Pain Management Meet the Team

Psychologists 

• Hazel O’Dowd (Head of Department).
• Julia Cordey. 
• Kelly Paull. 
• Lindsey Hume. 
• Nicholas Ambler. 
• Oonagh Koppel. 
• Sebastian Eisenberg. 
• Vicky Williams. 

What is a Psychologist?

We know that pain can have a significant and unhelpful effect on the way in which people think, feel, relate to others and sleep. Together this can challenge people’s self-esteem and confidence, how they view themselves and their self-identity. This can, understandably, be hard to cope with and people can begin to feel stuck. Some people are concerned that there is a psychologist involved in some of the assessments and programmes (such as the pain management programme, and backpack) as they may be worried that the psychologist may think that the pain is "all in the mind". This could not be further from the truth – we know that your pain is real, and that the longer pain goes on the more areas of life it can affect. 

As psychologists our main priority is helping you to understand the impact the pain is having on you and to support you in creating meaningful, lasting changes that will help you to manage the pain more effectively and improve your quality of life.

Physiotherapists 

• Crispin Barker. 
• Hazel Stevens. 
• Irene Campagnolo Maschio. 
• Melanie Berry.

What is a Physiotherapist?

The physiotherapists in this service specialise in supporting people who live with long term, persistent pain. This means that they are likely to take a different approach to physiotherapists who you might have worked with before. Pain can have negative consequences on function and over time this can worsen the level of pain. Pain management physiotherapy uses a ‘whole person’ approach to identifying areas of improvement in activity and function, alongside the persons’ goals and values. Supporting people to improve their physical abilities whilst managing their symptoms can lead to improvements not only in function but can also help reduce stress levels, as a sense of control over one's situation is developed.

Occupational Therapists

• Caroline King 
• Leanne Nabosi 

What is a Occupational Therapist?

Occupational therapy helps you live your best life at home, at work – and everywhere else. It’s about being able to do the things you want and have to do. 

• What is occupation? Occupation is any activity that we need, want or like to do to live and to look after our physical and mental health, and our emotional and spiritual wellbeing. We do occupations from the moment we’re born, on our own or with others. 
• Occupation isn’t just your job or activities of daily living. An occupation can be self-care, such as washing, eating or sleeping; productive, such as work, study, caring or domestic activities; and leisure, such as playing sports, hobbies or socialising.   
• Occupations are essential to living. They give our lives meaning, purpose and structure. They help shape who we are, connect us with others and help create our identity and sense of belonging. Through occupation we enhance our health and quality of life. 
• Occupations are particularly important when we’re going through times of change. When we can’t do an occupation anymore or we need to adjust the way we do things due to living with long-term pain, our sense of self and purpose may change. This is where occupational therapy can help. 

We are fortunate to have the support, time and energy of former patients who have previously had input from the pain management service. They get involved in many ways: 

• If you are offered a self-management programme, they are co-facilitated by a volunteer so they will be there regularly delivering the programme with one of the team.  Volunteers also provide regular input into pain management programmes. They know what it is like to live with pain and their experience means they can offer invaluable advice and support to patients who are new to pain management work. 
• Volunteers are also invited to become involved in attending meetings where the future of our services are planned, as well as helping to review our paperwork and provide more general support in running our groups.