Editorial Review:Product Description:A rich and rewarding life is possible for those of us who live with chronic pain. Based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), one of the most promising and fastest growing psychotherapies being practiced today, this book breaks with conventional notions of pain management. These 'feel good' approaches—including the use of pain-killing medication—all work to prevent painful sensations. The ACT approach, however, begins with the assumption that pain is a normal part of living that teaches us a lot about the state of our bodies and minds. Attempts to avoid it often cause more harm than good. By accepting and learning to live with pain, you limit the control it exerts over you. Mindfulness exercises, in particular, help you transform pain from a life-defining preoccupation to a simple experience. From this strong position, you can make choices that will lead to the life you’ve always wanted. Committed action is the way to make it happen.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Related Items:
see more
Related Items:
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
-
Pick up your life!
This is what cutting-edge psychology has to offer for (chronic) pain! ACT practitioners are aware of the life-saving benefits of medical science. If one goes to one's doctor, one always has hope. But, beyond that, what? I've been in and around 'help-land' often enough, to really get into this work. After initial curiosity and disbelief, I even found it gripping. I was quite amazed to realize how my mind struggles in a maze it creates in response to pain. I realized how much energy I waste in a fruitless struggle to get rid of it. The narrative keeps flowing gently, calling for your attention. What is pleasing is that it keeps blending in concepts already treated. Close to real life, it tackles step by step. There is no harm to look at pain. A lot of emphasis, rightly so, is put on 'value-work'. To see what your life is really about. The chapters on mindfulness and 'defusion' are particularly valuable. Defusion is a technique to show you that you are not your what your thoughts say you are. For that matter, what your pain says you are. Don't get me wrong, there's lot's of work to be done. The work on willingness / acceptance is quite something. You apply your own work and it lifts you. Reading this book saves you from searching for authoritive statements to hold on to. It treats you as an authority in your own right. This one is not just another self-help book. The main author, one of the worlds leading pain-experts, has written a very accessible manual. It is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a rigorously researched and science based therapy. Honest and sincere, it targets a really wide audience. Once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. It shows us that there's so much value in what we are, it's no longer necessary to be defined by pain.
Recommended!
Rating: -
Great Workbook
I have had chronic pain for many years and this workbook has excellent tools to use in coping with pain. You don't get rid of the pain, you learn to live your best despite the pain. It takes some effort - you won't just read the book and be a pro. It is worth it.
Rating: 
-
Living beyond pain - ACT
I started reading this book and was turned off when the author started talking about how traditional methods have not worked for dealing with chronic pain. I have found this is not always the case. There are some great medications that have been VERY helpful to me, such as the new biological agents like Enbrel and Remicade, and I have found wonderful doctors that are very caring and have helped me to stay alive. I wanted this book to be one of MANY tools I use for pain management, not a book that disrespected my other forms of treatment. I would recommend another book instead "The Pain Survival Guide" by Dennis Turk - it was much more realistic to me.
Rating: -
Values and Action-based Pain Management
This book uses ACT as a basis for helping a person experiencing persistent pain to live a life full of what is really important rather than with futile attempts to control the uncontrollable.
It's quite easy to follow and has both short and simple readings alongside exercises that can be used to reflect upon the concepts that are introduced.
I think a person experiencing pain would need to be at a certain stage of motivation to be ready to stop seeking pain reduction before beginning on the journey that this approach offers - but if ready, the book certainly covers the ground and is user-friendly enough for most people who read self-help books to follow.
If the person experiencing pain has the support of a therapist either familiar with ACT, or prepared to suspend judgement and follow the process, the process this book uses would work well. I'm not so sure that an individual who was working alone would find it as easy!
As an introductory book for a therapist working in pain management, this book provides great tools to use, and a logical process to follow. It also has some good references if the therapist is keen to read more.
Recommended.