Psychologically Informed Physiotherapy Training Report

In 2020, The Physiotherapy Pain Association , in partnership with The Health Innovation Network AHSN, St George’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Duke University, USA secured funding from Q Improvement Lab, a Health Foundation Initiative, to test innovative ideas to improve care and services for people living with pain. An evaluation report of this project – Psychologically Informed Collaborative Conversations (PIC-C) – now available to download.

PIC-C was formally referred to as Therapeutic Interactions and Person-centred care Skills (TIPS) training. This is an evidence based online training and supervision programme to help physiotherapists increase their confidence in delivering psychologically informed care and support to patients presenting with pain. The design is based on four key themes:

  • building a therapeutic alliance;
  • reducing perceived threat of pain;
  • reconceptualising pain beliefs and somatic experience; and
  • fostering self-efficacy for pain control.

PIC-C was co-created with patients who were equal members of the project team, involved in reviewing, critiquing and contributing to content.

PIC-C influenced a change in practice, evidencing a shift in confidence in adopting psychologically informed approaches. PIC-C provides benefits to practitioners themselves and the organisations in which they work.

The PIC-C training course is relevant to all physiotherapists and health professionals and therefore will be of interest locally, nationally and internationally. Supervision post teaching sessions was identified as a ‘missing link’ by physiotherapists in the literature and our exploratory focus groups, and its inclusion sets this training apart from other packages. 

Presently, there is no similar learning programme available to physiotherapists in the UK.  

You can access the full report and supporting documents here

A webinar took place on 17 June to share the learning from the project and the recording will be linked here when it becomes available. 

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