Our Vision
Healthcare providers and the public recognize physical therapists who are credentialed as functional pain managers as the leaders in treating pain without medicine or surgery.
Our Mission
Our mission is to connect physical therapists, who are credentialed as functional pain managers because they have demonstrated their ability to treat primary pain conditions effectively with a biopsychosocial approach regardless of how they received their expertise, with people who are in pain. Physical therapy is a very broad profession and too many do not know how to treat pain effectively. A subset of physical therapists are experts at treating pain, but often the only way anyone knows is word of mouth and most patients just luck out by being their patient. The functional pain management society credentials physical therapists who demonstrate via application an expertise in treating pain regardless of how they acquired this expertise.
What is functional pain management?
Functional pain management is practiced by physical therapists who are credential as functional pain managers. As with any profession techniques will be varied, but there is an overarching theme. Functional pain management treats people with a biopsychosocial approach. This means that they identify which psychological and social factors are recovery limiting factors. Functional pain management is absolutely not opposed to judicial and appropriate use of medicine, surgery, or any other interventions that do not fall under functional pain management. (I'm pasting it below, but it is on the document. Anything you think we should change, change it. Once we have the Board of Directors I'd like them to make suggestions as well.
I think we should have the marketing on another page than the homepage. Partly to keep the homepage from being too long. Also, I think having a picture is a good idea, but I'd also like to make a video. Marketing that they are a functional pain manager will be our key differentiator from every educational group and certification group, including board specialties and fellowships!
Why is it called “functional pain management”?
At the creation of this we vacillated among a few different names. We asked healthcare providers and non-healthcare providers what name would resonate most with them and “functional pain management” was the most popular option. Since our vision is to be recognized by healthcare providers and the public as the leaders in treating pain without medicine or surgery we wanted to make sure that our name resonated with them.
What’s in a name? Obviously a lot. Is there a term out there that may be more accurate? Maybe. Physical therapists who treat pain primarily have a marketing problem though. The vast majority of the time other healthcare providers refer someone to physical therapy or pain management. How often do they specifically refer to a physical therapist because they know that physical therapist actually uses a biopsychosocial approach? Granted, there are individuals and even clinics that have created relationships with referring providers or made a name for themselves in the community, but this needs to be scaled. We need referring providers to refer patients to functional pain management.
Who is this for?
While most healthcare practitioners who treat pain can benefit from our curriculum, we currently believe that physical therapists are best suited to become functional pain managers. They have the ideal education to prepare them for our curriculum and physical therapy practices are often set-up to where they can integrate this curriculum.
Which physical therapists will benefit from our curriculum?
You have extensive orthopedic training that often gets great results, but there’s a subset of people that seem to be like their other patients that improve, but they just don’t or at least not enough.
You wish you knew what you could do to help them more.
You’ve learned how to talk to people about pain science.
You know the importance of psychosocial factors.
You know that pain is more than just an issue with the tissues.
You have trouble knowing who to use your knowledge with.
Does everyone need help with stress management?
Does everyone need pain science education?
Is cognitive behavioral therapy for everyone?
You may have an idea of who needs these types of treatments, but you can’t exactly put it into words.
You need a niche in your practice. You work with another physical therapist that is great with orthopedics and is great at treating the physical impairments. You want to be able to treat the psychological and social impairments. We teach you how to screen for these in your practice so you know how the extent biological, psychological, and social impairments need to be treated so it’s not a guesswork between you and another therapist on what needs to be done!
You need a niche in your city! Pain is a huge problem in humans. It is extremely rewarding to treat when you know what to look for and what to do. Other practitioners don’t want to see it if they don’t know what to do because the patients don’t respond to their typical interventions. Functional pain clinics are the future and you can be a part of that.
Marketing Material for your clinic
Becoming a Functional Pain Management Society member has many perks. We have done the hard work of marketing for you and you will have access to all of our products. You simply download them and insert your logo and name to promote your clinic as a functional pain management clinic.
The initial marketing packet includes the FPM booklet that describes what FPM is, what interventions are used, the research behind the treatments and a bio page. On a monthly basis we send out postcards that are specific to a condition that you may be treating. These postcards are meant to be sent out to the providers in your area to have a better understanding of what you do specifically for conditions as a FPM clinician. And lastly, a package of mints is included as well which not only serves to improve close patient interaction but serves as a reminder of FPM to improve referrals.
