Pain: Better Communication, Better Outcomes - Part Two
- Chris Larrauri
- Apr 1
- 3 min read
Pain is such a pain. In my last article I uncovered multiple reasons on how complex pain can be. (If you want to review that article here is a link: https://www.chrislarrauri.com/post/pain-better-communication-better-outcomes-part-1) I did my best to simplify the complex to grow understanding of what the problem is before we can create a solution. This is where communication bridges the gap. In today's article I will shine light on communication strategies and tactics to create better outcomes.
To grow a little more understanding toward the thought process involved with these solutions I am going to start with a question:
Why communication?
The story we repeatedly tell ourselves becomes us. A great resource toward this is Self Perception Theory by Dr. Bems (apologies for the terrible copy, it's all I could find on the internet). Our self talk is a form of communication as well as the communication we receive from others.
This self talk trickles into all facets of life.
When we've had pain, associating fear with the situation that caused it makes us experience greater levels of it. We connect those dots by the story we tell ourselves, whether conscious or unconscious. Take a look at this infographic. [17]
Outside of self-talk, if someone else is influencing the situation with communication this can create association also. It can breed doubt, fear and anxiety which in return allows for negative outcomes. If we go around fear mongering (insert any politicians name here lol) then we may be doing more harm than good. Again, self harm is prevelant in many cases.
Here is a great graphic from Vineyen and Linton 2000
We know from studies and practical application that belief is the ultimate tool (cue the Self Perception article above). We must build buy-in with ourselves, athletes or patients regardless of if they are in pain, looking for performance outcomes, or wanting to have better general health.
“Words win” in every aspect of life.This graphic highlights if we associate things in a negative context the cycle for recovery becomes much more difficult. This goes for performance also.
Check out this next table. [19]
Non-specific effects (different way of saying placebo/nocebo) are magnified by beliefs and expectations toward the intervention by the person receiving and around the person’s belief in the individual giving the intervention. (Buy-in for the dub) This may be saying something to all the strength coaches reading this that are willing to die on a hill for there programming. Simultaneously, I still believe that when belief is accounted for there are better ways to program then others. (shrug)
To keep it short, the brain is powerful and influences the athlete’s outcome. The communication we use is the strategy and the exact words we use are the tactics.
I put together a rendition of some words I got from an internship I did with former Portland Trailblazers Performance Therapist, Charles Loftis. It reviews words to avoid when speaking with patients or athletes and alternatives for them. I added some things but overall, it’s a good chart.
As we can see by switching the narration, we can give a better perception. With a better perception we can help our athletes have better outcomes by building buy-in.
Frame your athlete interactions in terms of performance, recovery and management, not pathology. Break the patterns of negative connotation. This goes for strength coaches that deal with little annoying pains athletes get or are doing an RTP protocol with them.
For me when it comes to life, I like to look at it as a complex mess that I need to simplify to find some joy and meaning. This is the same approach I am covering in this blog.
We need to explore complex ideas, such as pain, to gain better understanding instead of copying and pasting like everyone else in the world today. Once we gain our own understanding then consider coming back to keeping it simple. We want positive outcomes, not negative, so think of that when you are communicating pain or any other idea.
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