I conducted a one day workshop in San Jose last week and I’m repeating it for the Annual Conference for the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) on May 1, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.  The actual title of the training is Are We Managing Pain but Fueling the Addiction OR Are We Treating the Addiction but Sabotaging the Pain Management.

I was noticing as early as 1988 that many people with chronic pain and coexisting addictive disorders weren’t getting appropriate treatment interventions. If they went into a pain clinic the entire focus was on the physical pain symptoms and opiates were the usual intervention.  If a patient ran into trouble with their medication or actually became addicted and started acting out the usual intervention was to discharge them from the clinic. 

Now if that same person went into an addiction treatment program now the entire focus was on the addictive disorder and the pain was not being adequately addressed.  If the patient started complaining they were often accused of “drug-seeking” and if it continued they were discharged from the program.

That is why in 1996 I finally started presenting clinical skills training in the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System.  As I began I also continued to do research and actually go to pain clinics and addiction treatment programs to observe and sometimes consult with the staff.  What I noticed is a phenomenon I coined the Addiction-Pain Syndrome™ that I explain more fully in my article Understanding the Addiction Pain Syndrome.

Today as I conduct trainings, workshops, and seminars I often hear people say “Addiction-Free Pain Management® has sure been a well kept secret.”  That is why late last year I resigned from my job and now my goal is to get the word out—People with chronic pain and coexisting disorders can be helped and we must start implementing effective treatment to make that happen.

If you are interested in learning more about the services we offer please go to our website at www.addiction-free.com and look around.  Go to our Training Services page to learn more about the different trainings I present.  If you would like to go to the training Are We Managing Pain but Fueling the Addiction OR Are We Treating the Addiction but Sabotaging the Pain Management please go to the Calendar page and check out May 1st at the CAMFT Conference.