health, and our ability to engage in life activities.
If you aren’t feeling well or have a persistent pain or health condition, your body will be more easily overwhelmed by sensory experiences and you may feel like you constantly live in the yellow and red zones.
As occupational therapy practitioners we are the only profession specifically trained in sensory processing assessment and treatment.
pain education
Fun, Interactive sessions for individuals, families, community groups and healthcare professionals
Pain is a complicated, complex human experience. Pain is—simply put—weird.
Researchers are constantly discovering new insights into the common factors and physiology that influence pain, but they are also discovering that pain is a highly individualized experience.
To help our pain we need to understand our pain.
It also helps our pain if the people we do life with also understand pain!
Even though pain is weird, and pain is no fun, learning about pain can be fun!