People from all walks of life have discovered the life-changing benefits of self-managing pain effectively

Some helpful information

I started the course already believing that the brain is a powerful tool. What this course has given me is clarity of thought and a roadmap ahead of how to deal with persistant pain. But most of all I now realise that after 3 years of lower back pain that pain does not mean damage. Many thanks for the course

Helped to learn how to pace myself and set goals and cut down on the pain killers.

I enjoyed the course. It was thought provoking. It made me think more about my responses to pain and how it affects my life. Most often I have pain when I move rather than every moment which didn’t seem to be catered for on the course. I was grateful for the opportunity and ideas about meditation.

I was very sceptical about an online course but was extremely pleasantly surprised at how it has helped me and would highly recommend it to anyone. Thank you for challenging me to think differently.

The course was general information that may be helpful for someone starting out with chronic pain, having had chronic pain for 13 years however, everything felt very basic knowledge. I have learnt nothing new and the approaches and delivery is very condescending. I do not feel this is an appropriate course as it is being delievered - especially at a cost when this information should rightly be free. As a trainee psychotherapist so much of the emotions and psychology of pain has been left out and neglected entirely. My mood did not improve, I grew more anxious because it shocks me honestly that this approach of 'managing pain' is incredibly out dated - bascially to suck it up and manage it yourself, not to hope for a cure. It puts a very negative light on hope for healing and hope for improving your quality of life. The goals are ridiculous as they are extremely unrealistic if a person is bed bound i.e to travel abroad, the relaxation and exercises are so generic and are not suited if you have severe mobility there should be different levels for this. There should be crisis teams links and numbers when scores are high not just left like that. Paitents rarely see their scores in therapy as this can be a harmful realisation to them, the graph is not helpful. Furthermore, using breath as an anchor if breath is a source of pain would be highly ineffective. I've asked others about this course and they too agree that they are angry with the way it was delievered and how poor the pain managment education is. After 13 years you need much more indepth courses that can meet the persons needs especially if you intend to charge £60 for it. For which I will be seeking out a refund due to no improvement.

Course provides hope and encouragement for people trying to manage chronic pain. Includes lots of general advice, suggestions and techniques for coping, including exercise, stretching, mindfulness, guided meditation and ‘thought management’. Very well presented by a team of experts.

The course was OK for me. But with my memory I kept forgetting to log on but it was useful in some aspects.

I have chronic mental and physical health/illness. It would have been helpful to have have had hard copies of the course supplied as Long Covid has left me with chronic fatigue blurred sight. I would have found it easier to re-read through each section this way and keep notes instead of on my phone.

I was some what hesistant to give this course a try, as I felt that I had tried so many things including medication and injections and nothing helped; so how could this help. Once I got started on the course, I very quickly got drawn in to the expert advice, stretches and psychological thinking. I learned how to cope better when I experienced flare ups or was in pain. I now wake up 10 mins earlier to do my stretches, I am conscious of how long I sitting when I am at work, so I move around more. I have definitely noticed improvements and I now experience more milder pain.

I really enjoyed doing the course, it gave me the inspiration to try to help myself, Many thanks

I have done mindfulness and meditation before and was very sceptical that they could overcome my pain. But they do. If I'm in pain and my painkillers aren't helping, I do the full relaxation meditation and feel much better at the end of it. There was a slide near the beginning about the Limbic system, but it was never referred to again. I wonder what the relevance of that was?

Interesting to talk to someone with knowledge and to find out this new information but it didn't at all help with my pain and me understanding it and and it didn't help to ease it. Feel sort of low that this was the last resort and it didn't help

Very helpful but some I can’t open ie 20 /21as away and would like to listen to them maybe you can advice on how to do it. Thanks

Great that its immediately accessible and some useful tips - worth doing.

This app has been great however I feel it’s always a dead end! I don’t feel my pain is any different however I do have better days but believe at present it’s down to seasonal changes as well as modified movements from this app.

I was sceptical about this course at the beginning but I have found it very helpful on a couple of levels. First, information. It has made a big difference understanding about how pain is communicated to the brain and the importance of displacement activity. Even more so, understanding that pain does not mean damage. Secondly, some of the techniques, especially relaxation and breathing, do make a difference. I was already taking quite a lot of exercise, particularly walking (with poles) swimming and Pilates so the physical exercises were less relevant to me. There's a lot of truth in the saying "if you don't use it you lose it"!

I thought oh no not another pointless session, but I was pleasantly surprised with how interesting and everyone was so helpful, I learnt a lot and would definately recommend this course

A well put together, easy to follow course. I like the library and that I can save downloads too. I am doing most of the things suggested but still learnt some new things as well.

It was definitely worth trying but could have been better to try and incorporate more about people still working and trying to get through day to day working life . I've always been a hard worker and this course has helped me to understand that I do too much. I couldn't take extra breaks as I haven't got the most understanding boss so I found just taking my time a bit more helped.

I was very unsure about whether this course was for me, would it help me at all, but I do feel that it has...I have found the relaxation and meditation very helpful and relaxing, in fact I had a full night of undisturbed sleep after doing the sleep exercise,the first good night's sleep I've had in months. I am going through a very difficult and upsetting time at the moment with my elderly parents, it has been very stressful but the relaxation and meditation has proved so valuable. I'm sure the situation I'm dealing with at the moment has added to my pain but when I get into bed I put one of the exercises on through my headphones and I am certainly much more relaxed afterwards. I think every step has made me think and understand more about the pain I'm often in, and also has helped me deal with it in different ways. I am very thankful I was invited onto the course and do without doubt think that I have, and will continue to, benefited from it. I will continue to view the steps when I'm struggling and will definitely be using the relaxation and meditation steps often. Thankyou to everyone involved

Having used meditation apps in past and finding them to be droning and condescending, I was a little sceptical about the mindfulness and targeted relaxation steps on the course. But, I just can’t praise them enough. So relaxing that I occasionally fall asleep, but I find that these steps work wonders for detracting from pain I did this course in a week and plan to visit my library regularly to follow the steps

Thanks