I'm excited to have Sabrina and Peter, our guests, here with me today. Before we dive into our conversation, I'd like to start by introducing them and their work to you.

At the time of recording, Sabrina Coninx was a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal University Bohan in Germany. Since then she has moved and is now **Assistant Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, co-coordinating the Research Master Philosophy of Neuroscience. She specializes in philosophy and is interested in the intersection of philosophy and science. Her work focuses on pain, bodily sensations, and emotion regulation.

At the time of recording, Peter Stillwell was a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy. He is currently on a 2-year Marie Curie Fellowship at the University of Southern Denmark. His background is in kinesiology, anatomy, biomechanics, chiropractic, and rehabilitation research. His research interests include pain, social sciences, phenomenology, and communication.

Now, onto the topic of pain. Defining pain is a complex task, as there are many different interpretations and meanings associated with it. Sabrina suggests that we should start by looking at language and how the term "pain" is used in everyday life. She highlights the importance of being careful not to get trapped by labels and categories when talking about pain. Instead, we should strive to find a language that is accessible to laypeople and accurately reflects the nuances of the topic.

Peter emphasises the personal experience of pain and the difficulty of directly observing or invalidating someone else's pain. He notes that pain is influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors, and is interested in understanding how these factors are connected.

Episode SIX of Philsophers Chatting with Clinicians welcomes Philosophy welcomes Dr Theresa Aoko Otieno and Otieno Martin Ong'Wen to discuss health and pain through the sociao-cultural lens and what we can learn about culturally competent care from the Kenyan perspective.

About the speakers:

Dr Theresa Otieno is currently the Youth Representative at the National Technical Working Group on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Readiness Project.  Prior to this role she worked as the Thematic Lead Project Assistant on Governance, Social and Ethnic Cohesion and Civic Spaces.  She recently gained her PhD in Environmental Policy after studying Philosophy at the Bachelor and Masters level.  Dr Otieno is particularly interested in how community and environment come together and how we can create systems of cohesion to better serve the planet and humanity.

Linked In: Dr Theresa Otieno

Otieno Martin Ong'Wen, known to the international physio community as the @KenyanPhysio for his work on Instagram, is a Physiotherapist, educator and speaker.  He works in a rehabilitation space seeing people with pain, injury and those recovering from cancer.

Twitter: @OngwenMartin

Laura Rathbone is an advanced physiotherapist working with people experiencing complex and persistent pain, as well supporting clinicians to develop their biopsychosocial practice, update their pain knowledge, integrate psychological processes into their rehab practice and maintains the community reading and discussion group Pain Geeks

EPISODE 4 with Philosopher Dr Rani Lill Anjum from the Cause Health Project chatting with Psychologist Dr Shreena Unadkat.

 

This episode is packed with challenging information about what we call science, how we collate and use evidence to underpin our practice and some really cheesy local-radio-style editing!

We talk about the challenges facing clinicians that are navigating the tricky world of Evidence Based Practice and how exploring our philosophy of causation through dispositionalism may help us to better support the people living with complex experiences, such as pain, better. Which is the golden goal. Better care. Better access. Better services. 

If you want to learn more about the Cause Health Project head to: https://causehealthblog.org/

Click this link to download the Cause Health Book: Rethinking Causality, Complexity and Evidence for the Unique Patient.

After a long break from publishing episodes I am happy to announce the return of Philosophers Chatting with Clinicians and this is a great episode to come back on!

This was a live recording of a collaboration session between Philosophers Chatting with Clinicians and another project that I work with: Le Pub Scientifique

This was one of our very first virtual sessions for Le Pub Scientifique Home Brew following the COVID-19 restrictions in May 2020, when so many of our in-person educational courses, meetings and gatherings were cancelled. 

So here you have a conversation between Philosopher Julian Kiverstein and Physiotherapist and Professor, Mick Thacker. During this wonderful convesation they explore phenomenology, embodied cognition and predictive processing applied to the experience of pain.

Joined by some friends and colleagues, philosopher Mark Miller and Clinicians Time Beames, Bart van Buchem, Morten Høgh and Tim Cocks, you will hear some interesting and maybe even challenging ideas for understanding pain as well as a few laughs. 

 

It's quite a long one at just under two hours, but it is so so worth it.

Enjoy

Here we go folks! Episode 3 is now available.  I chat with philosopher Mark Miller, who kindly joined us in the early morning from Canada, and psychologist Katinka Damen, from the Netherlands.

A great chat that really asked us all to think about our own role within the therapeutic encounter and what we might be struggling with as clinicians. 

A huge thank you to all the patrons and everyone that engages with the podcast through social media! 

Laura x

EPISODE TWO of Philosophers chatting with Clinicians bringing Julian Kiverstein and Tim Cocks together!

In this, the first episode of Philosophers chatting with Clinicians, Adam Shriver and Roger Kerry discuss the role of philosophy within clinical practice, the challenges of being a philosopher and those of being a clinician as well as 'what is pain'.

 

This is a really great chat to drop in on!