Burnaby

An accessible 10-week pain self-management sessions for people who experience marginalization, which is offered online, province-wide from Pain BC staff, and in multiple communities throughout BC in-person and online. Sessions have been culturally tailored for French, Arabic, Punjabi, Cantonese, Mandarin & Spanish speakers, and for LGBTQ2S adults, gender diverse youth, and youth.

The Making Sense of Pain program is held over a span of nine to ten weeks and is led by a trained facilitator. Facilitators provide participants with opportunities to learn about pain, the various factors that can cause or make pain worse, and simple strategies that can help participants better manage pain in everyday life.

By participating in this nine-to-ten-week program, participants will learn:

• About pain and its effects on emotional, social, physical and spiritual health.
• To increase knowledge about pain science, including how the brain and body respond before, during, and after painful events.
• To increase knowledge of skills and strategies used to help manage pain.
• To increase knowledge of skills and strategies used to accept and understand their pain.
• To find useful community resources, including Pain BC resources.
• To feel less alone with their pain.

Program structure and topics:
Each session is 2 hours long, with 1.5 hours dedicated to group work and 30 minutes for social time. The Making Sense of Pain curriculum is designed to be flexible, and we encourage facilitators to adapt the content to the needs of their group within the following topics:

• Session 1: Introductions and the biopsychosocial model of pain
• Session 2: Pain science
• Session 3: Stress & stress management
• Session 4: Movement
• Session 5: Sleep and mood
• Session 6: Social support and communication
• Session 7: Nutrition
• Session 8: Grief & loss
• Session 9: Self-talk & self-compassion
• Session 10: Wrap-up (Optional)