Unfortunately, the research numbers don't come close to capturing the cost of the human pain and suffering experienced by those individuals whose pain condition is either under-treated or mistreated. Throughout my career I have seen many people relapse and even die due to their chronic pain and addiction, as well as other coexisting medical and psychological disorders. As someone who has lived with chronic pain for many years and has worked professionally with this population over the past 24 years, I was determined to develop a treatment solution to address it.

In 1996 I conceptualized the problem and called it the Addiction Pain Syndrome™. Click here to hear an overview. Afterward I began developing the Addiction-Free Pain Management® (APM) System. Listen to a brief overview of the APM™ System here.

During the course of my training and consultation work with over eight thousand healthcare professionals and therapists at more than 120 training seminars in key cities across the nation, I have consistently heard how challenging it is for clinicians and treatment programs to help patients manage a chronic pain condition. One of the major factors for mismanaged chronic pain is the failure to recognize and address coexisting disorders. Click here for a chart of common disorders.

Clinicians are often confronted with situations that impact a positive treatment outcome, such as, how best to deal with a patient's denial around a substance use disorder associated with chronic pain; how to determine if their patient is abusing or addicted to their prescription medication and how to educate them about it; understanding and dealing with the psychological problems that get in the way of effective pain management; what to do when a patient only wants medication and won't consider other treatments; and how to best address a patient who seems to be “drug seeking.” With the APM™ System, Clinicians now have specific tools and evidence-based manualized treatment to support them and clients seeking their help.