Written by: Jack Blackburn
Role of Care Givers: We presume that a major role of care givers is to eliminate or reduce pain. We have different categories of pain; physical, psychological, emotional, outside source (i.e. sting, bite, communicable disease, other human), inside source (age-related, noncommunicable diseases, genetic disorders, stress related, belief-related), chronic, and acute. Most clients evaluate caregivers and or their methods by session results… mainly in terms of pain reduction or elimination.
Expressions of Pain: We will explore two different categories of pain signals in the body. The first is the pain expressions that accompany the healing of injuries… those pain signals produce a splinting effect on the injured part of the body. Muscles and other connective tissue tighten around the injury and are accompanied with the requisite pain signals which disincline the person towards activities that could produce further or prevent healing. The usefulness of these pain signals is that they indicate that there is an injury or instability in the body and usually where.
The second painful expression involves an association of trauma or blameful link which stimulates the person’s memories, usually provoked by other persons’ actions or inaction. In other words pain associated with trauma can entail fear, guilt, shame, and blame. Whereas the body is programed to heal injuries directly with no mental interruptions, the imposition of blameful thoughts arrests the bodily healing processes as the mind becomes preoccupied with story… and a cast of characters. We find our minds holding onto past negative associations, looking backwards to apportion guilt rather than healing.