Healthcare providers and the public recognize physical therapists who are credentialed as functional pain managers as the leaders in treating pain without medicine or surgery.
Our Mission
Our mission is to connect physical therapists, who are credentialed as functional pain managers because they have demonstrated their ability to treat primary pain conditions effectively with a biopsychosocial approach regardless of how they received their expertise, with people who are in pain. Physical therapy is a very broad profession and too many do not know how to treat pain effectively. A subset of physical therapists are experts at treating pain, but often the only way anyone knows is word of mouth and most patients just luck out by being their patient. The functional pain management society credentials physical therapists who demonstrate via application an expertise in treating pain regardless of how they acquired this expertise.
What is functional pain management?
Functional pain management is practiced by physical therapists who are credential as functional pain managers. As with any profession techniques will be varied, but there is an overarching theme. Functional pain management treats people with a biopsychosocial approach. This means that they identify which psychological and social factors are recovery limiting factors. Functional pain management is absolutely not opposed to judicial and appropriate use of medicine, surgery, or any other interventions that do not fall under functional pain management. (I'm pasting it below, but it is on the document. Anything you think we should change, change it. Once we have the Board of Directors I'd like them to make suggestions as well.
I think we should have the marketing on another page than the homepage. Partly to keep the homepage from being too long. Also, I think having a picture is a good idea, but I'd also like to make a video. Marketing that they are a functional pain manager will be our key differentiator from every educational group and certification group, including board specialties and fellowships!
Why is it called “functional pain management”?
At the creation of this we vacillated among a few different names. We asked healthcare providers and non-healthcare providers what name would resonate most with them and “functional pain management” was the most popular option. Since our vision is to be recognized by healthcare providers and the public as the leaders in treating pain without medicine or surgery we wanted to make sure that our name resonated with them.
What’s in a name? Obviously a lot. Is there a term out there that may be more accurate? Maybe. Physical therapists who treat pain primarily have a marketing problem though. The vast majority of the time other healthcare providers refer someone to physical therapy or pain management. How often do they specifically refer to a physical therapist because they know that physical therapist actually uses a biopsychosocial approach? Granted, there are individuals and even clinics that have created relationships with referring providers or made a name for themselves in the community, but this needs to be scaled. We need referring providers to refer patients to functional pain management.
Who is this for?
While most healthcare practitioners who treat pain can benefit from our curriculum, we currently believe that physical therapists are best suited to become functional pain managers. They have the ideal education to prepare them for our curriculum and physical therapy practices are often set-up to where they can integrate this curriculum.
Which physical therapists will benefit from our curriculum?
You have extensive orthopedic training that often gets great results, but there’s a subset of people that seem to be like their other patients that improve, but they just don’t or at least not enough.
You wish you knew what you could do to help them more.
You’ve learned how to talk to people about pain science.
You know the importance of psychosocial factors.
You know that pain is more than just an issue with the tissues.
You have trouble knowing who to use your knowledge with.
Does everyone need help with stress management?
Does everyone need pain science education?
Is cognitive behavioral therapy for everyone?
You may have an idea of who needs these types of treatments, but you can’t exactly put it into words.
You need a niche in your practice. You work with another physical therapist that is great with orthopedics and is great at treating the physical impairments. You want to be able to treat the psychological and social impairments. We teach you how to screen for these in your practice so you know how the extent biological, psychological, and social impairments need to be treated so it’s not a guesswork between you and another therapist on what needs to be done!
You need a niche in your city! Pain is a huge problem in humans. It is extremely rewarding to treat when you know what to look for and what to do. Other practitioners don’t want to see it if they don’t know what to do because the patients don’t respond to their typical interventions. Functional pain clinics are the future and you can be a part of that.
Marketing Material for your clinic
Becoming a Functional Pain Management Society member has many perks. We have done the hard work of marketing for you and you will have access to all of our products. You simply download them and insert your logo and name to promote your clinic as a functional pain management clinic.
The initial marketing packet includes the FPM booklet that describes what FPM is, what interventions are used, the research behind the treatments and a bio page. On a monthly basis we send out postcards that are specific to a condition that you may be treating. These postcards are meant to be sent out to the providers in your area to have a better understanding of what you do specifically for conditions as a FPM clinician. And lastly, a package of mints is included as well which not only serves to improve close patient interaction but serves as a reminder of FPM to improve referrals.
