“Communicating about Chronic Pain: Instructions for Clinicians” is part of a series of six Integrative Health tools designed to assist clinicians who want to enhance patient’s chronic pain self-management skills.  For additional information, refer to the other materials in “Self-Management of Chronic Pain.”

Building a Working Alliance with Patients

A successful patient-clinician relationship is a key component of empowering patients to adopt a self-management approach to their chronic pain condition.  Most patients would agree that they prefer clinicians who are knowledgeable about their medical condition, empathetic, easy to talk to, and take time to adequately answer questions.  Research has shown that there is a strong association between a patient’s trust in their health care practitioner and how well they follow treatment recommendations.  Effective communication strengthens a working alliance with patients and increases their motivation to adopt and work on a self-management rehabilitation plan.  Working collaboratively with patients on setting goals can also increase compliance.¹ Goal setting helps create a successful individualized pain rehabilitation plan^2,3 and improves physician-patient communication.⁴

Refer to the Whole Health/Integrative overview “Family, Friends, and Co-Workers” for more information on enhancing the therapeutic relationship.