Rehab for Painful Backs

Back pain is so much more than biomechanics or pathology.

It’s time to treat it that way.

The evidence is clear: back pain is best understood through a whole-person, biopsychosocial lens — not just pathology, posture, or tissue damage.

Modern clinical practice can feel overwhelming & many clinicians leave formal education feeling underprepared to treat in a contemporary BPS way.

Rehab for Painful Backs is a course about back pain, but not only back pain. What you’ll learn applies to many pain problems, across patients, sports, and settings.

We break down the complexity of back pain while helping you treat patients in a simpler, more human, and more effective way. You’ll develop practical skills across the full biopsychosocial spectrum — without getting lost in theory.

We do the heavy lifting for you — bringing together the latest high-quality research, and showing you exactly how to apply it in YOUR practice.

This course provides a clear, evidence-based framework for clinical reasoning that reduces confusion, anxiety, and guesswork — for both clinicians and patients. Whether you’re a new grad or an experienced clinician, you’ll leave feeling more confident, calm, and capable.

We move beyond the outdated biomedical model — one that has failed many people in pain — and toward a modern, integrated biopsychosocial approach.

You’ll learn:

• BPS model & modern pain science for 2026
• Psychology & communication skills
• Exercise & movement prescription
• Motor learning principles
• Back assessment 

All aimed at a patient-centred, active approach to rehab.

This isn’t a passive course. Expect discussion, movement, and challenge. From group problem-solving and case studies to practical, movement-based tasks, you’ll feel what your patients feel — and understand them better because of it.

This is not a list of exercises you could’ve watched on YouTube.

It’s about thinking better, communicating better, and cutting the unnecessary fluff that doesn’t help people in pain.

Be ready to move, reflect, debate — and have some biases challenged.

Taught across 5 continents, 30+ countries, and to hundreds of clinicians and coaches, this course blends evidence, experience, discussion, laughter, and movement into one powerful learning experience.

WHAT SKILLS DO YOU GET?

(learning objectives)

• Confidently & simply differentiate serious, specific & non specific back pain using research based assessment criteria
• Learn how to treat different types of painful presentations quickly, efficiently & scientifically
• Effectively reassure & educate using targeted education & knowledge coaching for true patient buy in
• Build strong therapeutic relationships for improved outcomes with evidenced based strategies.
• Help your patients choose the best exercises for them by taking the guess work out of exercise prescription for pain, performance and long term behaviour change
• Easily navigate uncertainty to minimise patient and clinician anxiety that can paralyse rehab
• Help patients dispel common myths around back pain that can hold their rehab back
• A brand new streamlined pain science approach. Lose the complex neuroscience explanations

Who is it for?

• Anyone with a passion to learn & help painful problems
• Those open to new ideas and concepts and the latest research

Who is it not for?

• Those expecting simple protocols or quick fixes
• Unwilling to engage in learning
• Not looking to update their current knowledge & paradigm

Content

• 40% Lecture
• 30% Practical
• 15% Discussion
• 15% Case study

COURSE SCHEDULE

Day 1

• 9am – Intro, key course concepts & understanding EBP better
• 10am – The role of natural history
• 10.15 – Contextual factors, communication & subjective Ax
• 10.45am – Break
• 11am – Back pain is more than just the back – The role of lifestyle & health (moving from biomechanics to biology) inc case studies
•  11.30 – Exercise for back pain – How it really works & how to maximise it!
• 12.30pm – Lunch
• 1.30pm – How do people with back pain move, and does it really matter?
• 2.15pm – Practical Movement master class – Tasks, environment & fun! (Creating a movement experience)
• 2.45pm – Graded approaches – Exposure, activity & exercise
• 3pm – Break
• 3.15pm – Dosing exercise – Learn “appropriate load” & using “rule of 10”
• 4pm – Acute LBP rehab – The role of the movement snack
• 4.30pm – Finish

Day 2 

Day 2 will have shorter breaks and lunch to allow you to get home earlier! 

• 9am –Recap day 1 
• 9.30 – BPS S & C – Finding opportunities to help across the BPS spectrum 
• 10.30 – Break
• 10.45am – Serious (red flags), specific & non specific back pain. 
• 11.15am – Back pain assessment workshop
• 12pm – Lunch
• 1pm – Assessment case studies
• 1.30pm – Advice & education for back pain – What do you need to know
• 2pm – Exercise for back pain (Mid & late stage) 
• 2.45 – The big messages T shirt edition
• 3pm – Finish