Chronic Pain and Trauma: ACT, MI and More to Enhance Client Outcomes, 11/14/2025 12:00:00 AM CST, Digital Seminar More info »
Chronic Pain and Trauma: ACT, MI and More to Enhance Client Outcomes
- Speaker:
- Benjamin M. Keizer, PhD, ABPP
- Duration:
- Full Day
- Format:
- Audio and Video
- Product Code:
- LWC059436
- Brochure Code:
- PWZ94663
- Media Type:
- Live Webinar - Also available: Digital Seminar
Description
Life feels precarious for clients with trauma and chronic pain.
They’ve carved out a way to exist inside a world where everything hurts, and any intervention you make that suggests they go outside their comfort zone gets rejected.
They’re afraid change will be for the worse. I can’t do that, it’ll make my pain worse. I don’t do that, it triggers my PTSD.
Knowing that trauma and chronic pain fuel the feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness that drive addictions and suicidality, you’re afraid of what happens if nothing changes.
Now you can get the support and skills you need to work confidently with clients who are experiencing trauma-related symptoms and chronic pain. Join Benjamin Keizer, PhD, ABPP, chronic pain specialist, as he gives you a blueprint for effective treatment with this complex population. You’ll get:
- Functional and targeted assessments along with culturally-informed case conceptualization skills
- Strategies to alter the way clients’ brains and bodies interpret and respond to perceived threats and pain
- Powerful behavioral treatments and adjunctive approaches to managing, reducing, and even alleviating pain
REGISTER NOW to empower your clients to make meaningful changes today!
Credit
Speaker
Benjamin M. Keizer, PhD, ABPP Related seminars and products
Benjamin M. Keizer, PhD, ABPP, is a board-certified clinical health psychologist with extensive post-doctoral training in clinical health psychology at the San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium. He serves as the head of Health and Human Performance Psychology at the Center for the Intrepid (CFI), Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas where he provides care for military service members who have sustained serious injuries (e.g., amputation, limb-salvage, multi-trauma, major surgery). In this capacity he serves as both a provider and program director for the Functional Restoration Program for chronic pain and a provider and program manager of the Special Operations Performance and Recovery (SPaR) program. He has been awarded an Army Systems of Health Innovation Grant as a result of excellence in creating novel interdisciplinary programs, and his leadership resulted in a 2018 and 2022 Best of the Best Specialty Care Clinic award from the military and Army Health Systems.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Benjamin Keizer has employment relationships with the San Antonio Military Medical Center and Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center. He receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Benjamin Keizer has no relevant non-financial relationships.
Additional Info
Access Period for Live WebcastFor live CE credit, you must watch the live webcast in its entirety at its scheduled time and complete the CE quiz and evaluation within one week. You will have access for 90 days after the program for review.
Webcast Schedule
Please note: There will be a 70-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Lunch and break times will be announced by the speaker and at their discretion. A more detailed schedule is available upon request.
Questions?
Visit our FAQ page at www.pesi.com/faq or contact us at www.pesi.com/info
Objectives
- Describe the relationship between trauma and chronic pain for the purposes of providing psychoeducation to clients.
- Assess pain and related comorbid mental health symptoms to inform treatment interventions.
- Apply at least two interventions to decrease risk of suicide in clients with chronic pain and trauma.
- Practice at least one values clarification intervention with clients with chronic pain and trauma.
- Utilize intentional questions and appointment framing to assist clients with goal-setting.
- Determine when and how to coordinate and collaborate with family members and medical providers.
Outline
Trauma and Chronic Pain: The Nervous System as Common Denominator
- Pain as a threat system and why it matters
- The trajectory of acute and chronic pain
- Relationship between ACEs, PTSD, and chronic pain symptoms
- Mutual maintenance and shared vulnerability models
- Principles of pain: nociceptive, neuropathic, and nociplastic
- Pain intensity versus pain distress
- The hidden benefits of pain
Getting Started and Foundations: Assessment, Case Conceptualization, and Safety Planning
- The effect of pain on clients’ sense of self
- How to help clients identify and challenge pain-related myths
- Assessment of pain and related comorbidities
- Essential health and well-being assessments
- Case conceptualization when your traumatized client has chronic pain
- When pain itself is a reminder of the traumatic event
- Identify and shift vicious cycles of maladaptive coping strategies
- Risk management and safety planning
- Help clients get the rest they need – sleep, trauma, and chronic pain
- Case study: 25yo Black female with chronic pain after ACEs
Chronic Pain Treatment Toolbox: Emerging Strategies and Complimentary Approaches
- Why psychotherapy for pain?
- Help clients rethink how they view pain: Pain neuroscience education
- Values, present moment awareness, and other ACT strategies
- Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) to construct solutions versus focus on problems
- How to pose the “miracle” question for pain and other targeted techniques to enhance coping
- Motivational Interviewing techniques to optimize engagement and outcomes
- Pleasant activity scheduling to improve mood and pacing behaviors
- Mindfulness and yoga for pain reduction
- Hack the glymphatic system - treat chronic, low-grade headaches with behavioral & nutritional interventions
- Quiet the nervous system with relaxation strategies and breathing techniques
- Harness the power of green space
- Case study: 37yo White male with PTSD and chronic pain
Clinical Considerations
- Integrating strategies for chronic pain into trauma processing
- Cultural factors and integration of cultural humility into practice
- Special populations: children, elderly, military/veterans/first responders
- Effective collaboration with medical providers
- Involvement of family members in treatment
- Rapport and alliance when the client has chronic pain and the therapist does not
- Pain-related health disparities and social determinants of health
- Limitations of the research and potential risks
Target Audience
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Counselors
- Addiction Counselors
- Case Managers
- Psychiatrists
- Physicians
- Physician Assistants
- Nurses
- Nurse Practitioners
- Occupational Therapists
- Occupational Therapy Assistants
- Physical Therapists
- Physical Therapist Assistants
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