Mindfulness-Based Pain Relief Practitioner Certification

Welcome to Joe Tatta's 7-Week Virtual Training for all Practitioners who Treat Pain!

This program is for: PT, PTA, OT, OTA, RMT, MD, DO, DC, RN, NP, PA, PSYCH, and all healthcare professionals.

Earn 15 CEUs and become certified in Mindfulness-Based Pain Relief

Watch this short video by the instructor of this course, Joe Tatta, to learn more:

Overview of the Certification Program:

Discover a research-proven method to reduce pain and improve mental & physical health that is recommended by several major global health organizations including the WHO, APTA, AOTA, APA, AMA, NIH, and CDC.

Learn the necessary mental skills and cognitive techniques to guide your patients through mindfulness-based pain relief, including: 

• A thorough understanding of the neuroscience of mindfulness in pain relief and the cognitive change mechanisms at work in the brain during meditation
• ​Mindfulness interventions that actively engage patients in pain self-management within an evidence-based (level 1a) biopsychosocial framework​
• How to design a program that seamlessly blends into your current practice and positively impacts many chronic pain conditions

Empower your patients to alleviate pain utilizing their greatest tool —  the mind.

Mindfulness is not only a practice — it is a state of awareness, a behavioral trait, an intervention, an act of self-care, and a way of living that can dramatically shift the nervous system toward homeostasis, or a state of internal equilibrium. Reduced pain, depression, anxiety, and distress are some commonly observed benefits of mindfulness interventions. 

Research shows even just a few minutes of practice has a substantial impact. Plus, exercises can be practiced anytime, anywhere. For these reasons, mindfulness-based pain relief can be easily adapted into a variety of pain care practices. 

Throughout the 7-week virtual training, you will learn how to:

• Develop a Mindfulness-Based Pain Relief (MBPR) program specific to your patient population and health challenges.
• Easily adapt MBPR to a variety of practice settings that rely on health professionals to deliver safe and effective pain management.
• Provide targeted pain relief by using simple techniques that regulate thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations and effectively promote health behavior change.
• ​Teach people to become mentally stronger as individuals and more satisfied, safe, and secure inside their body.​
• Reverse the negative consequences of pain that keep people stuck in patterns of avoidance, pain catastrophizing, emotional suffering and poor daily function.
• Reduce fear, anxiety, and distress commonly associated with pain and improve your patients' mood and motivation to engage with life.
• Use meditation and cognitive skills for progressive relaxation, focus, concentration, awareness, guided imagery, compassion, loving-kindness, and observer perspective.
• Develop healthy body awareness and interoceptive processing in your patients, so they feel comfortable and open to exploring movement and physical activity.
• Engage your patients in the positive benefits of mindfulness and mental skills training for lifelong and sustained physical and mental well-being.
• Improve your own personal well-being by reducing stress, eliminating compassion fatigue, and buffering professional burnout.

MBPR Practitioner Certification is approved for 15 CE/CEUs for:

• Physical therapists and physical therapy assistants in New York as well as more than 34 states through reciprocity (see below for a list of states).
• Occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants
• The Integrative Pain Science Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Integrative Pain Science Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content
• The Integrative Pain Science Institute is recognized by the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaching as an approved continuing education provider

What does the MBPR Course Include?

Week 1: The Neuroscience of Mindfulness-Based Pain Relief

• Mindfulness as a foundational intervention in pain care
• How the meditating brain works to modulate pain and suffering 
• Cognitive-behavioral mechanisms of change for the treatment of pain

Week 2:  Mindful Reappraisal & Pain Reduction

• Working with the storytelling mind, cognitive change and positive reappraisal
• Promoting relaxation techniques for individuals suffering from pain

Week 3: Retraining the Interoceptive Network

• Using the body to influence the somatosensory cortex and the pain neuromatrix
• Understand the integration between bodily sensations and emotional processing in chronic pain

Week 4: Enhancing Emotional Resilience

• Techniques for developing new emotion-regulation strategies
• Approaches for fostering non-elaborative, non-judgmental and non-reactive awareness of present-moment experience 

Week 5: Compassion-Focused Care

• How to intentionally cultivate positive emotions such as kindness, empathy, and compassion necessary for pain self-efficacy and coping
• Cultivate a path to personal growth and transformation through caring for the one who is suffering

Week 6: Mindfulness and the Intention-Behavior Relationship

• How mindfulness influences factors affecting the intention-behavior relationship such as memory, motivation, and self-efficacy
• How to use mindfulness to set positive intentions for effective behavior change, including engaging in physical activity

Week 7: Coaching and Recorded Virtual Retreat 

• This 2.5-hour retreat includes:
• Advanced pain relief meditation practices
• A guided sequence of group meditation and mindfulness practices
• Discussion on how to embed mindfulness into contemporary pain care 
• Step-by-step training on conducting individual and group mindfulness meditation 
• The opportunity to gain experience leading others in mindful meditation
• How to effectively and safely deliver mindfulness to patients struggling with pain and the associated co-morbidities of anxiety, depression, trauma, and addiction