From Pain to Progress: Evidence-Based Rehabilitation Strategies for OTs (June 17, 2025)

Presented by: Rebecca McDonald

In 2022, 16.7% of Canadians over 15 years of age experienced a pain related disability, with 63% of those individuals reporting both recurring and persistent pain (Statistics Canada, 2024). Pain related functional limitation is a significant health concern for many Canadians and occupational therapists are uniquely suited to address this challenge. This session will appeal to OTs who would like to enhance their capacity to serve this health population, understand current evidence-based strategies in pain rehabilitation, gain actionable insights to further develop their pain rehabilitation toolkit, and provide evidence-based justification for their programming to funders and stakeholders.    This webinar reviews common evidence-based themes in the literature, how to elicit and interpret your client’s ‘pain story’, identification of client strengths and weaknesses, delivery of pain education, and how to apply ‘healthy halo’ interventions and the key principles of graded activity and exposure. Learners will be well positioned to provide a sound rationale for their pain intervention and ultimately provide clients with the right care this often-misunderstood population needs to begin a productive recovery journey. Participants will learn about the most recent impactful RCTs in the pain rehab world, become more confident with delivering Pain Neurophysiology Education (PNE) and better understand how to promote functional recovery through graded activity/exposure.

After taking part in this webinar, participants will be able to: 

1. Describe key findings from the literature which are relevant to occupational therapy intervention for clients impacted by pain.
2. Devise actionable strategies to enhance pain rehabilitation approaches within their current practice context.
3. Justify best practice occupational therapy approaches for this population by drawing on current evidence and utilizing progress measures that align with both clients and their funders.

Level  Beginner (0-2 years of experience in this specific practice area)